#overhead compartments

[julianworker]

Plane passengers may need to buy new suitcases in plan to shrink carry-on size

Airline industry announces new guidelines recommending smaller carry-on bags in effort to free up space in planes’ overhead bins

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[geezeralert]

On Being Annoyed

(The photo for this is posted separately. My attempts to upload photos are somehow not working. I hope Tumblr will help me solve this.) As I headed to retrieve my suitcase after a recent cross-country plane ride, my newly revived smartphone signaled an incoming text message. It was my West Coast son, asking if I had arrived. I texted back: “Just arrived. Waiting for luggage. Hour late. Hate all people.” Yes, that was my uppermost sentiment upon disembarking: Hate. All. People. The basis for my misanthropic spurt was, of course, my fellow passengers. Granted, I’ve already detailed my geezer-centric distaste for airline travel in a previous blog, almost exactly one year ago (Jan. 15, 2013). But the subject bears further ranting because it’s only gotten worse; the airlines’ extra fees and reduced seating space are bringing out the animal in their already-anxious customers. This time, though, I will just focus on two hyper-annoying aspects of modern-day flying — overbearing carry-on luggage and the pre-boarding gate crush — as part of an overall discourse on what one author calls “Life’s Little Annoyances.” The subtitle of that 2005 book by Ian Urbina was: “True Tales of People Who Just Can’t Take It Anymore.” The nine chapters of people-fighting-back tales took on one of my pet travel peeves — reclining seats that rest on the knees of tall travelers — but many airlines reportedly are replacing that annoyance with a worse one: They are disabling the seat’s recline so they can reduce the space between seats enough to add another whole row. Cramming people into even tighter spaces will only cause more tension, of course, but at least it will help passengers bond with their carry-on luggage, which currently is in the midst of a population explosion. The cause of the carry-on mess evidently is the extra charge airlines began assessing in recent years for checked luggage. But even on JetBlue, which is my airline of choice (for its extra legroom option) and only charges for a second checked bag, carry-ons are a nuisance. On the flight that stirred my disdain for mankind, I was in the third row and among those who paid for the privilege of boarding early. Even then, by the time I got to my seat, all of the overhead compartments in rows 1-4 were taken — I mean, packed, crammed and stuffed with suitcases that mostly hit the maximum allowable size limit (mine is about one third of that). I deposited my small bag (containing mostly items I would need if my luggage is lost or if the plane is forced to land somewhere outside its scheduled destination, requiring an overnight stay in a motel) in a compartment just past row 4. When I prepared to leave, I found that my bag had been moved and stuffed behind another bag. I was informed of this by several aged passengers, who somehow knew exactly which bag was mine and where it had been deposited. They acted annoyed that I was rummaging around the overhead compartments, trying to find my bag. That really bothered me. These people evidently had moved my bag to either fit their own luggage or move them into more convenient locations, knowing they would be inconveniencing me (remember, they knew my bag’s location) — and then being testy when I was inconvenienced. The base problem in the situation is the newly ramped-up competition for space in the overhead compartments. For one thing, it has led more people to buy the early-boarding, extra-legroom option on JetBlue. It wasn’t too long ago that I was among maybe a few dozen people willing to pay for this, primarily to get the room needed for my 6-foot-2 frame. On my recent flight, there was a line-up of several dozen people crowding the terminal gate, antsy to rush the check-in attendant as soon as boarding began. Only a few were tall enough to need “extra legroom.” The rest must have paid for the “extra speed” benefit of the added fee. Granted, there always has been a strange mob scene converging on the check-in counter in the minutes before boarding starts. While only a few will go first (depending on seat location), many people line up with tickets at the ready, often having to be directed by the boarding attendants to move out of the way for those whose turn it is to actually get on the plane. But the new explosion of massive carry-ons has added to this pre-flight nervousness. Now that crowd at the check-in counter has doubled in size — many of them older persons of the type I described in previous blogs, possessing limited patience and pleasantness — and tripled in intensity. In “Life’s Little Annoyances,” each minor irritation cited by the author is accompanied by a suggestion or two for dealing with it. Unfortunately, I can only urge airlines to recognize the problem and study solutions. I’m just not certain of all the ins and outs of the situation. My first inclination would be to cut the allowance size of carry-ons by half, but heaven knows the public relations problems that would cause. Taking a large piece of luggage on a plane evidently is a very big deal for a lot of people, whether to avoid baggage claim, prevent baggage loss or get around the baggage fees. But it’s simply not necessary, in my opinion. If the size of carry-ons must remain unchanged, the next-best move would be better controlling the crowds at the gates and the allotment of the overhead compartments. I realize flight attendants already have their hands full. They need to stay on passengers to quickly get their items in the compartments, get out of the aisles and keep their winter coats on their laps while paying close attention to various other boarding needs, security concerns or potential snafus. But closer attention needs to be paid to having the overhead area directly over a passenger’s seat free for that person’s needs. I believe getting that under control would ease the attendants’ job considerably. Perhaps a separate boarding ticket can be issued to reserve that space. I mean, shouldn’t each compartment over a row or two be enough for the passengers underneath? Wouldn’t insuring passengers are using the compartments above their seats ease ingress and egress from the plane? It should be a free ticket but, of course, airlines likely would try and use reserved compartments as another revenue stream. Fine. The alternative is the free-for-all we now have, with some paying customers getting the shaft because some other paying customers have chosen to push the limits of acceptable luggage size and, in the process, rudely demand more space on the plane than a normal person should need. Out at the gate, the airlines need to come up with a boarding system that does a much better job of tamping down anxiety and promoting calmness and order. The boarding plan currently used (start with elite customers, the disabled and young children then work forward from the back of the plane) has to be reflected in how passengers gather. So how do you control human nature, which evidently drives people to cheat and push and otherwise react poorly to line-up pressure? You just do. They’re in your space. Put controls in place, even if it’s a terminal seating plan or refusal to start boarding unless everyone is seated. Of course, if there could be a guarantee that all would have a conveniently located overhead compartment, as described in my plan above, I do believe a lot of the nervousness would disappear. Whew. I did not intend at the outset to sound off at such length on this one topic but once I got started . . . I had wanted to throw in a few more “little annoyances” but now I’ll just throw in one: my hatred of tailgating — the traffic violation, not the pre-game party. I see tailgaters everyday and I marvel at how motorists continually can put themselves in that dangerous, unnecessary and annoying — to the point of being harassment — position. A quick internet search found this quote from “The Albany Attorney” blogger Warren Redlich: “Here's what I know as a traffic lawyer and a personal injury lawyer: following too closely is the most common cause of traffic accidents. You will often read statistics that say speed is a factor in some large percentage of accidents. Baloney. I was a trial lawyer for one of the largest auto insurers for over three years, then law clerk to a judge handling a number of car accident cases, and now have my own practice where I still handle car accident cases.” Perhaps, then, this should not really be included under the rubric of “life’s little annoyances.” It’s too serious and it’s against the law. But if established attorneys like Redlich are campaigning against it — that quote was from a December 2006 post — and still the practice continues, I guess nothing I can say or write will make any difference.

[musebaz-blog]

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