Then and now

Everyone who has flown on airliners before has seen people like this. I mean, okay, sometimes you make a bad call on how much carry-on luggage you can bring, especially if you’re not an experienced flyer. But I’ve seen people trying to shove 70 cm long items into 50 cm deep overhead compartments more than once, and it just boggles my mind on what kind of visual judgement some people have. Or do they expect the outer hull of the aircraft to yield?

To be honest, I’ve also tried to check in with a ridiculous amount of carry-on luggage before. That was on the flight home, after my first longer stay abroad, when I was young, dumb, broke, and underestimated the amount of crap that can accumulate in just half a year of living somewhere. I have no idea how I managed to get on two airplanes that day with an overweight backback and two guitars. But I suspect that I wouldn’t be able to pull that off nowadays!

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5 comments on “Then and now
  1. Catapult says:

    Not funny – just a realistic portrayal. But what I really hate is that they won’t (can’t?) tell you the baggage allowances and charges unless you buy your ticket directly from the airline.

  2. warbirdali says:

    That has become pretty commonplace now, best part is when it is a small commuter plane that won’t take their 50lb carry on in the first place and it has to be stowed. One thing that recently did leave me (literally ) gasping was a woman 2 seats in front doing her nail polish, with probably the stinlkiest nail polish ever invented. I am pretty sure FAA regs should ban flammable stuff like that in the cabin and if not how inconsiderate do you have to be to pull a stunt like that? I always do MY nails in the lav….ahem…..

  3. JP Kalishek says:

    I’m thinking almost all the fools I work with are this type of person.

  4. JKelley says:

    What I would always end up with was the arse that figured the whole overhead bin was his, and packed accordingly.

    Then would demand that I remove my (reasonably-sized) carryon bag from the overhead.

    “No, but thank you for asking.”

    I once got the “Do you know who I am?” speech – I liked my response. I stood up…

    “Attention! Attention in the cabin, please! We have a man here who has NO IDEA who he is! If any of you can present helpful information, it would be greatly appreciated!”

    The cabin crew got a HUGE charge out of that, and I think he ended up getting reassed to a seat where no-one was using the overhead – in Steerage Class…

    Me? I got free drinks & dinner all over the flight, and one of the stewardesses asked me out (I had a 7-hour layover, so I was only too happy to accept! “Layover,” indeed…)

    Maybe I’ve just got a prejudiced opinion – I can live for three months out of a duffelbag…

  5. Christine says:

    I tend to have trouble estimating volumes at the best of times, and with the fact that different bins shrink different amounts when they close, have a lot of trouble with carry-on.

    On my last trip (two small children, we were only allowed to buy 3 seats for the 4 of us, toddler-on-lap was mandatory), I had a hard time with the fact that my bag was too small. We had packed such that of our carry-on and personal item allowance, 5 of the 6 items were personal item sized, but we could only manage to get 4 of them under the seats. It kept being assumed that I’d tossed the bag up there for legroom, rather than because I had a small carry-on.

    (There was no practical way to do fewer large bags, because we needed to use backpacks so that we could carry all our bags at the other end.)

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