Carry-on rules for the clueless

Don’t thwomp. You and your shoulder bag are no doubt wider than an airplane aisle. Carry your bags in front of you as you head to your seat to avoid smacking the heads of already seated passengers.  Wouldn’t it be awkward if one of the people you thwomped turned out to be your seatmate?

Fuss before you fly. Ignore the blaring TV set in the gate area. Instead, use dwell time to organize the books, magazines, paperwork and gadgets you’ll want to have handy at your seat. Then, once you board the airplane you’ll be able to settle in quickly and avoid holding up other passengers trying to reach their seats.

Don’t be a bin hog.  On most planes, rolling bags really do take up less space if stored wheels first. Coats and jackets are best laid on top or around your luggage, not spread out across half of the bin. And no, it is not OK to put your bag in the bin over seat 12-A if you’re seated in row 33-D.  If you can’t carry your bag to your assigned seat, you should just check it.

Don’t push it:  Don’t argue with the flight attendant who decides that your obviously oversized carry-on bag needs to go into the belly of the plane with the other checked baggage. In addition to their many other skills, these crew members have seen and heard it all and know what will or won’t fit in a storage bin.

Don’t be fooled: You may think the flight attendants didn’t notice that guy who left his oversized bag jutting out over seat 12-A while he headed back to seat 33-D, but they probably did. One flight attendant tells me she and her co-workers “make good use of the boarding process to size up the passengers. It's during these situations that we see who will be the problem passengers.”

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Don’t be that problem passenger: If the bins are too full and carry-on bags must be checked, guess whose bags flight attendants will likely jettison first?  “We really don't want to make someone check their bag. Unless, of course, they've been rude or resisted our advice for solutions.”

Or maybe left their oversized bag in a storage bin over seat 12-A and then thwomped their way back to seat 33-D.

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