Source: Wall St. Journal
Author: Avery Johnson

With Flights Full, Airlines Try To Enforce Carry-On Limits; Cramming In a Stuffed Giraffe

In this summer of record crowds on planes, it can be tough to snare a seat. It can be even tougher to find overhead space for your carry-on bag.

The fight for space in the overhead bin is leading to a rash of bad behavior and angry standoffs between travelers and rules-enforcing flight attendants -- and between fellow travelers.

With planes flying at record capacities, even if travelers kept to the standard one-bag-plus-one-personal-item limit, they would still find trouble storing their things. But the space crunch is being exacerbated by fliers worried that summer travel delays and snafus will lead to lost checked bags. Now they are trying to sneak more stuff on board with them. And some travelers are causing near-brawls by defying the generally accepted rule that you should put your bag in the spot above your seat.

Airlines are beginning to crack down. In July, British Airways began firmly enforcing its carry-on policy. AMR Corp.'s American Airlines says it is enforcing its carry-on rule -- one bag plus one extra item, like a purse or a laptop -- more closely than in years past. Indeed, both American and UAL Corp.'s United Airlines have recently sent internal directives to their gate agents and flight attendants telling them to be stricter about carry-ons on full flights.

Richard Ginkowski, who flies frequently as part of his hobby photographing wildlife, recently saw a passenger trying to shove a five-foot-high stuffed giraffe into a bin before a flight between Atlanta and Sarasota, Fla.

Still, fliers are finding that their fellow travelers are cramming more stuff -- and more bizarre stuff -- into the overhead bins. Richard Ginkowski, who flies frequently as part of his hobby photographing wildlife, recently saw a passenger trying to shove a five-foot-high stuffed giraffe into a bin before a flight between Atlanta and Sarasota, Fla. The flight attendant was "very flustered" and "visibly perturbed." Ultimately, "after much huffing and puffing," he says, the flight attendant managed to squeeze the toy into an extra long overhead bin, rendering that area unusable for other passengers nearby. "I just can't imagine how they got that through security," the 54-year-old prosecutor from Kenosha, Wis., says.

Alin Boswell, a flight attendant for US Airways based in the Washington, D.C., area, says he is seeing "just enormous quantities of large rolling bags that have no business being on the aircraft. They're stretched to the nth degree with the sides just bulging out. They (travelers) just don't want to make one more stop at baggage claim." Mr. Boswell has also seen people board with odder items, such as bouquets of flowers in glass vases. (He makes the person drain the water and hold the flowers.)

All this is happening during a summer when planes are more crowded than ever. United had its busiest July ever, with an 87.7% load factor, compared with 86.4% in July 2005 and 78.7% in July 2000. American experienced July loads of 87%, up 1.9 percentage points over the same month last year. Delta Air Lines had its fullest month ever this July, with a load of 85.4%.

To be sure, it is usually not as bad as before Sept. 11. Overhead bins on planes then were often smaller, and some airlines allowed two full-sized carry-ons, as opposed to the one-plus-one standard now enforced by the Transportation Security Administration.

Some travelers are coming up with creative ways to get around the airlines' carry-on policies. After the British Airways changes took effect earlier this summer, Lewis Turek, a 21-year-old marketing executive from London, says carry-on allowances have been a lot more strict. He tried to get away with a bag that was slightly larger than the limit on a recent flight between Venice, Italy, and Gatwick, England. "They point-blank refused to let me take it," he says. "So I got a plastic bag, I put two of my books into it, and then after I got through security I put my books right back in my hand luggage."

New boarding policies are also fueling preboarding chaos. Earlier this summer Northwest Airlines, for example, instituted a policy under which all passengers (except elite passengers, first-class travelers and others with special circumstances) are allowed to board at once. Some passengers say that the approach can cause a mad dash for storage space, as fliers stash their bags in whatever overhead bin they see with available space, rather than the space directly associated with their seat. United now has a boarding system that loads everyone with window seats first (regardless of whether they are in the back or the front). Earlier this year, Delta also adjusted its boarding process to seat window-passengers first.

On a recent flight between Toronto and New York, Greg Clerkson, a 30-year-old investment strategist from London, says that the overhead bins above his seat near the front of the plane were stuffed with bags belonging to people sitting in the back. So he had to walk halfway to the back of the aircraft to find space for his luggage. His problem really arose, though, when he wanted to disembark: Faced with either fighting his way back to get his bag, or waiting until everyone had left, he decided to push through for his luggage. "I was forced to either throw some flying elbows or wait forever for everyone to get off, so I threw some polite elbows," he says.

Airlines are placing limits on checked luggage, too. British Airways is lowering the maximum weight for checked luggage from 70 pounds to 50 pounds in October. Starting next month, Continental Airlines will no longer accept any checked bags weighing more than 70 pounds (the airline used to take bags up to 100 pounds). Late last year United made a similar change on international routes, fixing the maximum weight at 50 pounds from a previous high of 70 pounds. American in November dropped the checked-bag maximum on domestic and international flights to 50 pounds from 70 pounds.

And of course, with fuel prices at record levels, the struggling airlines are looking for ways to avoid excess weight, or if they have to carry it, charge passengers more for it. After all, the airlines know that passengers will pay it because they have no choice. US Airways, for instance, says coach passengers must pay $50 for bags between 50 and 70 pounds, and $80 for bags between 71 and 99 pounds. Airlines say the charges are necessary in part to make sure that airline employees aren't lifting bags that are too heavy.

Airlines are experimenting with some ways to alleviate the congestion in the overhead bin. Over the past few years, many carriers have been upgrading the size of the overhead bins in their smallest regional jets.