If you aren’t at the boarding gate when your flight is called, you probably aren’t going to get overhead bin space. If the flight is full, and you aren’t among the first half of passengers on the plane, your carry-on bag is likely going to be taken away from you and gate checked.
Half the time when you get onto the plane, though, you still see overhead bins with plenty of space. You were lied to! The bins weren’t full after all. So what gives?
Why would gate attendants lie and say all the luggage compartments are full?
byu/Cassiopeia2021 indelta
This is a common problem for passengers on Delta, American Airlines and United. It doesn’t happen nearly as often with Southwest Airlines, because they allow everyone to check two bags free. That’s changing, so carry-on confiscations will become more widespread there, too. And it’ll be worse, because Southwest is behind other airlines in adding bigger overhead bins that store more bags.
But what about customers being forced to gate check bags when there’s still plenty of space left in the bins? Nothing makes customers mad like being lied to and forced to gate check bags when it isn’t necessary. I see this on twitter as one of the two most common airline complaints (after nicked luggage) that’s accompanied by photos.
- Agents do this because they don’t want to gate check bags at the last minute when it might delay the flight by a minute or two
- They are afraid of getting yelled at for this by their managers.
- So they start requiring passengers to gate check bags before the bins are actually full. If they waited until bins were full, it would be too late – passengers would already be on the jetbridge and maybe in the aisles of the aircraft looking for bin space.
There’s little incentive to make sure customers can get on with their bags. There’s every incentive to avoid low ratings for delayed flights a gate agent is working.
Twenty five years ago U.S. airline passengers could generally bring two full sized carry on bags onto planes, and there wasn’t an issue with too-full overhead space. That’s because planes weren’t as full, and airlines didn’t charge for most checked bags, so passengers didn’t use all the space they were allotted.
Restrictions on carry on bags began with federalized security checkpoints following 9/11. The government didn’t want as many carry-ons having to be screened, so we got carry on limits as a way to speed up lines.
The rush to carry bags onto planes by more passengers didn’t begin in earnest until 2008 when airlines began charging for bags. That pushed a lot more bags into the cabin.
Unfortunately larger bins aren’t a panacea. Even where bins are in theory large enough to accommodate a full sized carry on bag per passenger,
- That requires turning carry on bags on their side, and too many passengers don’t do this (more generally, efficient use of the space isn’t done perfectly every flight)
- Customers put up more than one item, either their personal item doesn’t go under the seat or in winter people bring jackets etc.
Unfortunately there’s no end in sight for this. American Airlines thinks it’ll happen less on their planes when they start boarding 5 minutes earlier this spring. But United and Delta already do this and hasn’t helped them. And as Southwest begins charging for bags, the overall problem will get worse.
“Twenty five years ago U.S. airline passengers could generally bring two full sized carry on bags onto planes, and there wasn’t an issue with too-full overhead space. That’s because planes weren’t as full, and airlines didn’t charge for most checked bags, so passengers didn’t use all the space they were allotted.”
Wow, how the times have changed. And, if you can believe it, they used to let you smoke onboard, too. Yup, literally, light up a little stick with ‘fire’ on an airplane. Nuts. And all the cancer. JFC.
Maybe actually stop the ones that try to bring on two full suitcases , and a baby elephant
As someone that flies almost every week, I understand the issue because yes, I get free bags check so i do not fight the issue. But from my obversion if EVERYONE would put down their dam phone while boarding the gate agent would not have to worry about the bags. We would still be able to load all carry-ons and leave the gate on time. I see folks with carry-ons that are on the phone and taking twice as long to put the bags up. I don’t care if it your mother or a business call, poor time management. Folks just put them away for the 15 minutes to board and we would get out of the gate on time and fill the overheads in time to advise if they are full or not. Note that also goes for the plane staff as they could be observation to point out empty overheads, but they also are in the trap of making those last-minute texts.
You fix this by requiring a separate add-on ticket for each carry-on, based on the number of available spaces a particular plane supports and charged slightly more than the equivalent checked-bag charge.
For example, if a particular plane has space for, say, 100 carry-on bags, 100 carry-on tickets are available for purchase.
The long-term goal should be towards creating a market for third-party baggage shipping services (“Uber, but for luggage”) to reduce the need to schlep around your stuff to begin with.
