[pavel_lishin]

> I understand the situation is different if you really want your carry-on bag to stow above you.

Or in the cabin. If you're the last to board, there's a very real possibility that they may have to gate-check your bag, which adds additional wait time at the end of your journey at best, and your bag arriving in Minnesota while you're touching down in Dallas at worst.

[epoxyhockey]

and your bag arriving in Minnesota while you're touching down in Dallas at worst

Is this even possible when gate checking? They literally walk your bag down the stairs at the end of the gate and place it into the plane cargo hold. EDIT: At the end of the flight, your bag is walked up the stairs back into the jetway.

I personally love the gate check loophole. If you intentionally wait to board last, you get a free bag check.

[gjm11]

I don't know whether exactly that is possible, but I have had the following happen: my bag got gate-checked on an intra-US connecting flight, and my carrier then wouldn't return it until I reached my final destination in London.

Which meant that I didn't have it with me when my flight to London was cancelled and I had to stay overnight in Chicago (too bad since it had my washkit and a change of clothes in it) and that when the replacement flight was also cancelled and I ended up going to London with a different carrier, my bag didn't get home until a couple of days after I did.

I will not be flying with United Airlines again in a hurry.

[ejdyksen]

Next time just tell them you have medicine in that bag that you need in the next 8 hours (which is why you tried to carry it on).

[pavel_lishin]

> Is this even possible when gate checking?

On a direct flight, your bag is safe. If you have connections, may god have mercy on your pants.

[pkteison]

I have had a gate-checked bag forgotten about and left in the boarding ramp. So yes, problems are still possible with gate check.

[citizens]

Which, of course, has become much more of a problem since the airlines started charging for checked bags/IRS made baggage fees tax-exempt.

"...amounts paid for baggage services (such as Service G) are not subject to the tax" [http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-wd/1002004.pdf]

[sharkweek]

I don't have the link handy, but there was a great article arguing that the airlines could actually save more money not charging for checked bags because less people will try to cram their oversized luggage into the overheads, speeding up boarding times. Thus allowing for a lower rate of delayed takeoffs, which, over a long enough timeline, allows for more flights in a day they can charge for (and the added bonus of better customer retention).

[streptomycin]

If all the overhead compartments are full and they have to check your carry-on, they won't charge you any fee, at least on the major US airlines I've flown on.