Personal item goes underneath the seat in front of you, and full-sized carry on bag goes in the overhead bin – unless you’re seated at a bulkhead with no underseat storage, in which case both go in the bin, ideally above your seat.
But what if you have only one item?
- Does personal item have to go under the seat in front of you?
- Or is the unwritten rule that you get one item in the bin, and it’s the second item you have to put underneath the seat?
In other words, if you have just a backpack or laptop bag and no full-sized carry on, can you put that in the overhead bin? (And for that matter, if you have two items, can both actually go in the bin if you want?)
Last week a passenger flying United from Denver to Houston pulled someone’s backpack out of the overhead bin in order to make space for their rollaboard.
- The backpack owner “yelled at him to put it back and they got in an argument.”
- The passenger with the rollaboard “said [the] backpack needs to go under the seat.”
- Surrounding passengers joined in the argument – backing up the passenger that moved the backpack out of the bin.
It turns out that the man with the backpack had a personal item under his seat (“looked like a briefcase”) so this was his larger carry-on item and they wouldn’t both fit. Oops.
roller guy was speechless and walked away with his suitcase to the back. i think he ended up having to gate check.
If you board late in the process then there’s a good chance you’ll have to gate check your bags. That’s part of not having early boarding, or not boarding when your earlier group is called. Since airlines charge for checked bags, and planes are mostly full, overhead bins fill up quickly – even where airlines install larger bins. (Southwest, which includes two free checked bags with each ticket, has problems with this less frequently than others.)
And while there are basic expectations and social norms around use of the overhead bin, it also violates a strong norm to move other peoples’ stuff. Besides they might need the extra room underneath the seat in front of them for a medical reason that isn’t obvious, so don’t be presumptuous that the person placing a carry on and personal item above their seat is being a jerk.
Following Delta’s lead, United and American have labeled bins showing the cabin they’re supposed to be saved for. That way, in theory, a first class passenger getting onto a flight later in boarding might still have space. These bin labels are rarely enforced.
At the end of the day overhead bin space is first-come, first-served. The polite thing to do is to place your personal item under the seat in front of you. Flight attendants often announce this instruction. But there’s often little enforcement – and taking matters into your own hands often won’t end well.
There would be less such incidents if carry on bags size parameters were strictly enforced prior to boarding the aircraft.
Anyone who removes another person’s belongings from an overhead bin without permission needs to be kicked off of the airplane. Removing the belongings of a person getting kicked off is ok.
@DavidMiller … Even better if NO “full-size” carry-on bags are ever permitted , except for the pilots and cabin crew . Have a chute next to the door , and all carry-on bags are thrown down the chute . Problem solved .
On domestic flights Aegean airlines consistently do a great job of walking through the cabin during boarding, eyeballing and removing all personal items,, asking who they belong to and politely requesting that they are stored underneath the seat in front of the owner. They are quick, polite and efficient and almost no one pushes back on the flight attendants (and that includes many American tourists) so it can be done successfully without holding up boarding.,
I thought frequent fliers (at least) knew to put their binned item in the bin across the aisle, not in the bin over their seat. Maybe some people have not heard about how a thief can access your bag in the bin over your seat, because you can’t see what he’s doing, he can steal things from your bag (depending on your bag, of course). Because so many people (apparently including many frequent fliers) have been conditioned to use the bin above their seat, some explaining often needs to be done about the potential theft risk of doing that.
@EDouglas … NO thieves ought to be allowed . The pax from HK to SIN ought to keep his money on his person , and not in a carry-on out of his sight .
Why does it matter. Why should I put my personal item under the seat I paid for a ticket just like the person with a carry on. Why does a carry on trump a personal item.
Upright.
LIKE A TACO FOLKS!
Rule # 1. Never touch other people’s stuff. Unless it a ginormous parka that has been tossed overhead and not tightly squished into a void. Then identity the owner and educate them. Tell them to sit on it.
