The seats are assigned, the baggage compartments are self-serve.
A long time ago most airlines checked at least one bag free. I used to always do this and as op suggests, not stand in line. It was great not having to take a bag through security and haul it around through airports and connecting flights, and avoid the stress of if the overhead space would run out.
But airlines have done everything in their power to make boarding and the whole flying process miserable in attempt to suck every dollar they can from you for their upgrades and priority boarding.
I do often take advantage of the airlines offer to "we expect a very full flight, overhead space is limited, and will check your bag for free to your final destination"
Yup at this point I call that a free checked bag. Oh no... Out of space? Guess I'll just have to be the hero and ditch my bag...
Sidenote people who do things like throw their coats up there when they've announced there is limited space are dicks.
and then wait for the baggage at the other end? no thanks! carry on luggage I get to walk straight out no waiting
We've largely done this to ourselves. The cheapest price is king in air travel. Unless you're traveling for work, everyone goes for the cheapest option, so airlines are incentivized to get the base price as low as possible. Like if the option was to pay $100 more and get 2 checked bags, a meal, and more legroom, I'm still not going to do it.
The price of air travel has come down astronomically over the past few decades.
I didn't realize this factor until I started traveling with my wife, who packs much more than me. I've always fit everything into a single personal item that goes under the seat, which has always meant casually reading a book until my zone is nearly finished boarding
Limited overhead space. If you wait, you increase the chance there won't be room for your overhead bag.
The real answer. I sometimes have a laptop in my carry on. I'll be fucked if I'm going to hand it over to the savages on the tarmac.
Overhead bin space for carry-on bags.
As someone who travels with carry-on only (as much as possible), if I'm in economy I make sure to board as soon as I can to ensure there's space in the overhead bins for my bag.
Man, I hate traveling carry-on only (unless it's a short enough trip that the required change of clothes can fit in a backpack). I'll pay the $50 or whatever it is to not have to worry about needing to cram all my stuff up into the overheads.
It isn't about price. In fact some airlines are starting to charge more for a carry-on.
I'm also really good at bringing less. I travel months at a time with carry on only.
Plus, once you land at your destination you just grab your bag and go. There is no waiting at the baggage carasoul, you beat some of the rush too.
As annoying as it is to lug a bag around and find room for it, I much prefer this to checking it. There’s the small but nonzero chance your bag doesn’t make it to your destination, plus the added time waiting at baggage return.
Two reasons:
I always take window seats, and don't really want to hop over someone to get to my seat.
And it also means I don't have to fight for overhead space for my carry-on.
Surprised no one mentioned this, but carry-on bags are no longer free for all - only free for the first ones in line.
People who use up more than their third of the locker, forcing others out of their own space are subhuman.
I donno, I think airlines that cram in more seats without increasing overhead storage are subhuman.
These same people will all stand up at once the moment the plane stops.. and continue to uncomfortably stand there for like twenty minutes.
On my last flight my gf sprung up and was irritated that I wasn't doing the same. Like where the fuck you going to go? One foot to the left? Just, why? I'm chillin.
If you have a bag to put in the overhead compartment then you want to get on sooner since the space is limited. I personally only ever take a bag that can go under the seat. I wait until everyone has boarded regardless of my group.
Anxiety (especially now that planes are oversold and standby passengers are nearby waiting to grab empty seats...), the need for overhead bin space, not wanting to have to climb over people, illogical impatience, etc.
I'm hard of hearing and terrified of standing in the wrong place at an airport and missing the visual cues to board the flight. Once boarding starts and people start queueing up, I usually get in line because it's helpful to see what everyone in front of me is doing - the order that they hand over paperwork or get carry on double checked. I can't guarantee I'll be able to hear the attendant if they ask me questions at the gate because it's so noisy, so I like to at least feel like I'm prepared.
One time I was flying with crutches and qualified for early pre-boarding because I needed the plane wheelchair (skychair). I sat right next to the gate desk and waited, then I started seeing people queue up so I quickly joined the line, wondering how pre-boarding works when the whole plane of passengers are already vying to be at the front of the line.
