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Washington Post: Are airlines getting more strict about carry-ons?

August 31, 2022 Media

Keep an eye on your luggage. As air travel returns to pre-pandemic levels, airlines appear to be getting stricter about carry-on bags.

Brad Ritter has seen the confrontations: gate agents rigidly enforcing weight and size limits on cabin luggage — and making travelers fork over an extra fee to gate-check their bags rather than carrying them on board.

“They are showing no mercy,” says Ritter, a TV consultant from Los Angeles.

A few weeks ago, he witnessed a gate agent stop a passenger from boarding with her carry-on. As Ritter boarded the plane, he saw the passenger out of the line, frantically shifting contents to other bags to make the carry-on lighter.

Why are airlines getting so strict about carry-on luggage? The reason isn’t higher fuel costs or lack of space; it’s money.

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Longtime airline industry observer William McGee says there’s no consistency in how airlines enforce their luggage policies. When flights aren’t full, crews typically look the other way when passengers bring large carry-on bags. But when every seat is occupied, they enforce the rules strictly.

“This explains why some passengers may experience carrying on a bag without any problem on one flight, and then be stopped from carrying the same bag on a different flight,” says McGee, a senior fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project.

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