Don't be this person! Too many bags!
"Ma'am, you're going to need to put that cross-body bag into your backpack," is what I imagine the man in the checkered shirt is saying.

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Can I tell you a secret? There’s no “federal regulation” that requires airlines to limit you to one personal item and one bag for the overhead bin – at least, not in the way you might think.

The Federal Aviation Administration does require airlines to write their own rules for carry-on-bag policies, which the agency then reviews and helps enforce, but the FAA gives the airlines leeway in determining what their exact policies will be. So, the 1+1 rules we’ve all become so accustomed to (one personal item under your seat and one larger bag that can go in the overhead bin) were generated by the airlines first.

Still, it’s a jerk move to try to sneak more stuff onto the plane than you’re supposed to. We all want to be able to store our carry-on luggage in the overhead bin, and it’s uncool and unfair when people try to game the system.

Follow the rules

Big surprise, I know, but there’s a safety component to these storage rules too, and if you think about it, it makes sense. In the event of turbulence or a hard landing, no one wants unsecured bags or other items being thrown around the cabin.

I’ve seen it happen and have been responsible for such a thing once or twice myself, when a water bottle I hadn’t stored in the seat pocket went flying and rolling into the rows ahead when the plane landed.

“We just have a limited amount of space to actually store things. It’s not like we have unlimited room for bags,” Andrew Henderson, a flight attendant at a major U.S. airline and one of the authors of the blog Two Guys on a Plane, told me. “There’s a definitive amount of space to store things safely.”

It also helps explain why airlines all have more or less the same policy. Pretty much every airline is flying the same kinds of planes, and there are a limited number of manufacturers of overhead bins and other storage solutions, so that kind of space is essentially the same on every carrier.

Here are the carry-on policies of the four largest U.S. airlines:

  • American Airlines: One personal item and one carry-on (22” x 14” x 9”)
  • Delta Air Lines: One carry-on (22” x 14” x 9”) and one personal item
  • Southwest Airlines: One carry-on (24” x 16” x 10”) and one personal item
  • United Airlines: One carry-on (22” x 14” x 9”) and one personal item

Can you spot the difference?

Ultra-low-cost airlines like Spirit and Frontier usually also charge passengers for a carry-on (overhead bin) item and include only the right to bring a personal item on with their cheapest ticket.

Pack smart

If you’re prone to overpacking or are not sure what counts as an item, consider leaving yourself a little extra space in case you need to consolidate, but also make sure you bring all your important stuff, like travel documents and medications, in the cabin with you.

Rich Henderson, Andrew’s husband, coauthor and a fellow flight attendant, said it’s important to be strategic with how you pack so you're not stuck digging around for something you need in the tight quarters at your seat.

“It all starts with packing your bags, making it easier on yourself. ... Pack things the way that you need them,” he said. “If you need to pull something out in the middle of the flight, you don’t have to stand in the middle of the aisle or blocking boarding.”

I always think it’s kind of weird when I see fellow travelers fully unpacking and repacking their overhead bin bag to pull out an eye mask or something midflight.

Andrew added that leaving yourself a little extra space in your carry-on can help if you have inadvertently overpacked.

“If you do have three bags or four bags, make sure you have the space in your other bags to accommodate them,” he said. “I’m not a good packer − I’m an overpacker for sure − but I can unzip a backpack and stuff a sling into it.”

Do what you’re told

This goes for just about everything in flying, but if the flight attendants tell you you need to consolidate your bags – something the Two Guys said happens with some passengers on pretty much every flight – you don’t have grounds to push back.

“When we are asking passengers as flight attendants to follow these rules, a lot of time, they’re not understanding we’re human beings and that we can get in trouble if you don’t follow the rules,” Rich said. “Our jobs are at stake, too.”

Andrew added that although a lot of passengers unintentionally bring more stuff onto the plane than they’re supposed to, he tries to be understanding.

“Most people don’t want to go to baggage claim. It has nothing to do with consolidation or not,” he said. “Most people simply consolidate. They were unaware that their sling counted as a bag or their purse counted as a bag.”

Don't try to ‘hack’ it

Andrew said that it’s much more annoying to him as a safety professional when people try to skirt the rules intentionally.

“It’s the neck pillow full of clothes to get around these rules. Drives us crazy,” he said. “TikTok is terrible for this. There are all kinds of trends right now, there are people wearing 37 shirts to get on the plane.”

Rich added that a lot of people know that medical devices, like CPAP machines, are excluded from carry-on restrictions and have taken to using CPAP machine bags as a way to get around the restrictions.

Don’t do that. It means less space for everyone, including those who actually need medical devices.

(This story was updated to change or add a photo or video.)

Zach Wichter is a travel reporter and writes the Cruising Altitude column for USA TODAY. He is based in New York and you can reach him at zwichter@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Enough with the TikTok hacks! Stick to the carry-on limits, make room for others.

Reporting by Zach Wichter, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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