Jeri Lindsay is one veteran airplane traveler who knows firsthand what can happen when a lot of luggage is packed into the overhead bins.
The 30-year-old Colorado Springs resident got whacked in the head by a fellow passenger’s carry-on bag recently as he pulled it from the compartment after the plane touched down at Denver International Airport recently.
While the bag’s owner and the airline apologized profusely, all Lindsay got out of the unwanted incident was a headache.
So even though Lindsay likes to carry on luggage, she’s not shedding any tears over new security rules that have travelers sending more of their luggage to the cargo hold.
“Then you can’t get hit with it, right?” she said, laughing.
The new rules banning liquids and gels from airplane cabins went into effect after a foiled terrorist attempt Aug. 10. In the four days following, 20 percent more travelers checked their bags than before, said Carrie Harmon, a Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman in Denver.
That meant faster boarding times for airlines such as AirTran Airways, which flies to Atlanta from DIA. The carrier managed to shave four minutes off its average boarding period this week, primarily because of fewer carry-on items.
A spokesman at United, Denver’s largest airline, declined to give specifics about time or space savings from checked bags.
More checked bags make for happier travelers, said David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association in Maryland.
“There’s less of a battle for the overhead space and less time in boarding,” he said. “But the lines are going to be longer at the ticket counter, so it’s just moving the problem around to different locations.”
That certainly was the case for Dave and Cathy Quesnell, who flew to Denver from Orange County, Calif., to look at houses for their move to Colorado.
“It was funny. Usually the overhead bins are so stuffed, and they were practically empty,” said Dave Quesnell, a 47-year-old Boeing worker from Irvine, Calif. “On the other hand, it took an hour and a half to check our bags at the Orange County airport.”
Some business travelers want to check their bags now when they never did before so they don’t have to deal with security. Dave Staib, 51, who travels for business, used to carry his bags onboard. This week he checked them to avoid the security hassle. He described the airplane cabin – on his trip to Denver from Washington, D.C. – as “so nice with less luggage.”
On a trip to Denver from Tacoma, Wash., 40-year-old Mike Cavanaugh was also pleasantly surprised to find room for his briefcase in the overhead bins.
Carry-on bags have only recently become an issue. Luggage companies started making suitcases with wheels in the mid-1980s, which made it easier for travelers to lug their belongings onto the plane, said Marian Boyd, executive vice president of Evergreen-based airline consulting firm Boyd Aviation.
Interested in making travelers happy, airlines made it easier to bring luggage aboard. Some even installed larger overhead bins.
Staff writer Beth Potter can be reached at 303-820-1503 or bpotter@denverpost.com.
