Hill713

Why is it so difficult for some people to follow the rule that 1 carry on goes in the bin and the other under your seat. It is infuriating to watch folks jam a rollaboard, then a laptop/backpack then a jacket up top. Just unbelievably inconsiderate

You end up with not enough room and 15 minutes worth of people having to check baggage. I wish the FAs would police this better.

1 solution, you get ONE tag with your BP to attach to a bag to go in the bins. Any items without a tag get pulled out and checked.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

On some planes, it is impossible for all people in a row to put bags under the seat. Row 1, except on the 753s AB, have no storage on most single aisle planes. I think the 752s and/or 753s have annoying seat legs that leave one larger space sort of centered and then 2 small areas for feet on either side.

Your solution is a one-size-fit-all one that is ludicrous. Sit in any row w/o under-seat storage and your laptop has to be checked? Brilliant.

davidviolin

I travel with a violin, and a regular sized carry-on.
I cannot place either under the seat in front of me, so they have to go in the overhead.
No check in luggage, as if they lose or delay it, my concert clothes and music etc will make it impossible for me to play the concert. (I've learned from my mistakes of checking in bags).
One of the reasons I enjoy zone 1 boarding and actually show up before boarding starts at the gate.

exerda

It would be pretty easy to give bulkhead pax 2 tags instead of 1, FWIW.

Always Flyin

Welcome to the current world of BA where they are trying exactly the scenario described by the OP.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

and the exit abc exit door rows on the 757s and the further back exit door rows on the 753s. Still doesn't address the rows where its impossible for all 3 people to put bags below. Each flight, you'd have dozens of people clamoring for the FAs' attention to solve the lack of underseat space for their 2nd bag. Administering and enforcing such a system would take longer than current situation. It seems like a nice idea, but not well thought out.

And if it looked there was space, would I be allowed to put second bag up, or is that verboten? Everyone would have to wait until everyone boarded, than start pushing stuff around to fill available space.

sbm12

Not actually a rule. :-:

flyingnosh

I despise bin hogs, but the reality is that they don't cause a lot of trouble on my flights. GAs encourage people to check bags for free, and enough of them do. It doesn't happen too often that a bag needs to be brought up front and checked at the end of the boarding process.

exerda

Exit rows could be treated the same as bulkheads. UA knows which seats don't have underseat storage, and they know which seat you're in. Seems easy for them to be able to issue such tickets, and no reason for the FAs to have to get involved.

Legally-sized personal items should be able to fit under the vast majority of seats, particularly in Y, FWIW. And sure, if everyone is on board, and bins are still open, pax could shift an item to the overhead.

I'm not advocating for a ticket system, but I do think it could work.

I'd rather see FAs shame pax who put multiple items up there during boarding. Putting your jacket and purse up there ought to earn a scolding from the FA, just like dumping your bag in the first overhead available early in boarding should (e.g. pax who shove their rollaboard in the bin and then trek back another 30 rows). The worst abusers are not those in bulkheads, exit rows, or seats with restricted underseat storage IME; they're pax who are in a regular seat and who just don't want anything stowed underneath it.

dank0014

Yes, but there are even some seats, like on the 752 in F where the underseat storage is not even big enough for a small briefcase due to a major box in the middle of the seat. On that plane, I even have to put my laptop bag in the overhead bin.

I think this would be a hassle of a system where then bags being pulled off, explanation as to why, then trying to shove under the seat again, notice it doesn't fit, go back to GA to get a tag, if they can't, then gate check, and then back to seat....now we are talking a delay from this one passenger of say 2-3 minutes. Then say you run into 20 pax with this issue on a large plane, and now you are talking 30-60 minutes of longer boarding process, longer turns for planes, etc = major loss in revenue for UA. Add in the cost to manage the ticket system, issue the tickets, etc = higher expenses means higher cost passed on to flyer, etc.

I think the concept makes sense, but in the long run would result in a major trickle affect resulting in more stress, more resources being needed, investment into new products and services without driving additional revenue, and loss revenue for delays. My two cents would be this would end up costing UA tons of money and would actually negatively impact the service where it was intended to improve the service.

Now a ticket system where you purchase your tag and only those in the overhead bin (cough cough for another airline)....I could see that. As long as elites get free overhead space

exerda

And in F, there's more bin space to go around per pax. That's why I said most seats, particularly in Y, accommodate a legal personal item. I didn't say all did. Of course UA could issue F pax 2 tickets for the overhead... @:-)

Neil35

exerda, your solution sounds perfectly reasonable... except that's a lot to ask of the United IT Team. Besides, in the case of a plane swap everything will go wacky.

Of course in theroy GAs can issue those carry-on tags, but I would like to see their facial expressions when they hear such a new rule.

dank0014

I was just using that as an example. There are many plans on the UA fleet that have issues with the underseat space not being the same and exact for each passenger.

Go out and pull one UA plane and bring a measuring tape. Not only does the space differ from sometimes the exact type of plane, but also by which seat you may be in (aisle, window, middle, etc).

Add in issues that exist even in planes like lie flat seats where there isn't under seat storage, to many what if situations.

Asking UA, or any airline for that matter, to perfectly measure and predict each passengers behavior, what the exact measurements will be, how they position the bag, etc would be a complete mess resulting in complete chaos during the boarding process.

Without doing a complete study, I can only imagine that something like this would very much indeed delay the boarding process, result in tons of frustration, and result in UA needing to hire significantly more resources to manage, let alone asking UA IT to figure out this system when they can't even figure out basic things like their website.

DENviaLAX

Its not too common to have bags taken off to be checked, but it is extremely common to have a GA standing at the boarding door and forcing the last 10-15 people to gate check their bags.

I'd say the average number of gate checked bags is about 10 these days. And no doubt it slows down the process and makes things harder on everyone.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

This is a tempest in a teapot.

Sure, overheads are crowded, but current system seems to be working well enough. Rather than go through a complicated system of issuing everyone bag tags and having FA's go up and down aisle enforcing tags, the best solution is just to enforce carry-on limits strictly and consistently at gate and encourage underseat storage as they do now. Some flyers still push the rules, but once they are kicked out of boarding line at scanner to make themselves legal, a lesson is learned. Once winter is done, the coat issue usually alleviates itself.

I observe dozens of rollaboard bags on each flight that have no chance of fitting in the sizers. The bag tag "solution" doesn't address the issue that causes the problem in the first place - too big/too many.