Packing For Holiday Flights When It Costs To Check

You may have heard that the Government is opening up more flight paths again this year which is a good thing. But will the airways be as packed as holidays past? Every airline has cut flights by as much as 10% this year. This means that flights are going to be full. not that this is a shock but with the new baggage fees it means those overhead bins are going to be full as well. If my recent flight on Continental is any indication, people in the first 5 or so rows behind first class are going to be hard pressed to even get any space in the overhead.
Most all airlines have the same rules of one carry on and one "personal item". This personal item is supposed to fit under the seat in front of you. When we travel, we take a backpack that doubles as my laptop bag. On the recent flight I had to fight with a flight attendant over the fact that it would fit under a seat and that there was no way I was going to just give up my laptop bag when they neglected to enforce their own rules for the first 90 people that they let on board. I can't say this clear enough. It is never a good thing to argue when you are going to be the one that gets the most disappointed with the end result. I won my argument by sliding my bag under the seat but I was lucky to get my bag that far before having it stripped from me. I was lucky that my personal item was my carry on and I was not standing there with 2 parcels.
So if your looking to save some money and pack everything into your carry on luggage, take a look at your seat assignment. It could mean the difference between being frugal and wasted effort.