Overhead bin squabble: Are you breaking the rules by storing personal items above your seat?
Personal items go under the seat in front of you and large hand luggage goes in the overhead bin – unless you are sitting against a partition with no under-seat storage space. In this case, both go in the bin, ideally above your seat.
But what if you only have one item?
- Do personal items need to be stored under the seat in front of you?
- Or is there an unwritten rule that one item goes in the box and the second item must be placed under the seat?
In other words, if you only have a backpack or laptop bag and no large carry-on luggage, can you put that in the overhead bin? (And if you have two items, can you put both in the bin if you want?)
Last week, a passenger on a United flight from Denver to Houston pulled a person’s backpack out of the overhead bin to make room for the person’s rolling suitcase.
- The owner of the backpack “yelled at him to put it back and an argument ensued.”
- The passenger with the rolling suitcase said the backpack had to go under the seat.
- Bystanders joined in the argument – and supported the passenger who took the backpack from the rack.
It turns out that the man with the backpack had a personal item under his seat (“looked like a briefcase”), so this was his larger carry-on and both wouldn’t fit. Oops.
The scooter guy was speechless and went to the back with his suitcase. I think he had to go to the gate check-in after all.
If you board late, there’s a good chance you’ll have to check your bags at the gate. That’s part of not boarding early, or not boarding when your earlier group is called. Because airlines charge for checked bags and planes are usually full, overhead bins fill up quickly — even where airlines install larger bins. (Southwest, which includes two free checked bags with every ticket, has fewer problems with this than others.)
And while there are basic expectations and social norms about using the overhead bin, it also violates a strict norm about carrying other people’s stuff. Plus, they might need the extra space under the seat in front of them for a non-obvious medical reason, so don’t assume the person who stows a carry-on and a personal item above their seat is an idiot.
United and American have followed Delta’s example and labeled bins showing the cabin they are reserved for, so that a first-class passenger who boards the plane later in the boarding process could theoretically have space. These bin labels are rarely enforced.
Ultimately, the rule for overhead bins is first come, first served. As a courtesy, place your personal item under the seat in front of you. Flight attendants often announce this instruction, but it is often not consistently enforced—and if you take matters into your own hands, it often doesn’t end well.
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