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Comment by trentnix | Hacker News Reader

Yeah, it's a mess but it's all because the incentives are wrong. If you've got an exit row aisle, there's not much advantage to getting on quickly and orderly. And if you do have a middle seat in the back, what's the point of getting in a hurry to get on board?

The Southwest cattle car style works better than anything else I've seen. Sure, it sucks to be one of the last boarders and be sentenced to a middle seat in the back, but that's something that can be fixed if you're better organized and more punctual next time you fly.

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Ever since airlines started charging for checked bags, there's a significant incentive to board early no matter your seating, since the overhead bins universally fill up about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way into boarding.

I’ve been on several airlines over the past few years and not once have I been charged to check my bag at the gate once they ran out of space. Sometimes they ask for volunteers.

It's not about the money, it's about the annoyance of having to check a bag when you don't need to.

I'm always skeptical of this assertion. My observation is that business travelers tend not to check luggage because they're often on shorter trips, know how to pack lightly, and don't want to spend the extra time on every one of their many trips. This in spite of the fact that they can expense the cost if they even need to pay because of loyalty programs.

When you see the people checking seemingly all their worldly possessions, it's mostly families.

I don't doubt there's some effect at the margins but people mostly just prefer to carry-on if they can.

To be perfectly honest, I don't actually have a strong recollection of how much charging for checked bags changed things. In any case though, it's universally my observation that (in the pre-COVID world anyway) there's far too little carry on space to go around.

Definitely too little space to go around.

I partly blame roll-a-boards. They take up more space and are less flexible than soft luggage.

I also think that in the "old" days, carry-on garment bags notwithstanding, business travelers were far more inclined to check because they needed a lot more clothing to be properly dressed. I used to check luggage when I traveled on business. I haven't done so, barring unusual circumstances (gear for personal travel or commercial materials), in well over a decade.

I fly southwest, and its free to gatecheck your bag if the bins fill up on a full flight. Are other airlines different in that regard?

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