I don't understand that opening at all. We all want to get on so we get space in the overhead bins, don't we? Maybe he just never has a bag, but the reason should be obvious regardless.
If you have a garment bag, I suppose that's a consideration, but I remember there always being "lay on top" free space in the overheads, even if full of bags.
Besides you can’t put stuff under seat in the exit row.
Depends. The bag can be under the seat in front, pulled up next to your own seat, or even in your lap. If it's under the seat it can be squished up, down, or sideways. If it's too big or overstuffed for that, then you can take one or two things out, or you can check a larger bag to keep the in-cabin one small. Not saying you should have to, but those are all viable alternatives to fighting for overhead space. I'm 6'2" with long legs for my height and I'm not young either, so I do know the struggle, but I used to travel quite a bit on six- and even ten-hour flights and I never felt like putting stuff overhead was an absolute necessity.
That's a lot further than just stretching in the aisle..
I'm on the taller side and I apologize for any inconvenience, but I really do need to stretch. Those coast to coast flights will leave me paralyzed for days otherwise.
I think most are doing it for the overhead space, which leads to my misunderstanding. Why did they charge for checked bags. Its the more time-consuming option, who would pay for that.
they should be charging for overhead and offering checked bags for free. Pay for the time-saving
I'd guess it's for two primary reasons. 1: it takes workers to load and unload checked bags. Contrast to overhead where you are doing the work. 2: checked bags are pretty much unlimited. You can have several huge ones.
For some reason I was also under the impression that a checked bag was actually opened up and rummaged thru as well, hence the word "checked", but maybe I've just been misunderstanding?
No. Some people don't much care for the overhead-bin battle, bringing only under-seat baggage for shorter trips or under-seat plus checked for longer ones.
I always board as late as possible. Why sit in a hot/cold/stuffy plane while people jostle all around you?
As for getting my bag faster if it was gate-checked, how does that happen? Every time I've been gate-checked, my luggage ends up down in baggage claim the same as if I had regular-checked it. The only luggage that has met me at the gate has been a stroller.
Maybe I'm just flying cheap airlines, but I'll take first on and sitting in a stuffy plane over the chance of disaster and standing in the terminal any day of the week. You're waiting the same amount of time either way wherever you are.
But hey, your yin and my yang work great together, so you do you!
Because I can get lost in my book and not worry about missing anything. YMMV (mine does).
Popular business routes will always have full overhead bins, so you either check your luggage, bring a week-bag that you can fit under the seat, or get on early and get the overhead space.
Personally, I prefer to travel light so always wait until the last second to board. But that also depends on the cabin - if you’re at all above average height it’s absolute hell to fly in general, even worse when your limited leg room has a backpack.
Which is the same thing that happens with shrinkflation in packaging: the "half gallon" of ice cream that is actually missing 20% can be priced lower than the full half gallon. You don't have to fool everyone but just enough to raise your market share a little with your deceptively "lower" prices.
No. Overhead bins are terrible and bad. It baffles me that anyone would want to fight for overhead bin space. It's a terrible game, and the winning move is not to play.
I always gate-check my luggage if it won't fit under the seat in front of me.
That's not a given. At least as many times as not, I've gate-checked luggage and had to pick it up at baggage claim with everyone else.
Valet Checked bags use pink/red tags and are supposed to be returned on the jetway. It is supposed to be impossible for these bags not to be returned planeside, and are not supposed to get intermingled with the normally checked baggage. In practice I've seen this not work out first hand, with the bag ending up in baggage claim. (I've seen others say the same thing happened to them too. I suspect some airports actually have baggage handling set up to check for these if they get "into the system", and forward them to baggage claim, as the safest option.)
Obviously the easiest is if you've only got a small bag and can fit it under the seat, in which case this question becomes moot -- but when you do need a bigger piece of luggage for whatever reason, gate-checking isn't such an obvious win.
The good news is that if you travel a lot, you probably have status, and so you are one of the first to get on the plane.
I've watched the gate checked bags thrown down the chute, and missed, one too many times to ever gate check anything. Maybe a duffel bag of clothes, where nothing can break on the fall, but nothing else.
Same with standing up once we pull into the gate btw. 95% of people shoot out of their chairs the instant the seatbelt sign turns off, which is still 5-10 minutes from actual deplaning. I'm sure some of them are looking to stretch, but 95% of them? Even funnier are the middle and window passengers standing, but ducking under the luggage compartment at an uncomfortable angle.
That uncomfortable angle is often less uncomfortable than the seat is at that point.
Get on board, have a champagne, look at the menu, give the IFE a cursory glance to see if there any interesting new releases on