Why is it that airlines say that carry-ons can only be certain dimensions, and then when you get

[raccoon]

on the plain with your regulation-sized carry-on, you see other people with steamer trunks?

Happens every time I fly. What gives? Anybody here ever work for an airline?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. I used to work for an airline, but not at that part of it.

However, I did fly a lot, and I did see flight attendants tell passengers that they'd have to check their bags (meaning, it would have to be tagged and sent "downstairs" to be loaded into the baggage compartment). I recall one passenger getting up on his high horse and protesting that he shouldn't have to do that because he was a first-class passenger, but the FA sent his bag downstairs anyhow.

I think what might happen is that because the gate agents are under a lot of pressure to get the flight off on time, rather than take a delay to deal with oversize bags they sometimes just let them through.

[raccoon]

2. That sounds reasonable. nt

[BlueJazz]

3. I fly quite a lot and let me tell you, I'm fed up with these jerks that haul their,,,

...huge bags of crap onto planes, take up the WHOLE sections that are for 3-4 people....and then get pissed off if they're confronted with it.

If it were up to me, if the huge over-size bag/trunk or whatever was brought aboard the plane, the flight attendants would promptly carry it out to the shredder.

If you think I'm being harsh, fly with these pricks for awhile.
Your "right-size" bags get smashed, broken and crushed by these SOB's.

[TeamPooka]

6. I'm going to switch seats so you get stuck next to the crying baby. nt

[BlueJazz]

8. Sometimes I DO get stuck with a screaming child. I usually just turn to the parents and say:

"Perhaps the lad would be happier somewhere else...like on the wing ?"

(No..not really...I just endure it 'cause I realize that it's no picnic for them either)

[alarimer]

4. I've found an easy way around the checked-bag fees.

I simply wait until I get to the gate. Since most flights are full, they often ask for volunteers to check their bags and I usually do it. It saves me the fees and keeps me from having to haul it around.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

5. Yep. Best of both worlds.

Happened to us the last to trips. Free baggage check!

[awoke_in_2003]

7. For some reason...

I am thinking of that scene from Meet the Parents.

[michreject]

9. Must have something to do

with "The rain in Spane."

[mainer]

10. Yet once I was stopped for having a laptop case, a purse, and a 12-oz bottle of water.

Because that bottle of water (purchased in an airport shop, in a plastic bag) constituted a "third carry-on." When I gave the gate agent an incredulous look, she ordered me to the back of the line and told me I wouldn't be allowed to board until I combined my "three carry-ons" into two. So I stuffed the bottle of water in my purse and she let me board. But not before she berated me in front of the whole line of passengers.

Later one of the passengers told me she was so intimidated by what happened to me, she frantically stuffed her sweater into her backpack, so she wouldn't get stopped for having a third carry-on.

[kairos12]

11. I read recently that airline workers call

people who hang around the Gate waiting to rush it for limited overhead space "Gate Lice." Also, the passengers who get wheeled onto the plane on wheel chairs and then magically run off the plane at their destination are called "Miracle Passengers."

[pinboy3niner]

12. ...