News and notes from around the interweb:
- This is such a terrible customer experience, and is hardly unique to United: Gate agents demand customers gate check their bags when there’s still plenty of bin space.
They aren’t actually monitoring available space or waiting until the bins fill up, because they don’t want to spend time at the last minute dealing with checking excess carry-on bags. But it’s terrible for the customer who has to give up their bag, and it’s made even worse when they board to see it was wholly unnecessary.
Serious effort needs to be made here to do better – it’s one of the two most common complaints I see with photos in airline social media.
Thanks @united for making me check my carry on when there was clearly ample space. pic.twitter.com/bwHkSfm22Q
— Jerome Jeffers (@jeromejeffers2) June 26, 2025
- Delta adds new fees and blackout dates on changes for basic economy tickets originating outside the United States
- Why The U.S. Should Copy Canada To Fix Its Broken Air Traffic Control System
- Totally unrealistic that a ‘1K’ would be poised to clear an upgrade on United, tbh.
Most fitting top of upgrade list I’ve ever seen.
byu/aab1020 inunitedairlines - China is withholding a plane crash report – likely because it says what everyone things it says:
NEWS (or lack thereof): China’s CAAC is withholding a report on the March 2022 crash of China Eastern 5735, a 737-800, saying “disclosure may endanger national security and social stability.” Experts have long suspected the flight was deliberately crashed by one of the pilots. pic.twitter.com/YQ4yEXqx8N
— Jon Ostrower (@jonostrower) June 27, 2025
- Southwest Airlines isn’t gonna feed you, and you don’t want hangry pilots.
Two shawarmas and off we go✈️ pic.twitter.com/9taatiKZjs
— Turbine Traveller (@Turbinetraveler) June 26, 2025
There’s got to be a better solution to the bin space issue? Clearly the airlines can’t wait until bins are completely full but they could certainly wait longer than they currently do.
I gave up on UA at the beginning of this year after they jacked the qualification PQPs to levels where I had no chance of retaining 1K. Did a status match to AA, and now I’m actually clearing upgrades as an EXP. Food’s better at Admirals’ Clubs anyway.
As the world moves toward a war driven be Israel, America worries about bin space.
Perhaps if airlines enforced the carry-on size limits (and number of items) bin space would not be a problem.
Forced checked bags should be done with a minimum of $50 cash compensation and full liability for the contents up to 10k. That is reasonable.
At what point do airlines consider overhead bins no longer worth the boarding delays and remove them outright?
Gary – You are a very prolific blogger with original content, generally quite good analysis, a unique and normally well informed perspective, and on the all-too-rare occasion an insanely funny satirist. Please help us out a little by not regurgitating headlines. I genuinely empathize with the difficulty perpetually coming up with fresh content but would it really be so bad to just have one of the other roundup articles be the headliner? The pet peeves are understandable but some variety would be appreciated.