Airplane Overhead Bins Are A Shared Space: Why Are Some People Confused?

On two recent flights, I’ve overheard passengers complaining to flight attendants that someone else took “their” overhead bin space (both were long haul premium cabin flights, for what it’s worth). I find that to be puzzling, so I’d like to discuss that in a bit more detail in this post, and talk about overhead bin etiquette.

The proper airplane overhead bin etiquette

Overhead bins are an important space on airplanes, especially for those who swear by only traveling with carry-ons, and who want to avoid gate checking bags. Fortunately overhead bins are getting bigger on many airplanes, but then again, so are peoples’ carry-ons.

So, who has “control” of overhead bins — are the bins associated with the seats underneath them, or is it a free-for-all? Well, the answer is definitely the latter, with a few caveats. Here’s what I consider the correct etiquette to be for using overhead bins:

• You should always store your carry-on bags in the overhead bins in the cabin you’re traveling in, unless a crew member instructs otherwise
• You should place your carry-on bags as close to your seat as possible, and ideally not too far behind your seat, since that can make for a challenging situation during deplaning
• You shouldn’t store more than one thing in the overhead bin, and if you have a personal item, you should place it underneath the seat in front of you, so that those with larger carry-on bags will have space for their bags (assuming you’re in a seat where things can be stored at your seat)
• You absolutely have no special “rights” to the overhead bin space immediately above or near your seat; after all, others may need to store their bags in “your” space, given that crew bags may be in some overhead bins, sometimes there’s emergency equipment in other overhead bins, etc.

So while it’s of course frustrating when you board a plane and can’t find overhead bin space anywhere close to your seat, ultimately that’s not anyone’s fault, and there’s nothing that can be done. Typically no one is being malicious with where they place their belongings… everyone is just trying to get to their destination.

The reason I say all of this is because on a couple of recent long haul business class flights, passengers became visibly angry when the overhead bin space above their seat was occupied, to the point that they asked the crew to intervene, and demanded that the bags of others be moved.

Some may disagree with this, but I think there’s nothing wrong with rearranging bags a bit to make room for your bag, assuming the bin just isn’t being used efficiently. You should of course be careful and respectful with peoples’ belongings, and should ask before moving a bag to a different bin. But if someone has a bag that’s stored very inefficiently, I think you’re fine to flip it around, or whatever.

The aspect of overhead bins that frustrates me

Personally what frustrates me most about the use of overhead bins isn’t the behavior of passengers, but rather how I feel like many airlines create chaos with how they approach the boarding process, and the need to gate check bags.

The issue is, I find that gate agents often fall into one of two extreme camps:

• Some gate agents completely fail to enforce carry-on limits, and will let people on with just about anything; sometimes you’ll see people boarding with significantly more than the allowed carry-on limit, and the gate agent says nothing
• Other gate agents create total panic, warning people that dozens of bags will need to be checked, and this often creates boarding chaos, whereby everyone tries to crowd the gate in hopes of getting on the plane earlier

Then you have what happens once onboard the plane. Sometimes you’ll find that crews start requiring passengers to gate check bags way earlier than necessary, so people are checking bags even when there’s still significant overhead bin space available.

If airlines have large overhead bins and are correctly enforcing their carry-on restrictions, then gate checking bags really shouldn’t be a major thing, in my opinion. It’s just amazing to contrast how much of an issue this is in the United States vs. Japan, for example. Then again, that contrast exists in so many aspects of our society…

Bottom line

Airplane overhead bins are a shared space in every way, and you’re not entitled to the space above your seat. Now, you should store your bag as close to your seat as possible, and in the cabin you’re traveling in, and you should place personal items underneath the seat in front of you. But beyond that, it’s all fair game, and no one should think they’re entitled to any specific area of the overhead bin.

Where do you stand on airplane overhead bin etiquette?