@Denver Refugee — Sounds like you solved it; now, the airline can monetize this ‘problem’ like his has with all else. Alright, shut it down! Fixed it! The answer again is make people pay more for the same thing. If you can create a new artificial hierarchy in the process, then even better. Like, where should those who pay for carry-ons fit in this new caste system? Are they better than main economy but still inferior to economy plus? We need to properly identify who is now ‘inferior’ vs. ‘superior’ as we further expand upon the already stratospheric inequities in air travel. (Oh, you’re a Platinum? Pish posh, that’s nothing… Diamond! No…360!)
Just yet another sign of the ever crappier state of US commercial aviation on its descent to the bottom….
The bottom line is that the excessive checking of carry-on bags is a problem caused by United, American and Delta. It didn’t used to be that way even for them. I have been flying JetBlue for a number of years and have never had to gate check a carry-on bag. I have gate checked carry-on bags occasionally when flying EVA. I always have checked bags with them so I am going to have wait at the carousel anyhow. EVA is very nice about getting volunteers to gate check carry-ons. They have agents go out looking for the larger carry-ons and ask if they can gate check them. Many people agree to gate check their larger carry-ons. I have done it a number of times myself including times where I have had to shift some things to my personal item. I have also at least once declined to gate check my carry-on when asked. No problem. On to the next person.
@1990 – Less a “caste system” (which, for the record, would have me at “cardboard”, maybe “plywood” status these days) than economics. Shipping stuff costs money, so bags shouldn’t be “free” (or bundled in the base fare) as some people make day trips without them. Loading stuff in and out of a cargo hold costs money. Boarding and deplaning time also costs money, so disincentives against carry-ons is also appropriate.
The first airline that can solve the a la carte pricing problem without passengers feeling like they’re being nickel-and-dimed to death wins. Or, again, provide alternatives to schlepping your “stuff” around to begin with.
Stand near the gate before boarding begins for your next American flight and you’ll see between a few and a bunch of people with 2-3 large bags that they carry on to the flight. These people use a vastly disproportionate amount of overhead space and the rest of us just get hosed because of them. From overhearing them, these people are not stupid and understand the rules. They just don’t care about anyone else and feel that rules shouldn’t apply to them.
Avoid SWA until they expand their luggage bins on the legacy 737-700s and 737-800. Even with assigned seating, the boarding process is going to be a real sheet show until they expand on board capacity with expanded (2X+) carry-on demand.
How about limiting carry-on to the first few groups to board. If you are in the last group or two, you may be required to check your bags. These are generally the basic fares that are flying the cheapest (not that there is anything wrong with that). So on American, Groups 1-5 are pretty much guaranteed carry-on space while groups 6-7 may have their bags gate-checked and groups 8 & 9 are pretty much going to be gate-checked every time..
I was told to gate check on AA back in December. I couldn’t believe it, since my seat was 2D. No more than five or six passengers had gone before me.
I held my ground and argued. The agent wouldn’t admit anything, but eventually shrugged and said, “It’s not my fault if you can’t find space.”
It’s an epidemic to the point where the gate agents are actually starting to believe the lie.
Start charging for carry-on luggage and stop charging for checked bags.
I.T. could partially solve the problem by inquiring at the time of check in if the passenger has a rollaboard and a winter coat.
Flight attendants could turn bags on their side if there are a lot of passengers and many bags are not on the side.
Charge for both, with a premium for carry-on.
I used to make day trips with only an under-seat laptop bag. Why should I subsidize other people’s checked luggage by having it in the base fare?
It’s not a difficult problem to solve, but there’s no incentive to do so, when they could easily just lie, and inconvenience their paying customers instead. Pathetic.
“The Bus of the Skies!”
25 years ago, carry on bags were half the size they are today. To save $25, people try to stuff a week’s worth of clothes into a small suitcase and call it a “carry on.” The airlines should just enforce size restrictions, and then everyone would have enough space. Yeah, I know everyone here probably uses those big carry ons, so my opinion is unpopular. If you have to check your bag at the gate, stop complaining; you’re getting for free what you should be paying for.
Air Misery, the next new airline. We should have started high speed trains a long time ago..
The only reasons I carry-on are because I:
1. Don’t want to wait for baggage.
2. Don’t entirely trust that my bag will make it.
3. Have stuff in my carry-on that I might want in the flight.
I can deal with #3. But I’m not interested in adding another 20-30 minutes to the end of the flight waiting for my bag to arrive.
Gate-checked bags used to be brought up to the arrival gate. Return to that practice, and I think people would be more interested in checking their carry-ons.
Otherwise, you’re just making a flight take longer.
