So redefine the volume of what is an acceptable carry-on bag. Whether a bag has wheels or not is completely irrelevant to any issue that has been raised: wheeled bags can be big or small, heavy or light. There is nothing magical about wheels that make them unsuitable for being brought aboard airplanes.
So what? The ratio of black bags to colored bags is probably something like 3:1. But having wheels is completely irrelevant to any issue of overhead storage. Size and weight are important issues, everything else is just your own peccadillo.
I’d rather see odd sized baggage forbidden aboard airplanes. Your typical piece of small luggage - with wheels or not - fit neatly into the bins. Contrast that with other stuff I see people bringing on (guitars, backpacks, flyfishing rods, shopping bags that have all kinds of crap falling out, etc) that take up more space in the bins than the objects actually occupy (since you can’t neatly fit these objects in with each other).
I sincerely am glad that I never bought into the stress inducing pace of my fellow business travelers. 15 minutes is a nice opportunity to check notes or email, make a call, do some research. Or better yet, relax and read a good book and feel the stress melt away.
As for the need to get to the car rental, all the “road warriors” I know either prebook, or by far have VIP status and bypass the line formed by the leisure crowd.
I’d say in my experience that regular business travelers are pretty efficient, but there seem to be a lot of occasional business travelers and leisure travelers that are taking their cues from the “road warriors” and making a mess of things.
I am in favor of weighing carry ons. In the past year I’ve helped 3 young men that were struggling to get their carry on into the bin. Made me wonder what would happen if the flight had the misfortune to run into severe turbulence.
As is mentioned earlier, Boeing usually does not make the decisions on the size of the compartments, it is usually the airlines. When I worked there, I asked about this issue and I was told that not only do the airlines make these choices, but that they don’t agree with each other on a “standard.” Further, when the “standard” reached the luggage companies, they try to push the envelope (ha!) to make the biggest “possible” piece of luggage which sometimes meant not counting the wheel length, rather, counting only the interior dimensions.
That 0.4 difference is often the difference between the compartment door shutting and it not shutting.
The planes aren’t large enough for each passenger to bring on one “standard” sized piece of luggage and put it in the overheads; it’s not even close. I can understand the logic of why people try to put everything overhead (avoiding fees, avoiding baggage claim, not liking to use the under seat because it limits leg room.) But there is an almost unsolvable space problem here. It would seem that some kind of incentive system might be necessary. For one, I’d like to see every carry-on bag checked for size, and preferably by the box, not by the bars-that-try-to-mimic-a-box-but-allow-wheels-to-stick-out. Charging a fee for overhead use (but not under seat use) is an interesting idea. I’ve been pushing for charging for carry-on and not for checked for a while.
A problem that I didn’t see mentioned above is that lack of property security on checked luggage. I know lots of people who have lost items out of their luggage, a problem that I hear more about since TSA looks into each bag. In particular, I am reminded of a St. Blues fan visiting home. She got some jerseys signed by players (I think Al MacInnis and Doug Weight) and was flying back to Seattle where she lived. Those jerseys were gone from her luggage by the time she got to baggage claim. She didn’t have proof of jerseys, let alone proof of the signatures, so she got nothing. In a similar vein, I never check my laptop because I do not believe it will be there when I arrive. If a system was installed to try to get more checked and less carried-on luggage, you’d have to improve property security.
If you wish to transport firearms, there is a process to arrive early, fill out paperwork, and have the firearms put in secure passage. I wish there was a similar system where I could arrive early, pay $10, and have my luggage checked in front of me by TSA and then have my luggage locked.
Weren’t they offered the chance to go under-seat?
In any case, if you had a bigger case with valuables, and then had to pink-tag it, then your stuff is at risk.
Based on what you are saying - the problem you want solved is to make sure that an arbitrary subset of passengers are guaranteed to able to use the overhead bins - even if that means leaving the bins 88% empty (based on your own numbers).
You’ve chosen this subset of passengers based on whether their particular piece of luggage has two little plastic things attached to it.
Can you please explain why passenger A should not be allowed to use 22x14x9 inches of overhead while passenger B should be allowed to use 22x14x9 of overhead? I don’t get it.
