Packing the kitchen sink as carry on
 

Flew home from LAS (Delta) today on an award F/C. The boarding pax stopped for a long pause and several of them in the aisle by my seart were commenting rather loudly about a woman in coach trying to stuff her very large suitcase in the overhead. That got the attention of the only male F/A on the flight (and one of the few I have seen). He went back there and then came forward carrying a huge rollaboard on his right shoulder to be checked, obviously pissed, and saying something about people not using common sense in packing. There was no way that thing would fit in an empty overhead bin. I wish I could have seen or heard his dealings with this lady, but they were too far back for me to hear anything (I was already seated).

A few minutes later, he brought another one forward to be checked, but it was considerably smaller. His only comment on that one was that it would not fit. That made me wonder if they had run out of room (it looked like it would fit an overhead bin to me).

Gonna keep happening as long as 1) airlines charge to check bags and 2) gate staff doesn't enforce the limits.

Interesting - in the past, I've seen the DL GAs at LAS being pretty stringent on carry-ons, both in terms of size and making sure it's 1+1. They've often gone around the gate area before boarding with the handwritten checked baggage slips and tagged them there at the gate even before boarding started.

HA has been weighing the carry-ons if they are at all suspect. Anything over 25 lbs must be reduced or checked. They were keeping a close eye on size as well. I was one of the latter to board, and had no trouble finding bin space.

I was bringing lots back to Korea recently, 3 32kg checked bags, a roller bag carry on, and a backpack. I felt VERY embarrassed with the roller bag, as it was a little big for the 757 bin DTW-SFO, but I had some very fragile things inside, so I couldn't force it in like most people would. I felt like quite the moron struggling to get it inside the FC bin. I was late to board, so the entire cabin was watching me trying to get his bag in, 2 people said, 'just push it harder' and I had to explain that I couldn't. The agent wanted to gate check it, so in lieu of that, I just pushed it in hoping what was inside would not break, seeing as I knew if this bag was going to be checked through to Korea, it would have broken for sure.

It was the first time in 5 years I've had a roller bag carry on, and I hated it!

I had 8 flights last weekend on my mileage run to Melbourne, Australia... and I commented to a few seat mates about the sizes of the suitcases coming on board.... and people who had 3 or 4 bags.... it is only getting worse.

I watched these same people refuse to put anything under the seat in front of them... so they were true bin hogs.

I just laughed at what people were trying to bring on the flight PVD-IAD... priceless!

I think the best punishment for such people would be to put them in the overhead bin and there oversized carry-on on their seat.

thats why i only carry on enough so that it can fit under my seat.... ppl have become stupid about exploiting overhead.... and i hate it when people jam the aisles cramming rying to cram there .......

Sure...why not? :p

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_FchArYAsfoY/SY...jpg?imgmax=800

Until an airline can guarantee that my bags will arrive undamaged, unpilfered and at the same time as me I will continue to take advantage of the overhead space and the allowances I am permitted. That means a full roll-aboard in many cases.

imho, it's not the so much the gate staff but the moat dragons at security as they are the ones who should be a) checking the number of items* and b) eye-balling the size of the carry-on. it's not rocket science to see the size difference between a 21" and a 26" roll-aboard. at ua-sfo, the moat dragons are vicious


*granted the pax could be sly and have the 3rd item already inside a larger one but if that's the case, in there it should stay

I just wish the whole industry would make everyone on boarding use the bag gauge and if it dont fit and you have more than your allowed carry then tough, it gets checked and you get charged for not following the rules

The security folks don't work for the airlines. With airlines having different rules on sizes, weights, etc., having anyone other than an airline employee enforcing the rules is a recipe for disaster.

Back when UA started with the sizing gauges at the x-ray machines CO sued (or threatened to) at airports with shared security because CO's policy was different and UA's sizers were too small.

i agree with you and my bad as wasn't clear in my post- it is the moat dragons who are phuglying things up

I have seen more people throw away things so that they can take the bag on board rather than pay the fee. They look at their liquids and weigh if they are worth 15.00 dollars or not. Very funny but these people are trying to get everything on board. What gets me is that if it is an RJ you can gate check it and not pay the 15.00. Smart move but am sure the airlines are going to start doing something about those folks and those that haul a big roller bag, laptop bag, purse and shopping bag...I heard the Delta agent announcing that he wasn't letting anyone on the plane unless they had less than the two bag limit so people were stuffing bags into bags.

My mother in law took enough suitcases to restock the ladies' department at Nordstroms when she traveled. I have no idea why she thought it necessary to take so much with her, because she rarely traveled for more than a week at a time and wore the same four outfits all the time. She became infamous for an old steamer trunk that tried to check at PanAm once. She ended up shipping it to her home on an express delivery service and still grumbled about the expense up until her death.