Airline Passenger Says Flight Attendants Should Have To Check Their Bags To Leave More Room In The Overhead Bins
Flight crews quickly put her in place with all the reasons they can't check their bags.
Hispanolistic | Getty Images Signature | Canva Pro There are no two ways about it these days — flying is a nightmare, and having to fight often for overhead bin space is one of the chief things that makes it so annoying. Why can't there be enough overhead space for everyone to bring a carry-on?!
But, when one passenger posted her hot take on how to solve this problem, it did not go over well with flight crews.
The passenger said flight attendants should have to check their bags.
It's one of the most infuriating parts of flying — nearly every airline charges extortionate baggage fees, which all but force you to figure out how to pack an entire trip's worth of stuff in a tiny carry-on bag.
But unless you've paid a DIFFERENT kind of fee to get on the plane first or sit in a more expensive class, you pretty much always face the possibility that there won't be any overhead bin space, and you'll have to check your bag anyway — often for a fee! It's truly one of the industry's most diabolical scams, and in a functioning country, it would be illegal, but that's a whole other story.
Anyway! One disgruntled passenger online has had quite enough of this racket and took to social media to post her hot take on what she thinks the REAL crux of the problem is: flight attendants and pilots hogging all the overhead bin space with their bags.
The passenger said flight attendants and pilots are the reason there's never enough overhead bin space.
In her post, the woman shared a photo taken in an airport of two flight attendants standing in line with big stacks of their luggage. Each appeared to have three different bags they were lugging through the airport.
"Anyone who has ever traveled, the concern is 'will there be room for my carry-on bag,'" the woman wrote in the since-deleted post. "It has become a pain, I think, for every traveler out there." No denying that.
But then her post took a turn into the ridiculous. "This answers your question," she wrote in reference to the photo of the flight attendants' luggage. "As I was walking to my seat, I noticed that 'their' luggage was up in the overhead bins here and there all through the overhead space." Right… because they… are working on the plane and need their luggage?
That point seemed to be missed by the poster, however. "And you wonder why there is no room for yours," she sniped, then issued a directive for all flight attendants. "One seat, one bag. Check it like we have to." It did not go over well.
Flight attendants were quick to point out that they had no choice but to use the overhead bins.
I hate flying as much as the next person but at no point has it ever crossed my mind that the source of the problem is the people charged with keeping me safe while being berated by passengers who treat them like glorified cocktail waitresses. I tend to blame the corporate greed of the airlines for making the dumb baggage rules in the first place. But that's just me!
It turns out, though, there's a lot more context that makes this woman's hot take even sillier — because, as flight attendants were quick to explain in a Facebook post, they often have no choice but to carry-on.
For starters, they frequently end up running from one flight to the next, so there's no time for the baggage claim (unless you want your flight delayed, of course). Crewmembers pointed out this is especially true of discount airlines, which tend to have tighter turnaround times.
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Flight attendants also explained they often have to carry extra clothes because of extended trips or flying between different climates. But on top of that, part of the reason they have all that luggage? As one flight attendant put it on Facebook, "If passengers only knew how much of my bag is actually stuff for them lol."
From extra reading lights to grabber tools for when passengers drop something under the seats, flight attendants listed all kinds of accoutrements they carry specifically for passengers. "I even have a mop to dry the floor when it rains.... And I'm not joking," another added.
And, of course, the thanks they get for these gestures are often getting yelled at by those same passengers — or dragged on social media, in this case. Seems like the lesson here is to let the flight attendants manage the plane and direct your ire at the people in charge of the usurious baggage rules, not the hard-working people tasked with keeping you alive. Food for thought!
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.