I get to the front, the attendant looks at my ticket then after some awkward back and forward eventually I realised they were telling me I'll have to wait till everyone has boarded to get the sky-chair on. I should have come to the desk when pre boarding was announced. I pointed that I was sitting right in front of them... Apparently they were called my name 3 times over the loudspeaker.
Apparently airports can only comprehend one disability at a time (if that!) they knew I was hard of hearing (it's on my ticket) but still thought calling me over the PA was the best way to get the attention of the deaf person sitting 80cm from their desk.
So I sat back down and waited for the line to clear, then I got back up when there were 2 people in line, and after another back and forward I learned that they had tried calling my name again about halfway through boarding because they only had one skychair and it was now or never because the chair had told fly with the other passenger because their arrival airport didn't have a chair, or something, I dunno, anyway I kind of had to crawl down the ailse to get to my chair because in the past I've just used the backs of chairs to swing myself along, but the plane was full so I couldn't do that.
Overhead space. The only upgrade I pay for is boarding group, and I want to maximize my upgrade purchase, so I want to be at the front of group 2.
I only travel with an appropriately sized carry-on but I'm a bit tall so I can NOT have the bag by my feet.
So I want to guarantee I have the overhead right above my seat.
I also generally work on the plane so I can get my laptop and such out easily while standing at my seat, then put my bag up worry free.
This is the answer. Trace it back to the early 2000s when airlines started charging for checked bags. That created an immediate premium for overhead space and kicked off the Boarding Wars we now find ourselves in today, where airlines and passengers alike contort themselves literally and figuratively in an attempt to work around this one massive consequence of corporate greed.
-20 airline professional
Yup, exactly what I think. So I used to sit in the gate area until the last possible moment until I found out that if you wait too long, they'll give away your seat. Plus since they are charging people for checking luggage through, you have to get that overhead bin before it's gone, unless your carry-on fits in front of you, which it doesn't if you're on a bulkhead. So, now I stand in line, frustrated by that and all the other crap we have to go through when traveling by plane these days. Looking at you TSA.
I was a flight attendant with TWA, so take this as what it is: advice from 20+ years ago.
If all the overhead bins are full they will gate check your bag; tag it, send it down the external stairs of the jetway, and it will go in the belly with the other checked luggage.
The sooner I get to my seat the sooner I'm out of the god damned airport and can begin whatever escapism I've chosen for the flight. The thing I truly hate is the airport and being in it.
People are posting a lot of maybe more rational reasons, but I think there's another answer that's more in line with just being a human. Airports suck, air travel, generally, sucks and the whole process is riddle with both intentional and also just unavoidable misery. Every time a new step in the sequence of unpleasant and boring steps that is air travel nears, we start to anticipate it and get anxious to move on to that next step in the process. It doesn't make it faster, it likely only makes the misery arguably worse, but some times people just can't help trying to mentally hasten things even if in reality nothing is hastened at all.
For me it's the last chance to stand for a while. If I'm going to be sitting in a cramped seat for 2+ hours then you bet I'm going to be standing before hand. So the if I'm standing then I might as well be in line.
I’m about to be seated for five hours straight with no possibility of standing or moving around. I’m standing while I still have the opportunity.
Stand, don’t stand, I don’t care. But I’m sitting in the marked disabled seats, with a gate checked walker, and only similarly disabled people or people wrangling little kids are getting on before me, so standing in front of me only tempts me to run into the back of your legs with my walker to bulldoze you out of my way. Leave those of us with extra trouble moving a little space, please!
I didn't used too get in line. But I've had a number of times someone took to much carry on (how I don't know) and took all of the overhead space, refused to fix it, and the airline didn't give a fuck either.
Overhead space for carry-on bags.
I'm about to sit down for the next six hours. I'm happy to stand for a bit.
I rarely sit when waiting for a plane (at least not for maybe an hour before). I'm about to sit for hours, so I don't want to start now.
Because you do not have assigned overhead bag storage, and people bring either bags that are too big, or bring multiple bags
Why does it seem like everyone in the comment section takes flights all the time? For me, flying on an airplane is for vacations abroad only, and I maybe get 2 flights a year at most. I assume this is one of those US things I'm too Asian to understand.
Even worse, people have to pay to be in an earlier boarding group. I think they use limited overhead bin space as a hostage.
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