Note to the Airline Traveling Public

Note to the airline traveling public: I know you bought that roller bag carry-on because you can pack everything you need for your little trip in it, so you don't have to waste your time at the baggage claim. BUT… when you stand there in the aisle and try to sledgehammer and/or crowbar that ever-so-slightly-too-big bag into the ever-so-slightly-too-small overhead compartment, you're now wasting MY time, and the time of each and every one of the 200 other people on the airplane, because we can't get push back from the gate until you sit down and securely buckle your seat belt low and tight across your midsection. (Not to mention the fact that you're SCARING THE CRAP out of me because 1) you don't look like you're physically capable of lifting that thing into the overhead, and 2) the particular bin you've chosen is directly over MY head.)

So, let's say you would've spent about 20 minutes waiting for a checked bag to hit the carousel (that's probably about average, depending on the airport). That's 20 man-minutes of time, or 1/3 of one man-hour. The ten minutes you wasted trying to find an empty overhead bin and then brute-forcing the bag into the compartment, multiplied by the 200+ people on the airplane, comes to 2,000 man-minutes, or MORE THAN 33 WASTED MAN-HOURS. See where I'm going with this? In order to save yourself ten minutes on the back end, you've ended up stealing over 33 man-hours from your fellow travelers. Smart traveler? Mmmmm, no, I'm going to go with "selfish traveler." Remember, you're not the only person on the airplane.