Nitpick but in my experience, most gate-checked luggage ends up in the same baggage carousel as the regular checked luggage. The only stuff available at the destination gate are assist devices (like wheelchairs) or strollers.
And of course the reason people don’t want to check luggage is they don’t want to wait for it to come out on the carousel. That can take 30-45 minutes but seems longer.
That differs from my experience, particularly for regional jets (with American and United). I get a gate-check tag (with a corresponding tag for the bag) from a gate agent, and drop it off at the the “bottom” of the jetbridge (i.e., right before boarding the plane).
Upon arrival, the ground crew brings the gate-check bags directly to the jetbridge. YMMV, I guess.
Right. Regional jets may not have the overhead bin space so they have to put the carry-on luggage in the cargo bay but regular Boeing/Airbus jets only need to do so when they run out of overhead bin space.
On the bright side, both Boeing and Airbus have larger bins now,
I really like Patagonia’s 25l black hole bag. It’s water proofish which fits my needs and fits most anywhere.
I rode on what appeared to be a very new Airbus 321 in December. You’re right, the luggage bins were enormous.
The bins also had placards inside (verbally reinforced by the flight attendants), instructing people to put their wheelie bags in the bins “book style”: wheels to the inside, with the handle facing out, and resting on the short dimension, so a series of bags in the bin would look like a set of books on a shelf. Done that way, the bins had room for a whole lot of bags.
I was on a Boeing 737 MAX8 on Southwest with those bins, and they appeared to hold six bags “book style”, as you put it. That’s twice what we can get when they’re laying on their backs.
My children are pretty large (genetics), so they won’t fit in the overhead.
I have to pay to check my wayward son.
I’ve been tempted to climb up there for a nap.
True story: in 1965, when I was three months old, my family (which, at that point, was just my parents and me) moved from northern California to the Chicago area. While the furniture was in a moving truck, we made the trip on an airliner. My parents have long told me that I actually spent the flight in a crib, which was apparently somewhat like this:
That’s what I use and it is the best luggage I have had. There may be better luggage (probably is) or fancier (almost certainly) but it is a good price, well built and it works. Just used it today for a trip. Had it for years. I do not work for them or own stock in them but they seem a good choice (dunno if still true but supposedly this is what flight crews tend to use and their opinion on this counts for a lot in my book).
We bought a Briggs&Stratton carry-on which is fairly high end. It’s 22 inches main dimention, and Air Canada’s size is 21" - plus with the bottom of the (roller-blade style) wheels sticking out the bottom, definitely does not fit in the cage. Fortunately my American Express has a tie-in with Air Canada allowing one free checked bag.
(Air Canada - 21.5x9x15.5 - 55x23x40cm
WestJet 53 cm x 23 cm x 38 cm (21 in. x 9 in. x 15 in.)
Compare with KLM for international:
1 item of hand baggage with a maximum size of 55 x 35 x 25 cm including handles and wheels)
So basically they make those cages smaller for national flights to extract the maximum revenue.
Also read in the news about someone who bought a ticket from Air Canada and paid for 1 checked bag at the time of purchase. No problem departing, but the return flight was a code-share and the airline running the return flight insisted he pay for the bag, did not comprehend or accept that the checked bag was alrady paid for.