Let me guess, you also absolutely refuse to pull forward out of the drive-through window when it’s going to take them a few minutes to get your order ready and there’s a line behind you, because you have a right to be served in your turn. My father does that. It makes me want to reach across the seat and choke him to death, because it’s just so stupidly selfish to make everybody else sit and wait when they could be getting their food and getting on with their day.
Yeah, you’re entitled to 2 spaces for carry-on luggage, and if there’s no room shortage, use either of those spaces you please. But the latecomers are also entitled to 2 spaces, and sometimes there are more spaces promised than there actually are in the plane. When that happens, someone has to give up one of their spaces, and it makes a lot more sense for that someone to be the guy who’s, you know, not actually using one of them.
Besides, when things have gotten to the point the flight attendants are asking you to move your bag, insisting on leaving it up there just slows everyone else down. They have to either play musical luggage and rearrange the bins so that everything can go in, or else they wind up having to gate check something. Everyone is sitting there in their cramped-ass little airline seats, waiting while this goes on for however long it takes, whereas it would have taken 45 damn seconds for you to stuff your bag under your seat and put the other person’s bag in the bin.
C’mon, isn’t air travel miserable enough without dragging it out like that?
That’s the thing I’m not getting here - the need to martyr myself for their convenience. Sure, if it’s a matter of not having any more room on the plane anywhere to stow your oxygen bottle, then I’ll deal with it. But if they packed a bag that’s too large and the flight attendant is offering to check it OR stow it where my bag is, then just check it. Their convenience isn’t less valuable than mine, but neither is it *more valuable. We’ve each been clearly allotted two spaces this big by that big to put things other than our ass, and I’m choosing to use one of those spaces for my feet. Why should I give away one of my spaces simply because I’ve thought ahead and not brought on too much crap?
But I AM using it! I’m using it for my feet! Given that the span between the seats is barely long enough for my femurs and the jackass in front of me insists on leaning his seat back, I’ve found that I can increase my leg room by sticking my feet and lower legs under the seat in front of me. And I keep my seat up.
As a recovering Martyred Mother, this is my mantra:* “Nobody is more important than anybody else” includes me, too!**
(not disagreeing, just amplifying or something)
I generally stick my stuff under the seat, I like being able to choose whether to knit or read depending on my mood, I like knowing that I’m in control of my stuff–especially my laptop and my purse(inside the regular carry-on). But while I think that prioritizing one’s jacket for the overhead bins over someone else’s carry-on suitcase thing-y is just wrong, I’m not sure that I can blame someone who just wants to maintain their foot space. Not least because maybe people (generic, annoying other people who carry way too much stuff onto the plane and refuse to check any luggage and then are smug about how much time they save by not checking luggage . . .) anyway, some people might be less inclined to carry on all their stuff if was usually a hassle for THEM and not for people like Dinsdale or you who have chosen to bring one carry-on and stick it overhead so that you can have foot/legroom.
I completely disagree with this - if I have a close transfer, I’m going to make sure I have all my luggage with me so I can make sure it’s still with me when I get to my destination. The only time I have lost luggage is when I had a tight connection time, and I made my flight and my bag didn’t. This has happened twice in the past three years.
Due to those experiences, I usually carry on all of my luggage on my outgoing journey. I carry on a medium-size roller bag, well within airline regulations for carry-on, and a medium tote that doubles as my purse. The bag goes in the overhead bin, as close to my seat as I can manage, and the tote goes under my seat. If I happen to check the larger bag on my return trip, I still put the tote under the seat, as this contains money, ID, and personal items, and I’m not going to put that anywhere I don’t have control of it.
On my most recent trip I had to put my larger bag in a bin a few rows behind my seat. That was a pain, since I had to wait for everyone to exit before I could get back to where my bag was. On the other hand, I was glad I had my luggage with me, since my first flight was late and I missed my connection to the second one. Who knows where my bag would have ended up if I had checked it.
I’ve rarely had a problem with my bags not making it to my destination, perhaps because I pay attention to my connections when I’m making my reservations and know not to make them too close.
For me it depends upon how many laptops I have to carry with me on the trip. If it’s just a single laptop, then it goes under the seat in front of me so that I can get to my stuff during the flight. However when I travel with two laptops (in the same case), that causes the backpack to be too think to easily fit under the seat. So then it goes into the overhead.
I disagree with the belief that putting it under my feat causes things to go faster. When it’s under my seat, I cannot get it out until the person next to me has left there seat, as I have to spread my feet, or move them all the way to the side, to get the bag out. So that takes more time than me standing up and just grabbing my backpack out of the overhead.
The problem is that about 3/4 of the people on flights all have those bags that are designed to be 1mm shorter than the allowed space. Plus they’ll usually have at least one, and sometimes two other carry on bags. Then struggle to lift this massive thing up into the overhead. Or need help getting it down. I’m sorry…if you can’t hump it, don’t pack it. Even if you gate check it that normally only takes 3 or 4 minutes extra to get your bag. No need to look around forlornly for someone to help you with your massive bag of crap.
I guess to clarify, I generally expect air travel to be unpleasant and uncomfortable. I find it rude when the person in front of me reclines, but I don’t do anything because I expect the world to be full of rude people. And I am extremely limited in my ability to do anything about it.
