After airlines started to crack down on stowed luggage by making it more and more expensive to bring on shorter flights, the issue of plane overhead space has become even more pressing.
It is not uncommon for gate agents to ask those with larger carry-on bags to check them for free at the last minute because overhead space inside the cabin has run out while several travel surveys found that issues around overhead storage (in particular, not being able to fit one's bag while a line is forming behind you or having to place it too far away from one's seat) is a significant source of travel anxiety for many.
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The issue recently came to a head in a viral TikTok video around overhead storage etiquette that quickly went viral and gathered more than 3.6 million views in a few days.
@dxnielbennett straight to jail #airport #travel #goodpeople
♬ original sound - Daniel Bennett
'They're a good person and they're aware of their surroundings'
"The easiest way to tell if someone is a good person or not is to see where they put their luggage when they get on a plane," influencer Daniel Bennett told his 500,000-plus followers. "If they put their carry-on luggage in the overhead compartment and they put their personal item like their backpack or their purse under their seat, they're a good person and they're aware of their surroundings."
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The issue, Bennett explains in the video, comes down to those who place smaller items such as coats, shopping bags and laptop cases into the overhead compartment and leave no room for larger carry-on suitcases that cannot fit anywhere else. Most airlines have a standard carry-on suitcase limit of 22 x 14 x 9 inches but, with more travelers choosing to forgo checked baggage to avoid ever-increasing fees, many planes often do not have enough room for everybody's items.
As a result, flight attendants then start asking volunteers to start checking their carry-on bags. While some travelers expect this and even purposefully pack their carry-on to the brim to get it checked, others have things that they do not want going with checked baggage.
The type of baggage behavior that deserves a 'jail sentence for life'
"If [travelers] put their backpack or their purse or that little small item, then no one else can put their carry-on luggage on and they have to check it and wait by baggage claim to get their stuff," Bennett said while joking adding that these are "the worst type of person that deserve a jail sentence for life."
Bennett's stance on overhead etiquette proved pretty controversial — one traveler said that his backpack is often his only carry-on luggage while another argued that one does not "own the overhead compartment" just because they brought bigger carry-on luggage.
Others argued that this situation was created largely by airlines squeezing passengers with baggage fees — by making it cheaper to check luggage, they would free up space in the cabin.
"If I check my only suitcase, I get an overhead space for my backpack," the influencer behind the @travelwithjason account wrote. "I'll die on that hill. The real criminals are seat recliners and early standers."
