Carry-On Rules

My briefcase is not big at all; it is rather small as a matter of fact. It is actually a small, soft-sided, laptop case, so that tells you how big it is – or how small it is in this instance. Well, on a flight last week, I put my briefcase, which was the only carry-on bag I had, in the overhead bin above my seat. Some minutes later, an attendant ordered over the loudspeaker for everyone with big bags to put them in the overhead bins, and for everyone with small bags to put them under the seat in front of them. I ignored him, and after a minute or two, he came over to me and told me I would have to move my briefcase from the overhead bin and put it under the seat in front of me. I replied that since I had a valid ticket, I should be entitled to use as much overhead space as anyone else. I asked him why I, who was carrying a small bag, should have to be more uncomfortable than I otherwise would be, just so some other person could haul in a blimp of a bag and yet receive preference for the overhead bins.

He didn’t answer that. He just said, “You do know that you have to obey what the attendants say to do, or get thrown off the airplane, don’t you?” So, I gave up and said, okay, hand it down. But he let it go, and my briefcase stayed where it was. Elaine stated later that I would never win the “it’s not fair” argument (even though I apparently had won it on this one particular time), because the airlines decreed the policies, and they didn’t care about fair, and the attendants just did what they were told to do in order to keep their jobs. She said that I would be far more likely get my way by informing the attendants that I was an old man suffering from severe neuropathy and very poor blood circulation in my legs and that I needed to stretch them out, which a briefcase under the seat in front of me would prevent me from doing – all of which would be true.

Well, of course Elaine was right, generally speaking, but, my legs aside, I’ll tell you that this thing of the airlines giving people with big bags preference over people with small bags really bugs me. It got me to thinking, what if, for example, someone packed his small briefcase inside one of the largest allowable carry-on bags? He could put his briefcase in the bin above him without receiving any hassle from an attendant. Moreover, if a lot of other people started doing the same thing, the airlines might eventually adopt a fairer policy. One policy that would be fairer than the current one would be for the airlines just to reduce the maximum size of a carry-on bag that anyone is allowed to have and to diligently enforce that decision.