I DO have some control, however, with respect to the tiny space I am allotted on the plane by limiting my carryons such that I preserve my footroom. I’m not convinced that I should give up those few inches simply because some stranger chose to plan differently.
Be assured that any time someone asks if they can go ahead of me because of a tight connection I gladly let them. I am rarely in such a rush that a few seconds or a few minutes matters all that much. I would be surprised to learn that on most flights the first person got off more than 3 minutes before the last person.
And CCLI can’t remember the last time I used a fast food drive through - but in the situation you describe I would have no hesitation about complying with the request.
To those who are posting that they always put their carryon under the seat in front of them, I’d be very interested to know how tall you are. I’m 6’1" and if I have to put something under my seat I’m very uncomfortable for the whole flight because I can’t stretch out my legs.
5’7", and will freely admit that it is easier for me to go an entire flight with something jammed under the seat in front of me than it is for someone like you. MrWhatsit, 6’0", absolutely detests having his carryon under the seat in front of him. Then again, he usually tries to sit on the aisle so that he can stretch his legs out occasionally when the drink cart isn’t in the way.
The airlines are ultimately responsible for how the overhead bins are used. They decide in the design or purchase of a plane how much space will be provided, and if there isn’t enough room over your seat, you have every right to store your bags where possible. One thing I don’t understand is why a flight attendant would ask you to remove your bag from the overhead and put in under your seat so a late arrival can use the space. Why not just ask the late arrival to the bag under their seat?
Me: “Why not just ask the late arrival to the bag under their seat?”
I just thought of a reason: The late arrival’s bag is too big to go under their seat, your bag is smaller than theirs, and their bag would fit into the same space as your bag is using in the overhead. Your smaller bag will fit under your seat. But all things being equal, the request for you to move your bag for a late arrival is absurd.
IME more often the latecomer arrives with 2 carryons - as permitted. Therefore even if 1 goes under his seat he still needs 1 to go up - or be checked.
Depends on what is considered carry-on luggage. Some carry-on (like the one I always put overhead) will not, under any circumstance, fit underneath the seat in front of me.
But I’ve seen backpacks, purses, bags, jackets, and other stuff that could, conceivably, fit in the underneath space. I’m thinking the stewardess is asking those with that type of luggage to please put it in the seat in front so that the person with the carry-on that cannot be pushed under the seat can use the overhead instead.
5’7, prefer to keep my stuff under the seat in front of me.
I think the Important Businessmen who think they’re Such Clever Experienced Travelers when they clog up the front bins instead of the ones near their seats are Wankers.
Oh, and anyone who can’t figure out that the wheely bags go in long ways should be stuffed up there with them to read the multiple stickers advising same until their spatial reasoning improves.
I used to be carry-on only (note the hyphen). I had a 45" roller that would always join me on the plane.
Then I met my SO. He’s a checker. He’s an overpacker who waits until 2 hours before an international flight to pack his and the 3 kids’ suitcases. It was mayhem so I got to the point where I would have my bags packed and a friend to drop me off seperately at the airport where I would meet him later running to the gate to barely make the flight. At the destination, we would wait for his magician’s hat of bags to come down the carousel and I figured that since I was waiting for his bags, I might as well check mine in too.
Frankly, I’m relieved that airlines are starting to charge for checked bags as this has made him consider his packing style. (I can’t say “reconsider” as I don’t think that this has crossed his mind before). Nonetheless, we have two trips coming up, one small and one large. So, with the small one, we’re taking only backpacks. One per person including the kids. This is going to require him to be thoughtful as to what he packs as the two young ones won’t have the large backpacks, but the school sized ones. (I’m trying to follow the gospel of onebag.com)
That said, we feel that since the young uns will stow their small ones under the seats, our overhead bin necessity is being offset by that amount and feel it’s legitimate to take our 45" backpacks aboard with us. I really missed being able to deplane and go as I’ve always found security queues pushed me through quicker when I didn’t travel like I was going on a steamer.
However, there’s no way I could suffer a long flight with my bag (or anything for that matter) in my foot room.
(By the way, are we going to have a thread about the most egregious problem on planes next? That is the people who decide to stand up in the aisle by their seat and hover over everyone nearby :mad:.)
That doesn’t always work either. I carefully crafted 2 separate trips for 2 contingents of my family to fly roundtrip from Jackson to NYC, and another trip for two who will be going roundtrip from Atlanta to NYC.
The times have been changed for two of the Jan-NYC trips twice already, and once for the ATL-NYC. A one-hour layover in Washington has been turned into a 3-hour wait at Atlanta. I’ll be traveling with a 4-year old. :mad:
Every time they’ve changed a flight time on me, they’ve sent me an email telling me the new flights, and letting me know that if I had a problem to contact them. Although I personally pretty much write off the travel day whenever I’m flying. I find nothing more amusing than listening to all the travelers bitch about missing their tight ass connections as they try and fly in for a meeting or something that day. Just go in a day early. Sheesh.
Although I admit (having a 3 year old that I just flew with to Orlando this summer), that travelling with a small child makes those long layovers much much more difficult.
I probably shouldn’t complain. This will be the first time I’ve flown in about 12 years, so it’s not like I have to put up with all this stuff too often. It just peeves me !
