Travel Smart

Take care with the dimensions of your bags to avoid disappointment

by Linda and Dr. Don Overend

Watch out! Your favorite airline may be changing its rules about the items you carry aboard the plane and could insist that they be checked in the hold. The day of the road warrior toting a suit bag, a duffel and a laptop case onboard to go in overhead storage may be at an end, at least for coach-class passengers.

On crowded flights, the overhead compartments may not be able to handle the bags and boxes, strollers and coats of all the passengers on board, and placing them under the seat in the prevailing tightly-configured coach compartment may be difficult and uncomfortable, especially for long-legged travelers.

The scramble of passengers trying to find overhead space for their belongings frustrates cabin attendants and delays boarding and departures, providing a valid reason for the airlines to start cracking down on passenger carry-on items.

There have always been rules about the number and size of carry-on items, but these have generally been disregarded by the airlines. With flights now generally full (or oversold) the airlines are beginning to enforce the rules.

Delta has been one of the first to measure carry-on luggage with a template at its check-in counters. This has created a squabble with Continental Airlines, which shares terminal space with Delta at some airports. Continental, which does not enforce standards at this time, resents its passengers' having to comply with Delta standards.

Another variable in the carry-on requirements is differences in the wide assortment of aircraft now in use. As you have probably observed, there is considerable difference in the number and the dimensions of overhead bins in different types of planes.

This variation makes it difficult to make a blanket rule that will apply to every flight on every plane, so a universal rule which applies to all aircraft is applied. Commuter aircraft are a special case, as they have almost no overhead bins and your carry-on luggage will be gate-checked at the plane and returned to you as you deplane.

The Luggage & Leather Goods Manufacturers of America has recently petitioned the Federal Aircraft Administration requesting that they establish a single standard for carry-on luggage that luggage manufactures can use as a production standard. The FAA has made no response to this request at this time.

International carriers tend to be more strict about flights than American carriers, so if you plan an international trip, be sure to check with your travel agent before departure to avoid having to check some of the items you had planned to carry on board, or even worse, having to pay extra for overweight luggage.

As travel agents, we travel a lot, and we have a rather extensive collection of luggage, some of which is successful, others of which are abandoned for one reason or another. We have several wheeled carry-on bags of different sizes and of these, we have one which always fits in the overhead compartment on any flight we've made. Some of the others haven't because they're too thick or too wide.

The successful bag is a zippered, wheeled cart with a retractable handle that follows you easily when you pull it and holds a lot of our travelling supplies. The secret of its universal fit in all luggage compartments is its size. The dimensions of this wonder bag are 22 inches tall, 14 inches wide and 8 inches thick (or deep, if you prefer). The height doesn't make much difference, but the width, and especially the thickness, makes a great deal of difference because other bags which are only an inch wider or an inch thicker have failed the overhead bin test.

So, for your information and from our personal experience, we would suggest you limit your carry-on luggage to these specifications or smaller. We believe that in the coming months, the airlines will universally become more stringent about the size and number of carry-on items and more determined about rejecting those items that are oversized.

When this happens, more travelers will be disappointed and angered when their hand luggage is refused on board the aircraft. To avoid this unfortunate occurrence, plan your packing carefully, don't take more than you need, pack all but the most important and valuable items in your checked luggage, and choose your carry-on luggage to include one bag per person and to fit easily in the smallest overhead compartments available on currently operating aircraft.

You'll be surprised how much you can pack in a container that's the size of our wonder bag and you'll never have to struggle to get it in an overhead compartment.

(Linda and Dr. Don Overend are co-owners of Ozark World Travel, a full-service travel agency serving the Springfield area since 1976.)

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