Two weeks ago, I flew jfk to lax, on jet blue, then lax to Sacramento on delta and sfo to jfk on AA. I did not encounter any of these situations about which I read in view from the wing. I mostly fly to europe where I have never seen anything like this. Is it the american airlines or the people who fly in this country that behave this way?
Aegean can GFTS. Space under the seat is for my feet. My one item is going in the bin. If you touch it, I will touch you. Hard.
Most people put their carry-on in the overhead bin above their seat. That way they can get it easier when they prepare to depart because they don’t have to be in the aisle, slowing down other passengers. If they are worried about thieves, they can lock their luggage. Of course, valuables like cell phones, money, credit cards and jewelry should be at their seat with them. I have both a jacket with large zippered pockets and a waist bag to keep things like that in. I usually have nothing in my pants pockets for TSA and for comfort.
I have a strategy that has almost never failed me.
Sometimes I come on with a roller board and a small backpack, but usually the backpack and a laptop case. Roller will go up immediately when I board, but backpack and laptop bag stay with me initially. At the end of boarding, or when the overhead bins near me don’t have space for additional roller boards, I use the excess space, and there is always space for my small backpack and/or laptop bag. That way, anyone with a roller bag can put it up, and I can put my stuff up too.
Simple, common sense and almost always works out for everyone. But we in the US don’t generally like these common sense solutions, instead preferring the ‘me, me, me’ solutions where we don’t care about anyone else. My way takes much less effort, have never needed to engage in a debate, and always works out. It’s not that hard…
I travel with a rollaboard and backpack, I put the backpack in the rollaboard while on the plane and the when I get to my destination i just use the backpack. This way I don’t have to deal with this nonsense.
On southwest,if you sit in an aisle seat, there isn’t enough room for my purse and my weekend bag so I put it up in the bin. Is this wrong?
Two comments: I frequently fly United first; the First Class bins generally have available space until near the end of boarding. However, on both AA and UA newer planes the first class seats are now too low to permit my backpack to go under the seat in front of me. I end up with it sticking out (which I suspect is a contravention of some Flight Attendant rule).
No “medical condition” requires you to have nothing around your feet, except for people like Walter, who suffer from being complete and ignorant assholes.
I always stash my “personal item” backpack above my seat along with my 22″ rollaboard. I always board early thanks to elite status (earned by decades of grueling BIS flying) or credit cards with AF. Or I buy a higher fare for preferred seats or EBCI.
I don’t really care what anyone thinks. I am entitle to the space. If others need to gate check then maybe next time they can pay more (as I do). It’s not my problem.
In economy section would never pull anyone’s luggage out of the overhead bin. It is well known the space is first come first serve. I have been known to adjust items that are poorly spaced in order to fit other items in the bin.
If anyone (Excepting an FA) pulled my item out of a bin they would have a problem.
I’m with @David R. Miller. I can’t for the life of me understand why so many people are allowed to roll a huge rollaboard on, with a backpack (or similar) and a laptop case. These selfish people take up vast amounts of overhead space, leaving little for everyone else. They often then say how much they enjoy not checking a bag. If I dragged that much of my crap onto a plane I wouldn’t need a checked bag either in most cases.
This article hits home for many. The issue is debated, but shouldn’t have to be.
The overhead bins are for carryon roller bags. If you choose to have a second bag such as a backpack or laptop bag, all airlines instruct you to place that item under the seat in front of you.
It’s to bad there are always rude, people that Won’t follow rules when in public. Often these anti-social egotistical types are the ones causing scenes in public, with there all about them attitudes, when they are clearly wrong, or not following rules. They are well versed in the victim mentality and holler loudest at the slightest perceived wrong to themselves, such as being denied extra space for THEIR bags or a Empty seat next to them they didn’t pay for, even taking others assigned seats and making the fuss when they are asked to move. There are countless videos on YouTube of these types causing disruptions and even sometimes luckily being removed from an aircraft.
