On a flight to EWR last night, the GAs repeatedly announced that the plane had to take on extra fuel to fly a longer route that avoided the east coast storms. This meant that the flight was weight restricted and no more bags could be checked. This in turn meant that pax had to “keep backpacks under the seat so the carryons would fit in the overheads”.

Well my problem is that I often ONLY fly with just a very large backpack that does not fit under the seats. It does, however, qualify as a carry on and I had no other bag—no personal item, no checked bag—on the whole plane. (I am also tall so it is just not going to work to dedicate that space to luggage.)

Well sure enough near the end of boarding both the FA and GA come by and ask whose backpack it was and told me I needed to put it under the seat. I get this request repeatedly and it does annoy me every time because it feels like getting punished for bringing less baggage than everyone else. But I took a breath and explained as nicely as possible “That bag is too big to fit under the seat. It is not a personal item, it is a carry on, and it is the only bag I have on the plane. It needs to stay in the overhead.” And, amazingly, they relented, nicely.

If they want to get serious about fitting carry ons in the overheads, they need to start cracking down on folks who bring multiple carry ons or large personal items, and stop targeting folks who actually bring less than everyone else.