There’s a TikTok trend ‘very demure, very modest’ describing how to do things the understated, correct way.
Last week the White House was on-trend about cancelling student desk, and with the Department of Education asking that it reconsider its ruling that legislation would be required to grant the administration authority to move forward with student debt relief. It started earlier in the month with a TikTok video about a clown doing their making “very demure, very mindful” which garnered several tens of millions of views.
I only caught the clue when an American Airlines flight attendant used it to explain how to board an aircraft in a video that’s been viewed 2.4 million times. Caption: “This is how you board a plane the demure way.”
- Roll your carry-on in the aisle.
- Step out of the aisle
- Place the bag in the overhead compartment
- Turn it on its side, because oversized bins allow for this and it maximizes available space for other passengers
@flywithhotboymike This is how you board a plane the demure way! #cabincrew #malecabincrew✈ #demure #mindful #airplane ♬ original sound – Michael | Flight Attendant ✈️
Oversized bins have enough space for one bag per passenger, yet customers are frequently being forced to gate check their bags. There are three primary reasons for this:
- Customers put their personal items (or coat) in the bin, in addition to their carry-on bag. They don’t limit themselves to one item per passenger.
- Gate agents begin requiring gate checking too early, when there’s still plenty of space left, fearful that waiting too long will cause passengers to spend time looking for space when the bins are full – and causing a brief delay in the last minutes prior to scheduled departure.
- Passengers fail to place their bags on their side. They take up as much as twice the room they need to in the bins. Most passengers don’t know how to utilize these bins properly since historically bags didn’t fit this way.
Perhaps airlines ought to message to customers on-trend, using TikTok instead of creative safety videos. Airlines also need to explain how to close these bins, too – because when properly turned sideways and all these bags are inside, the bins get quite heavy! Pull the bin down and you get a bit of an assist in closing them. They’re designed for ease, but nobody knows it!
You’re talking about most people that have their mind blown by boarding with their group number, quickly finding their seat, stow their bag and sit down so that others can do same. And you expect them to understand how to stow their bag correctly?
There’s a cynical view and a practical view. The cynical view, which many of your commenters will espouse–because otherwise they wouldn’t be chronically online–is that passengers are too stupid to stow their bags the right way.
The practical view is that if passengers aren’t stowing things the right way out of instinct, then a different approach is needed. Videos and tutorials don’t work — people won’t listen because when they are traveling, they are focused on something else, not how to stow a bag the right way. Here are some ideas.
1) Reverse the pricing model. You pay to carry-on. Checked luggage is free. With this model, overhead bins will be empty enough that you can stuff whatever you want, however you want.
2) Post a “carry-on bag valet” at the end of the jetway. All carry-on bags go to this person who efficiently stows bags above people’s seats. This is a version of gate-checking, except your bag remains accessible throughout the flight, and you grab it yourself upon departure.
3) Design overheads so that a bag can only fit a certain way. Just like diesel gas nozzles are shaped differently so you can’t accidentally fill your unleaded gas car with diesel.
4) Ban carry-on bags, period. Everybody gets an underseat bag, all others go in the cargo hold. This would dramatically speed up boarding and aircraft turnarounds.
Rather than brainstorm practical solutions, chronically online Internet commenters would prefer to just call their fellow passengers stupid.
Now, how about one how to GET OFF THE PLANE in a timely fashion.
Why is the administration trying to “cancel student desk”? Fingers moving faster than the brain?
I “flip” a lot of bags on my AA flights to make sure I, along with my fellow travelers have room. The AA bins on A321 and 737 are huge and help to turn the planes faster (on and off). Can’t wait for improvement s on the A319.
Airlines should have educational classes and a few miles given for satisfactory completion. Even 25 miles is not bad.
I had a stoke trying to read this…
United texts me a “how to store your bag”message before every flight I take that has the larger bins. They even know to not send it to me when I’m on a regional.
That’s a huge carry on!
The American Airlines website states: “The total size of your carry-on, including the handles and wheels, cannot exceed 22 x 14 x 9 inches (56 x 36 x 23 cm) and must fit in the sizer at the airport.” The bag that the flight attendant is putting is almost assuredly exceeding the 9 inch dimension and also most likely exceeds the 22 inch dimension that is to include the top strap and the wheels (I have measured quite a number of carry-on bags and most wheeled ones exceed 22 inches high.) By this video, it seems that American Airlines is encouraging oversized bags. If the thickness is around 12 inches, turning the bag on it’s side doesn’t save more than a few inches. Further it is more awkward to get in and more awkward to get out. For a tall person like me, that is not a big problem but it may be more of a problem for someone much shorter, such as my wife.
