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Airlines charging for checked bags has increased passenger demand for carry-on luggage.Passengers are not guaranteed overhead bin space, especially those who board later.To reduce stress, travelers can pack lighter or check their bags.

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It’s one of the most stressful questions for any traveler boarding an airplane: Will there be enough overhead space for my carry-on?  

I recently wrote about why carry-on bag allowance rules exist, and of course, part of it is safety, but a big (possibly the biggest) part of it is because there just isn’t that much space to go around on a plane. 

Especially with all major U.S. airlines now charging for checked bags, passengers are more incentivized than ever to carry on whatever luggage they can. 

It leads to all kinds of frustrations for travelers: from the “gate lice” phenomenon, where people crowd the boarding door to get on the plane as soon as they possibly can, to the competition between passengers trying to get their stuff in the overhead bin. 

Here’s how we got here, and what airlines and airplane manufacturers are trying to do about it:

Why does everyone want to carry something on? 

This situation we find ourselves in, with extreme competition for overhead bin space, is kind of the fault of the airlines themselves. 

“Airlines have made it clear to travelers that bringing anything on board comes with a premium, and that includes either in the cabin or in the belly, and given the fact that it is more convenient for passengers to have stuff with them in the cabin, and if they have to pay for it anyway, why shouldn’t they?” Seth Miller, editor of paxex.aero, a website focused on developments in the airplane passenger experience, told me.  

Essentially, with airlines almost always charging bag fees on most economy tickets, and passengers worrying about the statistically improbable but not totally impossible eventuality that their checked bags will be mishandled, most passengers these days prefer to travel with carry-on bags as much as possible. 

Are you entitled to overhead bin space? 

The short answer is “no,” but it’s complicated. 

Certainly, on airlines like Spirit and Frontier, which charge passengers for the ability to carry bags on board as well, those who pay the fee should expect to find overhead bin space. But beyond that, it gets a little more dicey. 

“For passengers who are paying extra to board the plane early or paying for premium seats on board, whether that’s first class or extra legroom, they have the expectation that they are going to get space in the cabin for their bag as part of that premium,” Miller said. “There is, in almost every aircraft, not enough space for all the bags that are going to come on board, and certainly not a guarantee that the space for your bag is going to be at your seat, and that is an inherent problem with the proposition airlines have created.” 

Where, exactly, you store your stuff is its own issue as well. 

Passengers who board late in the process are the most likely to have to gate check their bags due to full overhead bins, but others who board a little earlier may have to find space in another part of the plane, which can make deplaning more frustrating. 

“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, previously told me. “There’s a definitive amount of space to store things safely.” 

Bottom line: It’s nice to be able to store your stuff in the bin near your seat, but if that doesn’t work out for some reason, don’t panic, and don’t get angry with the airline employees who are telling you what you need to do instead. 

How airlines are trying to improve their carry-on capacity 

Miller said that airlines and airplane manufacturers realize that there’s a crunch for onboard storage, and they’re doing their best to address it. 

“Aircraft manufacturers have definitely seen the writing on the overhead bins, as it were, and recognized that they need to increase the space available if at all possible. There is space to work with in the overhead area,” he said. 

Manufacturers like Boeing and Airbus have developed larger overhead bins, as have third-party suppliers. JetBlue took delivery of its first planes with Airbus Airspace bins in 2021, and Alaska Airlines started receiving Boeing 737s with Boeing Space Bins in 2018. 

Still, the storage wars continue. 

“It’s, unfortunately, in some cases, still not enough given that aircraft makers are also making it easier to fit more seats on those same planes,” Miller said. “Even with the engineering available to expand (overhead bins), as long as they keep the density of seating on board and the load factors remain high, I don’t see a world where we get to a détente where there’s always going to be enough space for everybody’s bag.” 

Tips for reducing your own luggage stress 

The two best ways to reduce your own stress about finding space for your carry-on luggage are to pack light or check a bag. 

Miller said he has taken a few weekend trips recently with only a backpack, which can be stored under any seat, and he said that made things a little less stressful at the moment of boarding, although it comes with its own issues. 

“I’ve been pleased to do a couple weekend trips lately with just a backpack under my seat and it’s harder, you have to decide you’re going to wear the same jeans for three days,” he said. 

I’ve also tried that strategy and found it to be great when it’s doable. For some longer trips recently, I bit the bullet and checked a bag, and I have to admit, it was nice to breeze through the airport without a roller bag in tow. 

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.