In short , a total lack of manners , and walking around with a chip on your shoulders is no way to go through life.
These are the things we as society have lost in present day I miss. I chose the higher road, and am courteous to all when I must travel, as there are already enough rudeness to go around.
Rules like these shouldn’t HAVE to be enforced, people should just learn to get along and be courteous to one another. I find those who act out, very tragic and sad in their lacking of upbringing and manors. Try being nice, it’s so much easier !
Another unspoken, but rigidly enforced rule (by me anyway):
Your stuff goes in the bin over your row.
I am sick of the jackasses who, even though they board early, don’t want to sit near the front… They want the exit row.
But as they head there, they try to stick their rollaboard in a bin near the front of the plane
I guess they have this notion that they’ll just casually grab it as they walk by while deboarding at the end of the flight.
So…. Not sitting in my row, but breeze by and chuck your bag in the overhead above me? I will grab it, walk it back to you, and set it in your f***ing lap. And if you so much as look at me weird, you will take an ambulance ride rather than a flight.
None of you know who I am or what I look like, so you never know whether you’re about the win the “this guy hates entitled travelers” lottery.
Act f***ing accordingly, a**holes.
P.S. you must have at least a bachelor’s degree and a 700 FICO score to have TSA Pre-Check and/or Clear. No more f***ing retards clogging those lines. If you’re a low-class, low-rent, ghetto troglodyte, that’s why we have Greyhound.
There are exceptions, one being bulkhead seating, or exit row seating with no seat in front of you. I know because I’ve flown several times with a bulkhead seating and had both my rollerboard and personal items placed in overhead bins.
Also once boarding is complete I’d ask if my personal item can go in an open spot in overhead bin and that’s also been OK.
This should not be happen!!
I am an overhead bin hog, but I also consider what the situation is like in deciding what I will do with storing my cabin baggage. An aisle seat helps.
About the claim that “ No ‘medical condition’ requires you to have nothing around your feet”, I wouldn’t be so sure about that. A mix of medical conditions could require stretching or keeping stretched an extremity in order to not exacerbate musculoskeletal pain or damage and otherwise do some physical therapy exercises for that and/or cardiovascular reasons — at least if wanting to minimize the nuisance of frequently blocking the aisle for others or dealing with airline crews that are perturbed by “congregating” in the galley or elsewhere to stretch for extended periods of time.
The upside of boarding early is that you are less likely to get harassed by self-appointed “bin police” about the use of the overhead bin space.
Paul is right and Jim is not. There’s no reason for the person who paid (somehow) to check their bag to be uncomfortable so the person who did not can stow their bag.
This started when airlines started charging extra for checked bags.To solve the problem, stop charging for bags and enforce carryon sizes.
it this crap continues the domestic flight will eventually limit bags by weight like they do if flying international carry on can’t weight more that 18lbs…. that would pretty much elimate the problem of to many carry on bags. I see people strugglng to lift bags to the overhead bin because of weight,.,, just saying
@Daniel J
Still doesn’t stop Southwest pax from carrying on rollaboards.
Southwest is probably the only airline I’ve encountered where FA have asked me to move my carryon (backpack) to under my seat so somebody else’s huge rollaboard can fit in the bin.
If I come prepared for a full flight and check my rollaboard; the backpack is my only carryon, I should be able to put it in the bin.
I’ll let other people comment on EU experiences, but after traveling in both Japan and the US, this is a US issue. Probably best if addressed at the root of the cause where airlines don’t seem to care about your checked bag in some instances either where they’ll misconnect it, lose it, damage it, don’t supervise their ground agents, and take forever to come out on the carousel
JetBlue’s Blue fares used to include guaranteed overhead-bin space. On a flight to Puerto Rico a flight attendant insisted that I move my backpack to the floor because it didn’t have wheels. I wrote in after and was given a $25 flight credit for the inconvenience.
