My favorite but of airport-ese that emerged post-9/11 is that on most US airlines you can now have 1 carry-on and 1 personal item.

As far as I can tell the difference between them is that a personal item can't have wheels.

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malshe an hour ago | parent | next [-]

A couple of weeks back I was flying out of Chicago O'Hare. The guy in front of me had a carryon suitcase, a laptop bag, and a fanny pack attached to the carryon. The employee checking us in told him that the fanny pack was considered a second personal item. He had to remove it from the bag and wear it on him. Then it became part of his attire and that was A-OK.

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gabrielhidasy an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Usually the rule is that the personal item must fit under the seat in front of you, the carry-on may be a bit larger.

I have boarded with a wheeled carry-on + wheeled personal item (a backpack with wheels) in the past, but every time the gate agent tested the personal item for size.

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mikeocool an hour ago | parent [-]

I'm sure that's technically true -- but as long as your personal item doesn't have wheels they seem completely unconcerned with the size. I frequently travel with a duffel bag carry-on that goes in the overhead. On most flights they let me waltz onto the plane with it and a backpack long after they start forcing everyone to gate check their rollerboards.

They could also just say "only one carry-on can go in the overhead bin."

	▲	mrguyorama 23 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		The specific rule is that a personal item must be able to fit under the seat in front of you, in that space, without any sort of extension into the aisle. At most gates, I've seen the little boxes that are used to size test carry on luggage to also have a section to size test personal items. My experience is that it barely fits a large backpack with some books, snacks, and at least one 15 inch laptop. Carry on luggage can be much, much larger. > I frequently travel with a duffel bag carry-on that goes in the overhead Yes, that is one carry on luggage item, and one personal item. >They could also just say "only one carry-on can go in the overhead bin." No because you are not afforded two carry on luggage items. One item has to be small enough to fit under the seat in front of you.

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ceejayoz 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

My last four flights have each made me gate-check my carry-on at the jetway.

They could've saved a lot of time and labor by just letting me check it like I would have before they started charging $30-50 each way for it.

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mbreese an hour ago | parent | next [-]

That is the most counter-intuitive thing for me while flying. Why make me pay to check my bag? Make people pay to carry on a bag. Most of the time boarding and leaving a plane is taken up with people dealing with overhead bags. Checking a bag should be the cheapest option to incentivize people to be more efficient.

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jameshart an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Most flights on busy, small planes, where most passengers are wheeling chunky rollboards up, will offer complementary gate check for larger carry on bags. Often you can actually check such a bag for free at the bag check counter before security - even if your ticket does not include any checked baggage.

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ceejayoz an hour ago | parent [-]

Yes, I know, that's what I described. So why not a fee for carry-on - the actual limited resource on such a plane - and a free small checked bag to be efficiently and cheaply shepherded from the entrance all the way to the destination by staff and machines specialized to that?

This also allows me to actually plan for what I need on the plane versus what I don't, instead of an at-gate shuffle of medications and charger blocks from one bag to another.

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jameshart 29 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

My point is that that is the service you are getting from regional/express airlines these days. Some of them offer ‘personal item only’ basic tickets which means ‘carry ons’ are extra; and de facto ’carry ons’ are actually checked bags, because everyone knows they are going to offer complementary gate check – and it turns out you can in fact often just check the bag for free at check in. And of course this allows you to pack things in that bag that can go in the hold, but that you wouldn’t be allowed to take through security, like standard size toiletry bottles.

What’s weird is, I agree, the way it’s described and marketed. Carry on add-ons should be sold as ‘small checked bag’. As it is, if you know your carry on is going to be gate checked it’s easy to plan where you pack your lithium battery devices; if you don’t you’ll be doing the gate check shuffle.

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ceejayoz 27 minutes ago | parent [-]

> My point is that that is the service you are getting from regional/express airlines these days.

But it's unnecessarily implemented in a costly, inefficient, annoying way that makes the entire experience worse to no one's benefit.

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jameshart 15 minutes ago | parent [-]

See original post, I guess?

A lot of the constraints in how airlines can market service levels are imposed by the ticketing aggregation standards and how fares show up in searches. There are also issues with creating differences in luggage standards between regional and long haul flights because of through ticketing.

It’s probably more complicated than it looks from the outside, and all falls into the same problem of overall air travel inscrutability caused by the ‘it makes sense to the people who are in it but looks Byzantine from outside’ problems the original article here is complaining about.

	▲	ceejayoz 12 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I tend to doubt it's more complicated than it looks. It's a way to make more money off people for worse service, with the externalities going on people who can't do anything about it.

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mrguyorama 17 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

To me it implies that the $50 price for a checked bag is just free money to them, and that enough people end up using it anyway.

For people who travel for work, how often do you get a checked bag in your fare?

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leetrout an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

One of the best investments I ever made was the original Patagonia MLC wheelie. It stands for Maximum Legal Carry-on. They have a black hole version now which I am not familiar with but I assume is the same quality / usefulness. I had a few jobs where I commuted regularly on CRJ 200's and this bag fits in the overhead with no issue. The ability to pop out the straps and wear it like a backpack makes the gate agents much less concerned about the size.

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dooglius an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The personal item has to fit under the seat in front of you

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spogbiper an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

my personal item has wheels. but it also fits under the seat, which is the only thing the airlines seem to care about.

think of it as 1 item that goes in the overhead storage and 1 item that goes under the seat in front of you

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2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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