Beware the Carry-On Baggage Bulge

Travel Blog  •  Elyse Franko  •  06.23.08 | 10:11 AM ET

Some airlines’ recent decisions to charge for checked luggage will strain more than just customers’ wallets. The Wall Street Journal reports that airlines are gearing up for the battle against massive carry-on baggage, but there’s no question that the new baggage fees will exacerbate what’s already a difficult problem: “To make sure they can find room, some customers already push their way through boarding queues. Passengers struggle to stuff large bags into small bins, and flight attendants often find themselves taking bags off planes and checking them to their destinations once bins fill up.”

Related on World Hum:
* American Airlines Announces $15 Fee for Checking First Bag

Tags: Air Travel, News and Briefs

Elyse Franko is a Long Island native, a graduate of the American University School of Communication in Washington, D.C., and a former World Hum intern. During her time at university, she wrote and edited for several campus publications and fostered her love for traveling by spending time abroad in Istanbul, Turkey, and Berlin, Germany. She currently works as a teaching assistant in Vienna, Austria.


5 Comments for Beware the Carry-On Baggage Bulge

keith philpott 06.23.08 | 12:42 PM ET

I tend to be a contrarian when it comes to airplane baggage. I haven’t checked a bag in years but I might start soon and the reason may surprise you.

The main reason I don’t check is because of time lost checking and waiting for bags that go in the hold. The “311” rule on fluids amplied the benefits of my strategy because more people chose to check rather than fool with increasing complicated rules for carry-on bags (more space in the overheads).

So, if the costs for checking bags goes up and carry-ons increase that can only mean fewer bags going in the hold. Does this mean checking bags will take less time….if it does I may soon start checking as much as I can. After all, time is money.

keith

pam 06.23.08 | 5:03 PM ET

So here’s what I’m wondering. The overhead bins are now stuffed to bursting with borderline “acceptable” carry-ons. I roll up late with my polite regulation size bag and there’s nowhere for it to go because every inch is taken. The flight attendant passes my bag to the handlers to check it… do I have to pay for that?

mike 06.23.08 | 5:11 PM ET

According to the WSJ story, Pam, you wouldn’t have to pay: “[T]he airlines say that the new fee won’t be collected in airplane cabins from customers who can’t find space for their allowed carry-on bags.”

HS 06.24.08 | 12:58 AM ET

What ever happened to traveling light?  I take only a reasonably sized carry-on whenever possible, but I usually check a light bag with just essentials and carry on a small satchel.  Whenever I fly, I notice rather large, bulging carry-ons stuffed into the overhead bins.  Upon landing, it takes a long time for their owners to wrench them out.

Jayne 07.24.08 | 10:47 AM ET

If airlines would simply enforce their own rules on carry-on bags, there would be no problem with folks with regulation size carry-ons finding space.  All airlines have an outline with specific height and width dimensions of carry-on bags at check-in yet allow flyers to blow past that and get onboard with suitcases and hangup bags twice the “legal” size. And, I’ve seen flight attendents actually help these people stuff obviously oversized bags into the overhead. Just when I thot she was going to make him check the bag, she helps him!  Why is that?

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