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airplane bin hogs

CrashCrash
edited July 13 in Off-Topic
https://www.wsj.com/buyside/travel/travel-gear/ebags-mother-lode-travel-backpack-review?mod=wsj_hp_buyside_pos3

Likewise, those who use the typical hard-sided valise-style bags with wheels are bin hogs. How often have you heard it announced by gate employees that "Group 8 or 9" passengers will HAVE TO gate-check their bags? That's a bunch of junk. And what is actually going on is this: the airlines are looking the other way, deliberately. They are not enforcing their own overhead bin-eligible size limits. They arbitrarily remove what the last handful of boarders are entitled to: a carry-on bag to be kept with them, at or near their seats. Those passengers get the rug pulled out from under them, illegally. It happened to me once, I recall, many moons ago. The article linked above, and my most recent trip, reminded me of this junk. Full disclosure: my own wife is guilty, too. Should this junk happen to me again, I will turn to my handy, bookmarked webpage connecting me to a customer complaints place at the DOT website. Others might find a need to resort to it, as well. Here you go:
https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/airline-customer-service-dashboard

Comments

  • hank
    edited July 13
    One time while flying first class a guy being seated across the aisle began bitching loudly because someone had put a “tiny” bag in the overhead and he needed the room for a much bigger one. The “tiny” bag was my carry-on. (However on some smaller jets it barely fits in the overhead.) No problem. The flight attendants moved mine a bit and the guy’s humongous bag went in next to it. Later, getting off, I explained to the guy that traveling alone I manage 3 bags. My largest goes in the checked baggage. The one he deemed “tiny” goes in the overhead and is stacked atop the larger one after deplaning. And yet a 3rd smaller bag goes under the seat in front of me and than sits atop the other two as I roll the entire 65 lb stack down 8th avenue to my hotel.

    There’s no good reason IMHO not to check a bag - especially if you’re flying first class and there’s no additional fee. Airline luggage tracking has gotten much better. Lost bags are exceedingly rare. I did have somebody grab mine in error off the conveyer belt 25 years ago. He returned it to the airport the next day. Ever since then I’ve brightly decorated mine with colored tape so no one can mistake it for their own. But people are in a hurry and will do what they will do. I too am surprised at the size of some of the stuff they are able to wedge into the overheads. First class is superior IMHO. Rarely any fighting over overhead space.One occasional problem are obnoxious drunks as the booze is free up there. (That includes a GS gal sometimes seen on Bloomberg!)

    I’m in admiration of the crews and flight attendants. i’d be loath to criticize. But the airlines know exactly what’s going on and could stop this practice if they wanted to.
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