I’ve been on multiple flights like Delta, American and others where I was not allowed to take my carry-on bag with me because it was only just a few inches bigger (it did look bigger than the carry-on bags too to be fair) than the maximum size.
In all of these flights, they’ve asked me to free gate check-in the bag at the counter while boarding because most of the times these flights are full and run out of overhead bin space. In Delta, they even gave me a boarding group upgrade from 8 to 5 just for voluntarily checking in the bag.
All the check-ins cost 30-40 $ (wherever a check-in is not free ofc), so you can end up saving that lots of times. Don’t check in the bag at the terminal, take it to the boarding gate and check it in for free!
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Thanks for making all of your flights late, asshole.
I would bet money that in the not to distant future it will be a surcharge to gate check bags that are too big for carry on.
This very much depends on the airline.
Easyjet will invite you to abandon your oversize hand luggage in the rubbish bin if you aren’t willing to pay to have an unexpected extra piece of cargo hold luggage.
This can be a LPT if you have the time to spare waiting for baggage at the carousel.
Typically though, people with carry ons are trying to get in and out of the flight/airport ASAP.
You were asked to gate check them because they ran out of room, not because they’re oversized.
Personally if they ask for gate check volunteers I always volunteer – that bag is more likely to make it on the right flight when done right at the gate, and now I don’t need to stress about it.
But I have on multiple occasions seen people be forced to pay for gate check at the gate because they had an oversized bag that got through.
If you weren’t asked to pay, but you got that far with a bag too big for an overhead bin, it’s because the employee was out of fucks to give that day, and just didn’t want to deal with it.
This is not a pro tip. It’s an anecdote about how to break the rules on purpose and get an exception.
“Shitty life” pro tip.
United is now charging for oversized bags checked at the gate, $40 at check-in, $65 at the gate.
Delta charged me at the gate last month because my personal book bag was too large…this is awful advice
What is the benefit of being moved from boarding group 8 to 5 if you aren’t going to be putting anything in the overhead?
This doesn’t work in Europe anymore. I used to travel with guitars all the time, and gate agents used to approach me while waiting at the gate and say they’d take the guitar from me and put it in the pilots cabinet, or find a space for it with their stuff. Literally last week tried it and got charged 86 pounds for two oversized cabin bags. The gate agent even tried to make me force my guitar in their stupid moulds, despite it obviously not fitting, it’s a fucking guitar.
My response was ‘the cost of living really affecting these billion pound airlines isn’t it’ and she shrugged her shoulders and held the card machine at arms length like bitch pay me. Games gone.
I’ve been offered to check my carry on for free at the ticket counter, I usually take that option if it’s available but I’ve never tried asking the gate agent. They usually look too busy for me to want to bug them so I probably wouldn’t do that, also the baggage claim is a crappy place to hang out so I try not to if I’m traveling light
This only works if your carry on is only slightly larger than a carry on. You’re not getting a full sized suitcase through security. What a lot of people use to cheat on was their “personal item”, which would be just a 2nd carry one bag. The last couple of flights I took, they’ve been sticklers on this one also.
yeah. well, like that’s only your opinion man. This our concern dude.
Great tip! This can definitely save money and hassle, especially on full flights.
How do you plan to get by the checkin in the first place? They have this size check if it fails the pay up.
If you bring bags that are sized to put under the seat in front of you, it avoids this whole issue of jockeying for overhead bin space.