No, the overhead locker above your seat on a flight isn’t yours!

The Flight Detective
luggage on the shelves of an airplane

It’s interesting to see how territorial some passengers are on flights. We all loathe that person who decides to stick their stinky hooves on the bulkhead, but almost as bad are the those claiming overhead locker space as their own.

Usually it is possible to put your bag above your seat, but frequent flyers will know this is not always possible. Anyone arriving late in the boarding process is at risk of their bag being put somewhere else, which could be above another row, in a wardrobe or, god forbid, in the cargo hold!

Overhead Locker Wars

You’ve probably been there, happily sitting in your seat when someone arrives late in the boarding process, usually sweaty and red faced. They demand someone remove the bags from THEIR overhead space. When no-one replies, they will grab the offending bag and ask, “Who’s bag is this?”

The bag owner usually good naturedly replies, “Mine!” and the huffing passenger will then ask for it to be moved. The question is, should you be moving your bag or not?

Well, the answer is no. The overhead locker space is, for the most part, available to everyone. Flight attendants and cabin crew will also agree that this is the case. That means you can pretty much put your bag anywhere, which is good news for those who routinely put their bags in a locker across the aisle from their seat so they can see if anyone touches it during the trip.

Really the only time overhead compartments are reserved is by travel class. Business class passengers put their bags in their section of the plane, premium economy in theirs and so on. That’s pretty much the only rule and carriers like American Airlines even label them as such.

Overall Thoughts

It’s good to know the overhead lockers are for everyone. People generally place their bags above their seat or as close to that as they can get. There is no reason to claim someone’s bag is in your space, because it just isn’t.

For those precious people who are irritated by having their bag placed elsewhere, my advice would be to board earlier. That really is the only way to guarantee to have your bag above your seat.

Have you ever witnessed any shenanigans on board a flight with people fighting about the overhead bin space? What happened? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured image by Mattes via Wikimedia Commons.

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David

Absolutely not! There is a huge difference between someone putting their bag a row or two away from their actual seat or across the aisle and someone from row 30 deciding to just throw their bag over row 8 so they can just grab it easily on the way out. People at the front of the plane cannot easily retrieve bags from the back of the plane. If you’re using a spot that is not over your row because nothing else is available that’s one thing. But for passengers in the rear to take spaces up front is inexcusable. Just… Read more »

Bogan

My biggest pet peeve is when you are sitting on a bulkhead row (even in F), and you board as soon as you can, yet you end up having to put your stuff several rows back because the front few bins in your section are already full. To make matters worse, these bags often belong to the FAs and they rarely offer to put your bag or move their bag into the closet.

Last edited 3 years ago by Bogan
Lara HS

The only objection I have is when people at the back put their bag in the front without even checking the area near their row. The people in front can’t get to the back of the plane to retrieve their bag so the further they have to go back to get their bag the more annoying they are to everyone else when the plane lands. And it can be a matter of five minutes or one boarding group to see this happen so many times that the overhead is full near the front. I have benefited from being either in… Read more »

Ben

I had one very annoying situation where the gate agent was told the overhead lockers were full and so they insisted on gate checking my carry-on. This was annoying because I was arriving home late and just wanted to grab my bag and go home rather than waiting at the carousel for 20min. When I boarded the aircraft I counted at least 10 spots where my carry on could have been stowed in the overhead compartment. To rub salt into the wound, the last person to board was allowed to bring their carry-on onboard and stow it. I vowed never… Read more »

Christian

This became a lot more of a thing when airlines decided to draw more revenue by charging for checked bags, causing lots more people to carry on. I’ve read lots of digital ink on the subject but there was one comment that may or may not be true that I particularly enjoyed: the commenter said that they normally fly up front and if they see an economy passenger just dump off their carry on in the first class overhead, the commenter would wait until the person was gone then pull the bag down and tell a FA that he had… Read more »

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