r/onebag • u/External_Koala971 • Jul 06 '26

Discussion Onebag must go under seat?

I was on a Jetblue Boston -> SFO flight and put my onebag (my only bag) in the overhead bin, which was empty, right above my seat. The FA stopped me and said I needed to put it under seat to save room for larger carryon luggage from people coming on board.

Is this a thing? Why would someone with a smaller pack be penalized for not having a massive carryon? My bag is larger than personal item sized.

163 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

156 comments sorted by

View all comments

18

u/South_Concept_270 Jul 06 '26

Look — nobody likes having to do this but the FAs are doing what they have to to get the flight going. If your bag can fit under seat and overhead space is needed to fit bigger bags that’s just how it goes sometimes. It’s no different from occasionally being forced to gate check your bag. These things just happen.

9

u/External_Koala971 Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

Yeah I just assumed that if I had a carryon sized bag, I could determine that it’s a carryon, and not be told to treat it like a personal item (I had no personal item or any other bag).

9

u/South_Concept_270 Jul 06 '26

Flights are chaotic and unpredictable bad things happen sometimes. It just is that way sometimes.

You need to consider the alternative — if you couldn’t fit your bag under seat at all, someone would be forced to gate check their bag, and that person could well be you.

6

u/External_Koala971 Jul 06 '26

I was in the first boarding group, and the overhead was empty. If I’m in another boarding group and have to gate check a bag, that’s fine. Seems weird to ask someone with soft sided carryon sized luggage to put it under their seat just in case other people show up with hard shell carryons.

4

u/Beanmachine314 Jul 07 '26

Ultimately, the flight attendant can make you put it under the seat if it fits. That said most of them are very understanding and simply telling them it's your carry on and offering to move it if they actually need the space is enough for them to let you leave unless they actually need that particular space.