alt Hacker News> All told, is all this chicanery benefiting airlines?
Yes.
An example is paid baggage. It used to be that stowage space was mostly a waste of capacity on an airplane. But with the help of modern software making coordinating shipping easier, they can make lucrative money shipping cargo on passenger flights.
So encouraging passengers to not bring bags and keeping that capacity for cargo is a feature, not a bug.
Replies
FuriouslyAdrift • 06/24/2025
I always ship my baggage via insured carrier (Fedex, DHL, etc) and take a small carry on for immediate needs. It's MUCH cheaper and safer.
Or I just don't bring anything that won't fit in my lap.
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The tradeoff on short domestic flights is that it encourages more - and larger - carry-ons, which slows down boarding/deplaning and therefore adds to turnaround time. If I don't have to pay for checked bags, I'd often prefer to have mine checked, especially if I have a connection - but since I do, I'll squeeze everything into a carry-on roller bag instead. Personally, it only takes me an extra second or two, but when you have a whole family doing this and only parent who can actually reach the overhead bins, it bogs down the whole aisle.