aztimm

Totally agree. I've seen (and nearly gotten hit by) some exceptionally large bags. It makes me wonder how the passengers get some things past TSA, but that's another story.

Enforcement of bags seems half-hazard at best. Some agents (both gate and in-flight) do a great job with it. But even the best agent could get pulled off to help with something (a seat dispute for example) and someone could sneak by and stash the bag in the bin.

On my last flight a few weeks ago, I noticed the FA ask a passenger who stowed his bag in the front of coach, "are you sitting here," "then take your bag back with you." Some people snag the first space they see in the bins, perhaps assuming they are full further back.

jerseyfinn

Good point. The biggest stress point flying today is overhead bin space because so many folks carry-on and bin space disappears quickly because flights now tend to be fuller with shrinking capacity.

Wardrobe bags increasingly fall into a grey zone because as DCDeacon notes, a wardrobe bag can take up more bin space thus intensifying competition for bin space. Nothing against wardrobe-carriers, but the cabin dynamic has changed and I can understand an airline 'tightening up' the rule interpretation to address current needs. Not sure so that the GA does such a great job explaining this, but I definitely see the idea Same sentiment towards guitars, tennis rackets and other odd-sized objects. They no longer fit the in-cabin flying paradigm and need to be in protective cases which go below though I wish it wasn't so. But flying today is about bin space and OT push backs.

barry

treznor

Your bag is 47 linear inches, thus 2 inches over the limit even without considering whether the actual requirement is 45 inches or 14 x 9 x 22 (I've overheard gate agents saying both sides of that before), even assuming that your bag isn't bulging at all from being packed, which most people's are.

ETA: Agree that the 'two bag' comment was silly. They just should have made you check it