Tag Archives for carry on.
An airline passenger was stopped at the boarding gate by an agent who thought his carry on bag was too big to go on the aircraft. They told him he’d have to fit it into the bag sizer, and if it didn’t fit he’d have to pay to check the bag.
So shoved that bag in. He kicked it. He pushed it. The agent insisted that the bag go all the way in. The man didn’t give up. Only then the bag was stuck.
If your bag fits in the sizer at the gate, you can take it on board, because its dimensions are within the rules your airline has set for carry ons. At least that is how it is supposed to work.
Passengers bring things that don’t fit all the time, and gate agents don’t enforce the rules until they do. But if challenged, the sizer is supposed to be a neutral arbiter. One passenger decided to take this to the extreme.
Backpackers for years have stuffed their clothes into pillow cases to make pillows to sleep on. But Anya Iakovlieva takes that efficient packing tip to new heights by using the pillow case as an extra carry on bag. Just stuff all your items inside, instead of using it for a pillow. This video has been viewed over 17 million times on TikTok. A pillow case with a zipper works best.
In the game of airline versus passenger, there’s years of experience at ‘beating the system’.
The situation begins as the agent and passenger have a confrontation over her bag at the bottom of the jet bridge, in front of the aircraft’s boarding door. The woman has words with him, not wanting to give up the bag. They both have their hands on the bag, wrestling for it as the woman tries to board even as she’s told she can’t bring it on. And the words escalate to violence, as she lunges at the employee.
Finally the employee grabs the bag and starts taking it up the jet bridge. The passenger latches onto it, and starts to get dragged with it.
It’s a new test at some airports where customers checking in at self-service machines get offered to check their carry-on for free. According to an internal memo on the project, “Offers will be random and may not apply to every customer.”
Luggage sizers are the bane of many flyers’ existence. We bring a carry on bag to the gate, and the agent there says it’s too big. But we’ve carried it on the last 20 flights we’ve taken without an issue, we protest! Put it in the sizer, they say.
One passenger did just that. His bag fit in the sizer. He just couldn’t get it out. Technically then it must be ok to bring on board, right? But he can’t – unless he can reclaim it from the evil bag sizer.
Some travelers think when you buy new luggage, you have to worry about it getting dinged and scraped, but I don’t think that’s true. The whole point of luggage is to protect what’s inside of it. Getting nicked is literally what it’s for. And the well-worn look just means the luggage has been with you through many journeys.
But what if you want your bags to look damaged from the start, like a new pair or torn jeans?
Kylie Jane Kremer who runs a Political Action Committee called Women for Trump took to twitter to complain that American Airlines wouldn’t let her bring her carry on bag onto her flight to Atlanta, enroute to a Trump campaign rally. She thinks the reason why had nothing to do with available overhead bin space on her regional jet – but because of her Melania Trump hat.
United Airlines will remove bag sizers from boarding gates by January 23. They say they will be more aggressive at check-in and that sizers will remain at security checkpoints, but that at the gate agents are supposed to ‘use their judgment’.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