Everyone should get to put one bag up there if there’s space when they board. Penalizing people because their bags aren’t big enough or don’t have wheels is ludicrous.
Seth
R7 there are medical conditions that require one to have space under the seat! Cramps and restless leg syndrome are two that I have and MANY others have.
I pay for a seat which includes room for my feet. I’m over 6ft with large feet to match. My bags go above me and my feet under the seat in front of me. End of.
You should be entitled to one item in the overhead bin. If you carry on only one personal item (no rollaboard) you should be entitled to put that item in the overhead bin. I have only had occasion to do this a handful of times and only once was I questioned. Once in domestic First an FA asked, “whose bag is this”? When I told her it was mine she dropped the matter and moved on. If it came down to someone being forced to gate check because of my personal item I would move it under my seat, but that never happened, probably because my personal item (laptop bag) takes up much less space than a rollaboard someone else wants to check (there is room for a small laptop bag but even removing it won’t make room for a rollaboard).
Airlines should allow two checked bags free and charge at least $25.00 for carryon baggage (backpacks and other personal items at no charge). Passengers with status might have the carryon item free. Immediately the overhead bin problem would be solved.
When we travel we only ever bring on our backpacks. Other baggage is checked, even items that would qualify as carryon. We have free baggage with United and Alaska and for the moment with Delta; these three take care of pretty much all our travel needs out of Seattle. If on some other airline we are often in a cabin class that includes baggage.
The personal item vs. carryon item wars rage huge on Reddit.
I agree, if you are only taking one thing on board, you get to put it in the overhead bin.
I check my big bag and carry on only a backpack that will fit under the seat. I don’t mind it under the seat in front of me. But, I regularly put my backpack up. If I’m in F, I tell the FA that I have it there and will gladly place under the seat if needed. When not in F, I keep alert and volunteer to move my backpack if it will help someone who “is emitting a positive vibe.” I also volunteer if it helps the FA. Overhead space is never an issue on Australian domestic flights, where I fly cheapest Y because of high F premiums and short flights.
Possibly the way to get more space available in the overhead bins is to allow only one bag for free, whether it is a checked bag or a carry-on bag. The checked bag is larger and can carry more so some would chose that option. I have opted for a paid checked bag without a carry-on bag when I went for a ticket at the lowest total price that would allow me to carry everything I wanted to carry. Doing so allowed me to carry more on the return trip along with a lower overall price.
My pet peeves are (1) people who either make no effort to properly store a bag overhead (using as little space as possible), or (2) carry on stuff that is way, way, way out of line (unless it’s a musical instrument or special equipment) and (3) who move others bags without asking first. I travel with fragile equipment and as such make sure my bag conforms and is properly stowed. No problem moving it if that helps someone else but want to make sure that it’s properly handled.
If they want me to put anything on the floor in front of my seat they need to give me enough leg room to fit it there. My legs barely for in that space as is.
I generally travel with a large backpack as my only carry on. It goes in the bin.
What about people who put a straw hat in the bins? Especially women who have a wide brim fancy straw hat, they put it in the bin and take the space away from others. I can’t tell you how many womens big straw hats I see in the overhead bins. I must travel to destinations whrre women wear those hats. At least the mens hats are not so big.
How about charging for carry on bag and let checked bags fly free. That easy!!
When I pay for a seat , often paid business or first, and checked my bags, I really don’t feel an obligation to give up my foot space so people can bring everything they own on board without checking bags. Airlines only push this because they can’t board all these huge bags quickly which costs them money.
I get free checked bags and usually check my carry on so only carry a med backpack on. So the backpack is my carry on and it goes up top. I’ve only had one time a FA tried to tell me can’t and I said this is my Carry On and it doesn’t define what that is and she backed down. But I can imagine plenty of people try to take advantage and place two up.
Unless the plane is empty, it’s not right. People cherry pick what rules they decide to follow too much.