So they’ve schelpped their suitcase from their home out to the curb, onto an Uber, into the airport, through the security screening, onto the tram, up the escalator, onto the moving sidewalk, all the way to the gate, down the jetway, and they can’t bother with the extra hundred feet to the back of the plane?
What assholes.
Not that I’m disagreeing with you, Otto, but that is some seriously self-entitled jerkishness. I know there are such self-entitled jerks in the world, but I didn’t realize they were so numerous as to dictate the rules for everyone.
Maybe instead of assigned seats on a plane, the airlines should assign which bin someone gets to use. “Your suitcase goes in overhead bin 23, then sit wherever you want.”
This is never going to happen. You can’t just install simple electromagnetic locks on overhead bins and introduce the risk of them unlatching in turbulence. A reliable fail-safe solution for an aircraft is going to cost hundreds of thousands per aircraft, and then end up being decommissioned the first time one fails and a bag falls on someone’s head.
The only thing that I suppose might be workable is some kind of supplementary locking device that prevents the mechanical latch from being operated, but still requires the handle to be pulled manually to open it. It’s still going to cost >100X the price of that thing on Amazon.
Last flight I took was a break-of-dawn SFO→LAX shuttle five years ago, which was only about ⅓ full, so I’m not up on current "not"iquette. But the Elder Ottlet travels a lot, and she’s refreshed me from time to time.
Apparently for some of these people their need to get on with whatever super-important activity they have planned for the rest of the day is such that the moment the plane touches down they’re headed up the aisle so they can get their precious out of the bin and off the plane before anyone else.
How about this? Every passenger is, by default, entitled to space in the bin over their row of seats. If it’s full, the flight attendant can take any bag in the bin and ask the nearby passengers who it belongs to. If it’s your bag and you’re not close enough to object (like, if you’re sitting 20 rows back), into the baggage hold it goes.
I don’t fly, so I’ve never seen it, but the idea of allowing your carry-on out of your sight or within easy grasp is something I simply cannot wrap my head around.
People really do this???
If there was no room directly over my seat, or under the seat in front of me, I’d shove my bag up my ass or wear it like a hat. Maybe both at the same time.
There is a dirty secret (well, not exactly a secret) that frequent fliers know but the occasional flier apparently doesn’t know.
There are not enough spaces in the bins to allow every seat a full size carry-on in the bins.
This is why the announcement “This flight is completely full. If you are in a late boarding group, we can check your bags through to your destination at no charge.” happens folks.
The other bag related behaviors that actually occur (at least in 99.9%of the flights I’ve been on and I’m a million-miler):
Many people are generally clueless about how to deal with boarding with carry-ons. But most passengers are good people and will help the clueless out if asked. You just need to ask. Helping with loading the bag in the bin, how to position it to leave space for others, pointing out where spaces might be, etc.)
When disembarking, there’s also a lot of decent people. If the pilot announces they’ve got tight connections onboard, most people without connections will make room for the people with those connections to get off quickly. If someone near them announces they’ve got a tight connection, the people in that vicinity will help the person as much as they can. If your bag is in a bin farther back, if you can point it out, it will be passed up to you. And if there is no request due to tight connections, the deboarding is not a crowded mass pushing a shoving. People wait for the row in front of them to move down the aisle before starting down the aisle. If there is someone with mobility issues or with small children, they’ll generally be patient.
At least that’s my experience. While there are the occasional jerks, most travelers try to obey the dictum “don’t be a jerk”.
Or maybe I’ve just flown to much and too long to understand the problems described in this thread,
I think we may be losing track of the objective here, to speed up boarding.
I assume this was a joke, but just in case… you really think it’s a good idea to disappear people’s bags if they happen not to be paying attention, don’t have good hearing, are in the toilet…? And what tag is going on these unidentified bags that are dumped in the hold?
As mentioned, there’s not enough space in those bins for every row, so you’re basically insisting that the FAs get involved with loading bags all over the plane. And how do you enforce it during the loading process?
Early in the thread, someone suggested that boarding would be sped up if people in the back of the plane boarded first. That won’t work, we’re told, because those passengers would put their carry-ons in bins at the front of the plane; by the time the front passengers board the only space for their bags will be in the back of the plane. So then it became a question of how to keep the back-seat passengers from filling up the front bins.
My suggestion (somewhat tongue-in-cheeek, I’ll admit) was that folks using bins not near their seats be the first to have their bags moved to the cargo area when all the bins are full. That would encourage passengers to stow their luggage close to their seat, which would speed up boarding.
If only there was a way to look at a carryon and know which seat its owner is assigned. And do it fast enough that it doesn’t take another 15 minutes shuffling bags fore and aft and up- and down-stairs.
My other suggestion, also somewhat facetious, was to have assigned bin space and let people sit wherever they want. If you get to your assigned bin and there’s a bag already there, the flight attendants can take it out, just as they now do if there’s someone in your reserved seat.
Huh. One time the pilot announced this and hardly ANYONE paid attention. He had to announce it multiple times (loosing a little time every time he announced). You could tell he was getting pissed off.
Once I had a bag that had some valuables in it and it ended up about 5 rows in front of me. A man thinking it was his grabbed it when we deplaned. I had to push my way through the aisle and take it from him. To make it interesting, he didn’t speak English, and I don’t speak Japanese.
I was on a Southwest flight yesterday and checked this on my way to the loo. The back row of seats do not recline. I don’t think I’ve ever been on a SW flight where they did.
As for bags, the flight attendants suggested that late boarders, who tend to be in the back, take whatever overhead bin space they find, even if way up front. On the other hand, I was on a flight where not one but two carry-ons went missing. I assume by accident.
Whenever I fly, I’d like to have my stuff as close to me as possible … if I need e.g. an extra pullover or audio player, I dont want to run through the whole plane and open random bins until I find my belongings… let alons to be able to keep an eye on your stuff and honest people honest.
Is that really a thing that people park their belongings 30 rows in front of them??? to safe what??? … you still need to lower it to the floor when leaving
Lotta people are criminally lazy. Dragging / carrying it another 50 feet to the back is too hard. They may also think it helps them exit more quickly at the destination. When the plane empties out to their row, they can just stand up, rush forward in the empty space, get their bag, and keep moving. Which feels quicker than getting up, maybe having to move back a row to get your bag, then head forward.
It depends on what’s being carried on. Airlines allow a passenger to bring a carryon luggage piece suitable for stowing overhead, and a “personal item” that you can stash under the seat in front of you. I’ve traveled without checking a bag on a few occasions, and it meant bringing on a rollaboard filled with items for use at my destination, and a backpack filled with items for use during the flight. The backpack was always with me; being a reasonably considerate person, I always put the rollaboard in the bin nearest my seat, but I could have left it somewhere else without inconveniencing myself during the flight. Theft seems unlikely, as the thief wouldn’t know if you’re seated directly below the bag he’s rifling through, or out of sight 30 rows away. Besides which, anything valuable enough to be worried about will be in my backpack with me; if a thief wants my toothbrush and boxers from my rollaboard, he can have them.
Not necessarily. Some ticket classes include only the right to bring something small enough to fit under the seat in front of you but not to stow something in the overhead compartment.