I’m only 5 feet tall. I can comfortably stand straight under the closed bin. After surgery to put one shoulder back together and needing the same on the other shoulder, I cannot physically LIFT the bag into the bin. I’d most likely drop the bag on someone’s head, so checking it, for me, is the better option.
As for making tick tock videos, you DO know a great majority of people do NOT watch junk on there, right? Better to have a video on loop in the gate area on the best way to put bags in bins.
I wonder why airlines don’t show a short video at the gate, while everyone is waiting to board the plane? Most people would remember its content, since it’s right before they get on board, and follow the recommendations (well, some won’t). They show a video before take off, why not one before boarding?
FAs ought to proactively flip the bags on their sides.
They should just run a video like this periodically in the boarding area. Maybe over time more and more people will learn how to board more efficiently.
Heck, you could even make it a “comedy” video so that people would watch it.
The last time I tried to put my bag on its side I get yelled at by an FA and told to put it the “old” way even though it fit just fine. Not sure what airline it was, maybe a jetblue a320? Every airline has different bins and policies, and the vast majority of travelers don’t notice if a bin is a newer “oversized” bin or not.
Are you kidding? Ever watch the average airline passenger as they board? I swear, they’re staring at the row numbers with a look that makes me think that they aren’t so sure that 11 comes after 10 or 5 comes before 6. While I realize that some airlines play the dirty trick of skipping from row 12 to 21, that’s not it. These folks seriously act as if the row numbers are randomly ordered. And, even when they find their row, many get their seat wrong – or the actual row wrong. In other words, the majority of our fellow fliers aren’t very bright. So, expecting them to get all of the nuances listed here is a bit like expecting my dog to learn Hungarian and to speak fluently in it.
Even though the bins are labeled for sideway stacking, I thought the doors don’t shut over row 1 & maybe 2 if stacked this way.
Ditto: 1) Reverse the pricing model. You pay to carry-on. Checked luggage is free. With this model, overhead bins will be empty enough that you can stuff whatever you want, however you want.
AND:
Take off your damn backpack before stowing your bag in the overhead! I swear these idiots have no idea of how many times they’ve whacked poor souls like me in the head in my aisle seat when they swing their “everything I own” backpacks around.
I totally agree with the people here who said they should be showing a video in the gate area. That is really the way to go.
At my airline, explaining to people to stow the bags on their side is part of the pre-boarding announcement for every flight. There is a picture inside these bins, clear as day, of how to stow the bags. Now some in these comments want the airline to pay money to produce a video on how to do it also? Hmm. Sure! Since good ol’ fashioned “just pay attention” surely doesnt work anymore, Im sure the airlines would LOVE to tack on another $100 to your ticket in order to fund a hilarious video because, again, why pay attention? And yes, @angryflier is correct. Its rather scary how many people forget how to count.
OK y’all, while these articles may be recycled they are not slated to be literary masterpieces. Get over it.
Or better yet…. CHARGE FOR CARRY ON BAGS! Check your bag? Free. Insist on carry on? You pay. This would solve the whole silly mess. And greatly speed up both boarding and deplaning. People with their carry on bags are one of the constant sources of travel irritation.
This is such a BS.
Last year I went to Europe on vacation. Since it have been a few years since I did that, and the United sent me several emails about check in and carry on luggage rules change, I checked my luggage dimensions just to be sure. Well, while I did travel with them in the past with no issues, the bags where slightly out of the sizes claimed on the United website so I went ahead and order a set of brand new bags as per specific dimensions posted. I verified the sizes when I got them. All is as quoted for 22″ Carry on.
And yet, trying to stow the bags exactly as shown in this post did not work 3 out of 4 times. I had plain change mid flight (a connecting flight) and could only put my bags sideways as shown in one of them. Keep in mind, I always try to place my bags tightly to leave space for other passengers, but it not always works. Even if the bin seams to be big enough, sometimes the bin will not close. It may not be passengers fault but the airplane design.