I can’t tell you how many people I see stuffing all their junk–and inefficiently–in an overhead compartment. One solution is for the airlines to require a specific overhead bin tag for carry-on bags that also designates how it should be placed in the overhead compartment. The passengers would be more selective and effective in what went into the overhead bins, and the airlines could better track how much bin space should be available.
I think for passengers on AA who care, the solution is easy. AA generally only says the bins are full during boarding of groups 8 and 9. On rare occasions maybe group 7 is included as well. Anyone who is an AADVANTAGE member boards with group 6 or better. As a passenger, if this is important to you, join the frequent flyer program and your bag will not be gate checked.
Here’s the thing. If, and the gate agent has no way of nothing beforehand, people have to swim upstream towards the end of boarding with bags the flight is going out late. So agents are proactive. And to all the morons that scream “horrible airline” you would be the first person to scream “horrible airline” if you missed your connection and something very time sensitive like leaving for a cruise.
Want less full planes so this won’t happen? Have higher ticket prices. But the same crowd will scream “expensive airline tickets.”
Ah yes, at some point all the airlines will employ the Spirit and Frontier one free grocery size bag / pay for anything else approach to all carry-on and baggage management. It turns out that the race to the bottom actually has no bottom. This is just one more reason why I travel in my conversion van now whenever possible.
You can always ask the boarding FA if there’s still bin space when you’re boarding, I’ve done this nearly every time I’ve had a bag gate checked and simply rip the tag off and just take it on. I’ve also been on several full “weight-optimized” A321 flights and one 737 to OGG where no bags can be checked and they always make it work if they actually enforce the bags on sides and personal items under the seat.
@Denver Refugee — Of course, I was merely joking about ‘caste’ (sadly, in some parts of the world, it is still very much ‘real’ and ‘enforced’ when it is quite inhumane). I assume there are still those wish to spit on their ‘untouchables’ regardless. Yikes.
As to the ‘economics,’ I get it, yet there should be some reasonable limits to creating microtransactions for every little thing. At some point, the slippery slope arrives at the lavatory (puns intended). What should be the cost for a single use? Will it be time-limited? How many flushes do we get? I think you start to see what I’m getting at here, I hope.
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Tell the agent you bag is full of electronics with lithium batteries. They CAN’T charge that one.
Oh, and if they actually enforced the 1 and 1 limit they’d run out of space a lot less often. On recent trips out of ATL I saw people carrying on 4 items plus a coat.
Our world is really, really good when we can complain about such minor inconveniences.
@warren trout — Why so glum, chum? Listen, when we complain about the ‘big things’ some folks get really upset that we have different opinions about that kinda stuff, so we try to keep it down.
I have had this happen to me. Flew to Phoenix on American and said bins were full. Had to gate check. I get on, 12 wide open bins. Nothing in them. Get to Phoenix, mine and 3 others bags are not there and it took them over 3 hours to find them. I was renting a car to drive to Tucson for my Uncles funeral the next day. We were having a family dinner that evening. The bag fiasco cost me over 3 hours then cost me to hit rush hour to Tucson. I missed most of the family dinner. I open my csrryon suitcase that night, and the clothes are in disarray. My dress pants, and shirt are missing for the funeral. I blame the leaders at American because AA has a lost bag problem and they do not care and have done nothing about it.
Or incase they park upside down!
The goal of all airlines is to provide the minimum possible service. Period. They want your money regardless of if they even get you to your destination, much less if you are comfortable.
First of all, everyone is forgetting that airlines do not make the majority of their revenue from flying passengers. It’s the loyalty cards.
Secondly, storing carry-ons is the most stressful part of our day. Not mine however.
I refuse to be the luggage police.
As a flight attendant, no one is going to punish me if we close late. The gate agents, however are under extreme pressure.
We are encouraged to notify the agent when we are 75% full in order to accommodate pax in the jetway.
I don’t do this because there is usually room due to incorrect storing and small bags and coats in the bin.
Some people also have two full sized bags. I’ve only seen one agent catch this.
I understand not wanting to gate check, especially on connecting flights.
Pro tip: politely ask the flight attendant at the boarding door if there is any room. We have to distroy the white tag for safety and operational reasons.
(Chocolates and Starbucks cards can magically open up space. Lol)
Boarding and deplaning times are increased dramatically if passengers are forced to “carry on” their luggage instead of storing it in the “luggage hold” under the airplane. But since the airlines last year made $33 billion by fooling you with an artificially low fare this will continue. Of course the plane is at the gate waaay longer and the standing in aisle is waaay longer, but we have to have yet another reason why you pay for Business or First Class.