I always put plastic cable ties through the locking holes or zippers of my checked bags. This came about quite by accident when I had a balky zipper on a bag. I inquired if it would be acceptable and was informed that as long as it is something easy to snip should they need to inspect the interior of the bag it is fine.
To date I flown 14 international flights and another dozen domestic flights on a half dozen different airlines with my bags done this way and have yet to have a problem. I did once have one snipped, and surprisingly it was replaced.
I don’t know if it matters or not, but I like to imagine it makes it a bit more difficult for an unscrupulous handler to peruse the contents of my bags.
Boeing employee here, and I work in the division doing the engineering for Post Production and Customer Service. It definately is not Boeing’s decision what size the overhead bins are. There is a standard size installed on the production line, but each customer chooses their own preferred size. There are also many independant after-market retrofit facilities that change just about every aspect of the interior imaginable, as well as Boeing’s own Customer Service and Techinical Services group that often make similar changes to the interior after the planes have been in service for any length of time, in response to any number of customer requests. We’re doing a bin modification study right now in response to a large ECS mod that will affect an entire fleet.
“Place heavy items under your seat and light-weight items in the overhead bins”
How often have you heard that phrase onboard a plane? How often have you ignored it entirely and put the suitcases up in the bins (alongside your coat) in order to have more legroom? (I admit, I do it nearly every time)
In most cases (CRJs for a fact, and likely any plane designed before these suitcases became super popular), the overhead bins were not designed with heavy storage in mind, especially not these wheeled suitcases. In an accident or event involving severe turbulence, injuries often arise from objects falling out of these bins; the bin latches are not strong enough to withstand the impact forces from one of these suitcases shifting rapidly. Customer demand/habits involving these suitcases has led to the airlines allowing them on board and not enforcing the instruction that they be kept under the seats. Aircraft manufacturers (or authorized third party interior installers) need to go through the process of redesigning the bins to handle the forces (and many have), but it’s a lengthy and costly process.
Which doesn’t address the fact that there’s no room for everyone to have one anyways, again, because there was an expectation that the bins wouldn’t be used for suitcases, and because the designs came before they became popular. So keep it under your seat, or don’t use this type of suitcase. It sucks, but that’s reality for you.
Rumor Watkins, based on your posts in this thread you clearly do not travel much. Particularly for short business trips. You’re a dipshit if you truly believe that checking your bag doesn’t add significant time to an already long day. You may have no life at home but I’m trying to get there, get work done, and get home to my family and yes the extra hour (minimum) for the round trip to check a regulation sized carryon is important to me.
Also I routinely pack enough clothes into my regulation roller to last 4-5 days on the road and it’s not bursting at the seams. I wont check a bag for work period because I’ll just launder clothes every 5 days or so. Unless I’m packing my uniform w/boots there’s no need.
it’s not that I don’t travel much - it’s just that I don’t care to be inconvenienced by people who think that 5 minutes of their day is so super valuable that they need to inconvenience everyone else by bring stuffed-to-the-brim luggage on board. good for you that you don’t overstuff your luggage and do your laundry - most don’t.
and you’re flat out full of shit that checking luggage adds an extra hour to your trip.
If you’re not checking luggage and (important caveat) checked in online you can be at the departure airport noticeably later than usually recommended. Add the wait at baggage claim at the destination (which tends to vary and at some locations can really drag on) and I can see it happening on some routes.
It’s not the checking that takes so long, it’s the waiting in line to get to the checkers. One hour for a round trip is a half hour each way, which isn’t outside the realm of possibility. Took almost that long to check my bags when I flew out of DCA for the holidays.
So because you think that 5 minutes of your day is so super valuable, everyone else should not carry on anything and add an additional 15 to 30 minutes per flight to drop off and then get their stuff?
You want the world to operate for your convenience at everyone else’s expense.
Whenever I have checked bags, it has been significantly longer than 10 minutes to retrieve them after the flight. I consider getting my bags 20 minutes after deplaning to be a triumph of airport efficiency.
Checking bags adds time at the front end too. As I always seem to be playing TSA bingo (is today’s wait 4 min or 40 min?), a wait to check bags combined with a slow screening day means a missed flight (which pulls away from the gate on time, and I can watch it idle on the runway for 30 minutes…grrr).
which makes my bag all of 21.4 inches.