Comes With A Lot Of Baggage

It's almost standard procedure for boarding a plane. You're walking through the tunnel, you get into the plane when, like a terrible traffic jam, passengers, one by one, come to a complete stop. But instead of honking, there's exasperated sighing — as someone ahead of you struggles to heft and stuff their 40-pound carry-on into an overhead bin meant to accommodate bags half the size. And now with more and more airlines charging customers for checked luggage, increasing numbers of passengers are becoming that guy.

NPR reports that there is now a movement among flight attendants to limit carry-ons to a universally-recognized and manageable size. Sure, there are parameters now, but they aren't really enforced. What the flight attendant union is suggesting is that if bags are too large, passengers won't be allowed past security checkpoints. It's sad that passengers have to pay for everything from checked luggage to that inedible snack pack these days. But hey, maybe limiting carry-on sizes will help us get rid of excess baggage. Like maybe you don't need twelve pairs of underwear for that two-day trip after all.

Photo courtesy of malias via Flickr