Some passengers determine buying a seat for same as a licence to stack their entire wardrobe and office in the overhead stowage bins.
Flying is not a bus trip. It’s also nobody’s personal space, yet thousands of annoying travellers seem to think it is.
Because despite the premium that everyone pays to get from A to B, some passengers determine buying a seat for same as a licence to stack their entire wardrobe and office in the overhead stowage bins.
If you have ever got to your seat on a plane, only to find someone else’s bags in your spot in the overhead bin, you’ll only find out on landing which selfish creep rammed their oversized bag where your laptop was meant to go. It’s too late to fight…
Hand luggage narcissists deserve a beating. Because everyone pays. But they take. And airlines stay mum when it comes to enforcing some basic decency on board.
The rules, generally, are a piece weighing no more than 7kg, a laptop bag or handbag can be taken on board. Most carriers say they stick to the rules, but we all know it’s codswallop, because their passengers don’t. And they don’t make them comply, either.
Because somewhere between check-in and sitting down in a cramped up seat, the concept of one small bag and a laptop case went out the emergency exit.
Someone once called hand luggage narcissists “overhead bin lice” and noted how some travellers squat at the gate to board first, just to dump their stuff all over the aircraft.
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Solutions and smelly situations
A frequent flyer on social media had a great idea. They suggested each bin should be physically segmented, so every seat gets its own slice of bin real estate. No more, no less. And if your oversized bag doesn’t fit, tough.
Fresh or defrosting food has no place on a trip. The nauseating smell of pickled or a somehow abused fish dish can not only stink up the cabin, but someone else’s bag. That’s the other kind of hand luggage narcissist.
On some airlines, especially the budget kind, hand luggage challenges have become so frustrating that I would pay the operator just to guarantee the overhead space, which I have kind of paid for already when booking the seat. It should be a right, not a privilege.
So until something’s done about this, I’ll be cursing and swearing the bin-pigs and the hand luggage narcissists all the way to landing.
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