One of my peeves is people self upgrading luggage while boarding. Situation – Traveler is seated in economy but shoves their bag in Business class as they walk past the cabin. Or person is seated in row 54 but piles their bag overhead in row 12. This has to stop.
Self Upgrading luggage
I have noticed this sneaky behaviour for years and do not understand the “advantage” of having your bag so far removed from you. Cabin crew is usually wise to these antics and call out passengers for doing so. One of the simple tricks they deploy is to keep the business class overhead bins shut during boarding. This simple technique dissuades people from self upgrading their luggage. But this is far from a standard procedure and very inconsistent.
On a recent trip, seated in business class, I noticed a gentleman put his luggage in row 4 of the business class cabin and he walked past to his economy seat. I alerted the cabin crew who did the needful and had the baggage moved back. Apparently, he was an ‘elite’ passenger with the airline and did not think it was an issue. Right.
Personally, I cringe at anyone not seated in my row placing their bags before checking into their own rows. Obviously, with genuine lack of space, I am happy to share the overhead bin. Mind you, these are the same people that have complete disregard for others’ luggage and will simply shove their bags over things wrapped in fragile tape.
What are they thinking?
Presumably, the thinking is to avoid a full overhead bin and simply grab the bag on their way out? But what about the risk of stolen baggage or belongings while they sleep 20 rows behind?! No matter how light I travel, I carry personal belongings valuable enough to never consider my bags being that far away from me.
This practice of self upgrading luggage is far more prevalent in certain countries and regions of the world – India, Brazil, China, or Africa in general come to mind. For example, folks in India love traveling with 5 pieces of hand luggage (slight exaggeration of course) and will take whatever space they get irrespective of the rows they are seated in. And to my surprise, nobody around (including cabin crew) seems to bat an eyelid at that behaviour. Could this simply be a cultural difference or travel etiquette issue, rather than a sneaky move?
Surely, I am not the only one that has seen this inflight. Does it bother you as much or are you simply indifferent to people self upgrading luggage? Share your experience or thoughts with a comment below.
[…] Travel Update […]
Some Row 40 luggage upgraders might learn their lesson if when they get up to row 4 for their bag it is already gone because some eagle eyed passenger in row 10 grabs it and heads off the plane 10 minutes before back row guy can get there.
Totally. That risk is very real.
if they would enforce the Luggage rule people wouldn’t bring like 3 roll cases with
them on board. I only take my fragile and valuable stuff on board, mostly in an
small backpack.. only to find that the people with 2 or 3 roll bags want to
push them into the overhead bin so roughly that they crush my stuff. And if you
make an comment they get aggressive..
From experience, at least on domestic narrowbody aircraft, I completely understand upgrading bags as bins in the back fill up. Crew will often instruct later boarding groups to find the first available spot, be it in First, Business, Eco+, just to move boarding along. As long as the premium cabins are onboard, seated, and managed to store their belongings, I don’t see this as an issue.
With bigger overhead bins, I bet we see less and less of this.
Great post!
-Max
Thanks Max! Yes, on narrow body aircrafts and when crew is instructing to grab the first spot available, it makes operational sense. My issue has been people who just like leaving their bags upfront, regardless of the space situation in their row.
What narrow body domestic flights in the US have 3 classes of seating? Guess I have been in Asia too long as all domestic flights and short haul international flights only have one class of available seating.
This issue is not exclusive to certain cabins. It happens in all econ cabin as well – Passenger leaves bag in row 2 bin before taking seat in row 40.
Had this happen yesterday on BA to Abu Dhabi. I was in premium economy and there was a random bag there above my seat. I ask the people sitting near me, it wasn’t theirs so I moved it to one side.
I am not been precious, but on a bi trip the laptop etc I prefer to have it close to me.
The crew didn’t seem to understand when I asked them.
To me if you self upgrade your bag you are just a selfish person
Spot on Peter – I share your frustration. Nothing worse than your cabin space taken by someone because they chose to bring extra hand baggage or someone upgrading their luggage. And the crew being indifferent is what makes me think it is a travel etiquette issue as well. Some regions of the world are far more immune to it than others.
This never even occurred to me as an issue… Thanks, I guess… for giving me just one more reason to be irritable on the plane?
Obviously that was not the intention. I think its best to be pre-occupied on the phone 😉
I only sit in first, and I will call these people out in a heartbeat, LOUDLY.
Good on ya Gene! You will be doing us all a great service 🙂
Drives me mad as well when I see it, but almost always the crew see it. The shame on some people’s faces when the crew hand their bags to them and tell them politely that they can’t go there is worthwhile… they clearly know what they are doing!
Spot on Trent. And again, thank you 🙂
I once put my bag over row 3 on a UA 737-9 (my assigned/seated row), continued a few feet away to use the lavatory in row 7 (where Y begins). I come out and the crew, and passenger who was to be my seatmate, tried to shame me and hand me my luggage to take with me to the back row because I had “upgraded my luggage”. Crew got a little in my face while I continued to put my bag right back over row 3 again, only for them to immediately shut it when I plopped right down in… Read more »
That is awful. I am surprised that the crew would get in your face without asking for your boarding pass first. Good on you for shutting them up with politeness.
I actually agree with you, but you seem like an entitled prick. Alerting the crew of someone doing putting their luggage in business class?
Haha. Sorry if I came across as a prick. Allow me to elaborate on the situation – I didnt jump off my seat to complain. When someone at row 4 grumbled about their bin being full, I had to tell them what I saw.
Does it make me come across as less of a prick? Regardless, I accept your opinion 🙂 Cheers!