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Comment by dfxm12 | Hacker News Reader

Airlines should get more strict with regards to the overhead bin. Both with bag size and placement. Planes can probably fit a certain sized bag for everyone who brings one, but too many flyers seem to intentionally bring bigger bags or place them oddly so as not to share the space.

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In other words, it's too time consuming for flight attendants to do it for customers. Why? Because it's too time consuming.

All the more reason to remove disincentives from checking bags.

Honeestly the biggest reason I avoid checking bags is reliability. After you experience having a suitcase completely lost by an airline, it's hard to trust the system again.

Wow another issue that comes down to "Airplanes are packed with too many people"

The FAA can force airlines to dedicate about 1.5X the amount of space per person that they do today, and all of these stupid problems disappear. Airlines could even get away with the skeleton crew of airline staff that they use today with the reduced amount of people who'd be paying more per seat.

But, because we have to let far too many people fly, and because the FAA doesn't stop private companies from violating human rights with their airplane seat designs, we have to deal with this lunancy where anyone 6 feet and above has to assume a struggle position for in some cases 20+ hours (i.e. flights to Singapore) in a fully packed metal coffin.

Or maybe someone 6 foot tall should just pay the more expensive ticket with larger leg room. Why should someone 5 foot tall pay for your comfort.

Same with seat width. The only issues there are when a minority of passengers are so large they take up your seat, they should be removed from the flight.

In the anglo speaking world, that might turn out to be the majority of passengers.

The only place I ever got well priced business class flights of anywhere near 9+ hours were Japanese airlines, so maybe it is just because we are too tall!

Business class is 20x the price of economy (it should be no more than 4X and that should be taxpayer funded), isn't enough of the plane and is constantly sold out months before the flight on long flights.

"Premium economy" and similar doesn't give meaningful legroom improvements and is generally a scam.

The only option for tall people (not overweight) is exit rows which are also the first seats taken or the few "extra legroom" seats usually in the front of economy by the bathrooms. These seats are also taken months in advance.

Americans are tall because we are fed well. Our tallness is partly why we are so dominant during wartime. The world bends to our will, not the other way around.

We need widespread and popular "passenger revolts" to force the FAA to change policy. Make the lives of the airline executives hell and use political power to nationalize them yesterday. Privitization of the air was a massive mistake.

Business class should be taxpayer funded? I would love to hear the case for that.

I mean that air travel should be nationalized in general, with whatever losses come from offering subsidized business class (no more than 5X economy) being ate by the tax payer.

I’m sat in premium economy now, with plenty of legroom (39” pitch I believe) and width (2-4-2 rather than 3-4-3). Feels similar to the first class seat ton cruise was in in the first mission impossible film. Except without the smoking, and far cheaper.

Business class gives me a bed to sleep on, and first class is beyond that. That don’t exist in the 80s let alone 60s

Don't forget figuring out a way to tie overhead bin space to assigned seats to keep "overhead bin pirates" from storing their carryons in the front of the plane when their seats are in the back...

I guess I’m one of your pirates. Especially when I notice that most of the bins are closed near the back, where my seat usually is, I’ll use the first open space that I see. Bonus is that I don’t have to maneuver my suitcase as far. Drawback is that I have to keep an eye on things during deboarding: once I had to chase down some idiot who exited the plane with my bag. Why do you believe that people are supposed to use the bins next to their seats?

Well, for one thing, on many planes the space above FC and whatever their premium economy class is called is specifically labeled for use of passengers seated in those areas. For another, it's just common courtesy. I get if you are boarding late and there are only a few available bins but in my experience the bins at the back fill last not first, so you really should have no problem storing your bag near your seat.

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