Counter:
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Carry-ons can be objectively better for passengers.
- Go straight to your gate, no check-in drop-off
- No angst about lost luggage
- No interminable waiting at the luggage carousel
- Less TSA pawing through and stealing your stuff
- For many trips, a carry-on is all you need
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Carry-ons are cheaper for airlines.
- Carry-ons require no handlers to transport or physically stack luggage
- Carry-ons are categorically lighter and use less space than checked bags, translating to less fuel
2b could be mitigated by checking only carry-on-sized luggage; basically a smaller luggage-size limit.
I traveled for business for years, and got used to traveling only in a carry-on. My GRo (the best luggage ever built, and which you can no longer but) always fit into a single overhead space. I could pack underwear and several business shirts, toiletries, a pair of (compressable) casual shores, and wear my suit, and still have room left for a pair of jeans. It was a stretch to go for two work weeks, but I could do it. One week was no inconvenience at all. Now even when I travel for pleasure, unless it’s a two week vacation I still only pack a carry-on.
That said: I’m a man, and women in corporate environments - unfairly - often feel obligated to pack more clothes: multiple pairs of shoes, multiple outfits, more cosmetics, etc. It is generally easier for a man to stretch a suit by altering only shirts and ties. Even so, my wife will also pack only a carry-on if the trip is 5-days or less. Even though the company pays for baggage fees, it’s a worse customer experience at both ends of the trip to check a bag, and I don’t think there’s much airlines could do about that. It’s a straightforward logistical problem.
Except for long, or specialty, trips (e.g, skiing, backpacking), carry-ons for us are subjectively, but uncontestedly, superior. Airlines reversing the fee schedule would be categorically worse for us, enough that we’d switch our frequent flier programs over it.
It is amazing. They shut down during COVID, just before I decided to buy their checked bag. I don’t know how good the large one was, but there carry-on is fantastic. The only thing I’d change about it is that it has one of those built in battery ports, which I’ve never used in my life and is IMHO wasted space; but it was a big trend back when they designed it, and before airports and airlines started putting charging ports in everywhere.
https://trekbible.com/g-ro-luggage-review/
A random, but fairly comprehensive, ad-disguised-as-review.