United Flight Attendant Stops Boarding Twice To Make Coach Passengers Move Bags From First Class Bins

A United Express regional jet first class passenger seated at the bulkhead boarded early and found the first class overhead bin already full.

The flight attendant in the front galley discovered economy passengers had stashed bags up front despite empty bins above their own seats, stopped the boarding process, and made those passengers move their bags. Then the crewmember had to do it again when another economy passenger immediately tried the same thing.

This flight attendant is a hero! Almost nobody does this. But the airline might have been mad at them, because they’re taking up time during the boarding process to help out the carrier’s best customers at the expense of precious moments needed for an exact on-time departure. Or at least they’re taking it upon themselves to make that choice rather than leaving it to the airline’s ops.

Here’s Exactly What Happened Onboard

Here’s the passenger’s story:

The people seated in row 2 have already filled their overhead, so I politely ask the FA if I can use the jacket closet up front for my computer bag.

She looks up and sees that the bin is full and gives a WTF look… stops boarding… and says to the plane, “Whose bags are these?”

Two people in row 4 (who have an empty bin above them) say they belong to them and the FA politely asks then to put their bags above THEIR OWN SEATS. They begrudgingly do so and I put my bag in the now empty bin and sit down.

The [flight attendant] goes back to the galley and literally 10 seconds later the next person to board sticks their bag into the empty spot next to mine and walks to the back of the plane. The [flight attendant] turns back and sees the new bag and hollers, “Are you kidding me!! I JUST CLEARED THIS SPACE FOR THESE PASSENGERS!”

She halts boarding (again)..tracks down the offender who was in economy and yes… had an empty bin above their own seat.

There’s A Correct Etiquette, But No Bright Line Rules

Live and Let’s Fly argues that overhead bins are “shared,” but shared within your cabin, not a free-for-all.

He rejects the idea that the bin directly above your seat is “yours,” but argues first/business/premium-economy bins should first serve those cabins, especially early in boarding when economy still has space. He’s fine with economy passengers using forward bins late in boarding if crew directs it, but calls early dumping up front “rude and lazy.”

That’s all right, but I’m not sure there’s a coherent bright line between “the bin over my head belongs to me” and “I’ll toss my bag in first and walk back” both of which are wrong. There is correct etiquette, but people in general are not uniformly aware. Most cabin crew do not do enforcement or education.

Why There’s Not Enough Space To Go Around

Gate checking bags wasn’t much of a thing 25 years ago, back when airlines used to allow customers to bring two full sized carry-on bags onboard and those bags were often permitted to be larger than they are today!

• Planes generally weren’t as full
  
• Airlines didn’t charge for checked bags, so passengers weren’t trying to bring all their belongings onboard to save money.

Up until Southwest Airlines started charging for bags, you didn’t much worry about gate-checking bags. Now that experience is so much worse.

In many cases, airlines have installed bigger overhead bins. That’s not a customer-friendly move as much as a recognition that passengers are bringing more stuff on, that gate checking takes up time, and customers who board the plane and find bins full only to have to check their stuff (or move back and forth down the aisles) take up time at the last moment. So it’s about on-time departures. But there’s still not enough space.

Airlines Are Designating Bins By Cabin

For years customers in economy stowed their bags wherever they’ve been able to find space. And that’s been acceptable because there were no clear norms and no enforced rules over who overhead bin space belongs to.

But overhead bin space is a scarce resource and airlines want to allocate that resource to the customers who pay the most for it. So they slap signs on the bins saying that they belong to passengers in the respective cabins. That suggests only passengers in those seats should use those bins.

Some passengers are therefore discouraged from stuffing their belongings in the overhead as they walk by on their way to the rear of the aircraft, but it doesn’t work with everyone.

I’ve never seen a this rule enforced after a bag is placed in a bin and most passengers are seated the way it was in this passenger’s story.

Who Gets The Overhead Bin Space?

Here are (6) principles for carry on bags that I think are true.

1. When everyone is on board, remaining space belongs to everyone. It would be stupid to require a passenger to gate check a bag because there’s no space left in ‘their section’ of the aircraft but open space up front.

   If a passenger is entitled to use bin space in their ticketed cabin, and coach passengers should walk back to coach and hunt and peck there, surely this changes at some point during the boarding process. If you’re in the last minutes of boarding can’t you take any space at all?

2. A boarding pass is a license to hunt. While everyone except Basic Economy passengers on United and on some (other) ultra low cost carriers are entitled to bring a carry on bag onto the plane, there’s generally not enough space for everyone to actually do that anymore.

   And since there’s not enough room for everyone to have space above their seat, there’s no entitlement to the space directly above your seat.

3. It’s not ok to use bin space above the bulkhead if you aren’t seated there. Those seats often don’t have floor storage so passengers in those seats have to stow not just a carry on but also their personal item up there as well.

4. Unwritten rules sadly aren’t enforceable. Most passengers fly at most once a year. If there are unwritten rules, how are those customers supposed to know them? And if they aren’t required to follow unwritten rules, no one else can be either.

5. There’s an information problem. Passengers boarding the plane don’t know what bin space has already been taken or what’s left. Closed bins might be a signal, or the bins might just be closed.

6. Coach passengers taking first class bin space slows down deplaning. Each first class passenger that has to put their bags farther back in economy have to fight their way back into the cabin on landing to get their cabin baggage that delays deplaning a little. Deplaning speed suggests passengers should use space nearest to them, and taking space in front of your row means someone else has to move backwards on landing. Wouldn’t Kant say this is a categorical imperative?

7. Be sure you aren’t last to board. If someone is going to have to gate check a bag you don’t want it to be you.

This tells me that no matter what signs airlines put on bins, there’s going to be some deviation and airlines aren’t asking flight attendants to enforce the signs. First class bins should be for first class passengers first but the end goal should be getting as many carry on bags on the plane as possible.

Ultimately this is a war of all against all, and you have to take care of yourself, the best way to do that is to race the boarding gate and get on as soon as your boarding group is called.