Tag Archives for overhead bins.
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 know to do this.
Now, United Airlines has a solution. They’re trying to teach passengers how to use overhead bins properly, to get the most bags in.
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!
The woman said to the crewmember that she “went to college with” Delta CEO Ed Bastian. The Delta flight attendant snapped back, “you should have kept in touch” then! I guess they weren’t that close. Attempted ‘don’t you know who I am’ failed.
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.
Two flights in a row an American Airlines passenger found that overhead bins were virtually empty yet people were being required to gate check their carry-on bags. They weren’t allowed to bring their bags onto the plane, even though there was plenty of space.
This is one of the most frequent complaints about airlines I see in social media, day after day, alongside damaged checked bags. Those two complaints are related! Who wants to waste time at baggage claim when they land, only to find their bags lost or damaged?
A passenger on a Singapore Airlines flight from Hong Kong to Singapore has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison for stealing nearly $90,000 from another man on board, out of the overhead bin.
The Chinese citizen was charged with theft, carrying undeclared cash of over $14,783.44 (SGD $20,000) into the country, converting stolen funds into casino chips, and also wire fraud for trying to transfer the funds to China.
Southwest Airlines passengers aren’t just saving seats for other passengers, they’re saving overhead bin space, too by laying their bags horizontally in the bins to take up more space and then turning the bags on their sides to free up space once their travel companions board.
They will no longer need to gate check 1 million passenger bags per year, across 150,000 flights operated by these aircraft.
American Airlines flight 2707 from Dallas to Austin was delayed over an hour on Monday night. The carrier’s maintenance technicians tried to tape an overhead bin in place – but it wouldn’t hold.
Faced with the choice of making a 9 p.m. flight even later – and potentially pushing crew past their minimum duty hours, where the entire flight would have to be cancelled – they decided not to spend any more time trying to fix it.
You’re allowed to carry bags onto the plane – but only if there’s enough space on board. That’s the main reason it’s better to board planes early, rather than being last onto the plane. Priority boarding is a benefit to ensure you get access to carry on bin space – even though no one wants to spend more time on board the aircraft than they have to.
Overhead bins are stuffed full, and passengers are forced to gate check their carry on bags, even though airlines are installing bigger overhead bins – bins that are supposed to have enough space for everyone. And it didn’t used to be this way!
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 »
