Any times of day or plane types etc. that over-sized carryons are turned a blind eye?
 

Hi,

We all know United's carry on size rules (22 x 35 x 56 cm). When I was GS and 1k I would routinely bring in slightly bigger bags (particularly the depth) with no consequence.

But now as a regular traveler I'm guessing they won't be so accomodating. I was wondering are their certain times of days (i.e. red eyes) or planes (i.e. 737-800) where they are going to turn a blind eye to a slightly bigger bag? Slightly bigger means say 5 cm for one or two dimensions.

I'm still a gold by courtesy of being a MM, so they don't make any baggage fees out of me, but its just for convenience of not having to collect your bag.


Thanks.

Judging by experience, United turns a blind eye on oversized carry-ons on every flight, every day, for everyone.

This. As much as you can carry, they don’t care.

United's carryon rules are a joke.

Varies by employee. In GENERAL, I haven't encountered rigorous enforcement of carryon size, especially now that most mainline has bins that can fit bags larger than the rules allow.

Odds of an objection go up if the flight is full, the equipment has smaller bins, you're lugging a bunch of stuff, you're egregiously oversized, or you've managed to irk the staff in some way.

Also be aware that some airports limit baggage going through security to carry-on size, or at least have signs claiming they do (never seen it happen personally.)

No kidding!
Don't forget quantity: oversized rollaboard, a backpack, a large laptop shoulder bag, and 2 x duty-free bags. :eek:

I have rarely -- if ever -- seen them make a point about obviously and extensively oversize carry-ons much less slightly over the mark. To this day, I still see people boarding now and then with full size backpacks (I mean the ones you'd take for 3-4 days in the backcountry with food, water, and supplies all on your back).

Agree - and you'll be in BG1 so never any enforcement there. Enforcement occurs in general at BG4 and draconianly at BG5(rightly so).

You must be thinking of AA & DL which do enforce their own rules so that passengers further down the boarding process get at least a fighting chance.

They call it BG1, but it's actually BG6.

Strangely, I saw a gate agent make a big fuss and an example out of a paid first class customer recently at IAD insisting she’d have to gate check her ‘oversized’ bag. Pax did have three bags, not two, but the smallest fit into the rollaboard and while it was technically oversized by the newest rules, it clearly would have fit in the overhead easily...and that’s not the customer I would have chosen to upset.

With the exception of the above experience IME there’s no particular time that’s better, although usually boarding earlier rather than later allows more leeway. Barbie jets force everyone to gate check rollaboards, obv.

I’ve been tagged once at EWR with an “oversized bag” (it’s what most would consider a domestic carry-on size but larger than the sizer) but in general I’d say anything goes, especially if the bag doesn’t have wheels. Anecdotally I’ve seen people use carry-on’s I’d swear were check-in only bags. FWIW IME if your bag does fit the sizer it’ll fit on any plane in the UA or UAX fleet except ERJ145.

Well this thread is timely.

Dude in economy carried on a bag that was at least twice the size limit yesterday on LAX-EWR. He had to hold it over his head to get it down the aisle, and was kind of staggering due to the weight. He also had two more carry-ons hanging over his shoulders. Pax in J were literally turning to watch in amazement.

GAs and FAs did not say a word.