The Baggage Situation

One of the largest problems with modern day air travel, and one which we all have observed with increasing anxiety, is the baggage situation. Gone are the days when we could check two pieces of luggage for free, and where your carry on consisted of a daypack to transport a book, magazine, or your favorite stuffed animal. Overhead bins were once cavernous compartments where you had to be careful how you placed your shoulder bag, placing it appropriately so that the contents wouldn’t spill out when the bag shifted on takeoff—often times it was the only bag in the entire compartment. There was never any question of a bag not fitting, simply because people didn’t carry on as much stuff. It was much easier to check your bulky suitcase and forget about it until you got to your destination. (God willing that it actually made it to your destination, that is…)

But those days are gone. Now, most airlines charge for baggage check—at first it was only the second bag, and passengers were still allotted one free checked bag. Soon, however, the airlines began charging for all checked bags. Granted, there are some deals with credit cards and membership rewards that grant one free checked bag, and the first checked bag is usually considerably less than the second bag, but the name of the game in the airline industry is: FEES. Lots of them. Fees for checked bags. Fees for reservations/cancellations. Fees for food and drink onboard the plane. Maybe soon we will have to pay to use the bathroom…heaven forbid what the passenger response to that will be. Depends? And yes, I do mean adult diapers. A simple explanation for these fees is this: airline fares have not increased enough to match inflation—a typical cross-country fare today is several hundred dollars less than what it should be given what that exact same route sold for in the early 1980s. Everything else has become more expensive—meals in restaurants, gas, hotel charges—just not airline fares, not enough anyway to match the rate of inflation. Also, with the rise of low-cost carriers, fare wars have erupted between the different airlines to keep those planes in the air, and to keep the airline in business. With rising fuel costs and a stalemate in fare augmentations, the solution became imminent: fees. And those fees are working. With them, airlines are better able to cover operating costs while still keeping their fares relatively low. Baggage fees alone are grossing air carriers millions of dollars every year. Therefore, long story short: airline fees are here to stay and can only get worse with time.

Because of the ever-increasing fees for checked baggage, the carry-on bag situation is becoming dire. Once empty overhead bins are now filled to the max, with closure latches straining against the load. Sometimes we cannot even get every carry on bag into the overhead bins and are forced to check those bags, albeit free of charge, much to the chagrin of frustrated passengers. Such frustration is justifiable; times are rough and money is tight. Nobody wants to pay fees if they don’t have to, and so the solution is a back breaking one: cram a trip’s worth of clothes, toiletries, etc. into a carry-on sized roll-a-board suitcase, limit one. Now there are ‘acceptable’ size dimensions for carry-ons, but it seems that the policing of such dimensions have disappeared entirely; those handy ‘Does it Fit?’ bag sizing boxes at the gate are seemingly just for show. To add insult to injury, most bags are designed with a handy zip out pouch, effectively increasing the depth of the suitcase by several inches. Unfortunately, when one does this, the bag is no longer an acceptable carry-on size and won’t fit into the overhead bins without some serious coercion. I’ve seen people all but hammer their bags into the overhead bin—never mind the fact that if they break the bin, the plane won’t be going anywhere until repairs are made, which could mean a cancelled flight. Plus, those bins have weight restrictions. I have never seen one collapse, but anything is possible and I would hate to be on a plane when an overhead bin implodes due to excessive overloading.

It may sound egotistical, but I must say that I have become somewhat of an expert on packing an overhead bin in an efficient manner. Passengers continually ignore flight attendants’ and agents’ pleas to place their bags wheels or handles towards the aisle to accommodate more bags or to place their second bag under the seat in front of them; but damn I’m good at making it work, nonetheless. It is a personal glory to pack that sucker well, and to prove to a skeptical passenger that I can, indeed, get their bag into that bin and make it close securely. It’s the little things, after all.

Boarding can be a fairly stressful thing for flight attendants and passengers alike, a kind of war for bag proximity. Everyone wants their bags in the bin near their seat, even claiming that someone ‘stole’ their overhead bin. I hate to tell you people, but you purchased, no, rented that seat for this flight and the overhead bin space is just an add-on. No one has specific ownership over any one overhead bin; it is literally a free-for-all, and typically the early arriving individuals (or the premium passengers) win out—survival of the fittest, in a way. I’ve seen people nearly take down another passenger, or yours truly, in an effort to win the best overhead real estate. Arguments arise, and people are ready to do battle. And of course they turn to me. Now, if I have learned one thing from this job, it’s that you really have to pick your battles. Sure, I could try to force every passenger who has placed more than one item in the overhead bin to share their space or to place smaller bags underneath their seat, but I have learned that an angry passenger (or an entire herd of them) is not a fun situation on a long flight, and makes everything that much harder. So when you assume that your flight attendants don’t care, think again…we do care, but we also value our lives and sanity.

Now, while it is true that passenger carry-on luggage has turned a bit excessive, they are not the only culprits. People in the airline industry, themselves, have begun to carry-on more and more. And I’m talking about flight attendants. Flight attendants, not all, but a surprisingly large number, believe that they have to pack for the possibility of a nuclear fall out during their trip. Sure, some might be packing for multiple trips in a row, and many have been stranded in places for days due to weather or mechanical cancellations, but most flight attendants don’t really need half the crap they cram into their suitcases. For example, I was flying a turnaround (one leg out and one leg back in the course of a day) and the flight attendant with me (also from Atlanta) had a huge roll-aboard filled to the brim, a ‘tote’ bag large enough to carry a pygmy elephant, a lunch bag the size of most tote bags, and her purse, again large enough to fit 3 years worth of makeup and other odds and ends. When I asked her why she wanted to carry around so much stuff, she replied that there was always the possibility of a reroute (we could be sent to another destination or have our trip extended) and she wanted to be prepared. When asked what was in her bag, she replied…”only the essentials: beach ware, winter ware, a parka, a nightclub outfit, food in case the airport suddenly went into famine, a variety of shoes to match any occasion, etc. etc. etc. Holy Crikey! All this for a one-day trip! And all of this crap went into the overhead bin, further limiting our available baggage space. Oh, and those bags were heavy—she could barley lift them, which is often the case with some of our more, ahem, senior flight attendants, and, of course, she wanted to know if I would lift them for her…uh, hell to the no lady!

So, as you can see the bag situation is getting bad…really bad. Baggage fees will probably continue to increase, and the overhead bins will continue to be jammed full. Every time I see a bag larger than me carried on to the plane, I cringe in empathy for those poor overhead bins, and pray that the sucker doesn’t give out mid-flight. I beg you please, reader, check the bag. Pay the fifteen bucks and give your back a rest.