The carry-on game, my friends, is about to change. Since every airline seems to have its own idiosyncratic carry-on policy, it’s impossible to get one bag to fit them all. Some airlines have total dimension restrictions while others fixate on the size of the largest side. Some airlines insist on your carry-on fitting into their ridiculous bag-sizers before you board, while others make you gate-check if they telepathically sense that your luggage won’t fit. Unless you go for a uniformly small bag that fits all of those requirements, there’s no way to win. It’s madness. Luckily, the International Air Transportation Association (IATA) has come up with a solution that’s likely to please everyone.
IATA is the world’s largest airline industry group, representing over 260 airlines and 83% of global air traffic. They, too, seem to have identified this changing carry-on standard as a major problem and they’ve decided to fix it by creating a uniform standard for all carry-on bags. Imagine that! All the airlines playing by the same rules. According to an IATA spokesman, major airlines like Lufthansa and Emirates have already agreed to abide by the new standard and the biggest luggage makers like Tumi, Delsey, and Samsonite have all signed on. By the end of the year, the “IATA Cabin OK” logo should begin to find its way onto new luggage and you can start traveling secure in the knowledge that your bag is going to fit into that overhead with no problem.
So what’s the new standard? 55 x 35 x 20 cm (or 21.5 x 13.5 x 7.5 inches). That’s smaller than the current accepted dimensions by major US carriers like American Airlines and United, so you may be losing out on some space in order to fit into the new universal requirements. Is it worth it? I’m not entirely sure. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
If you’re in the market for a new carry-on, Amazon is offering a 20% off Father’s Day sale on luggage and accessories until June 21st. Click here to go to the sale.
Confused about the difference between roller board or roll-aboard? You can find the definitive answer here.
Original story found on Consumerist via Yahoo/AP via IATA
I think “INCREDIBLE” is a bit exaggerating.
Simply cannot know until tried. Will we buy new bag(s) just to test? ‘Duck’ no, and certainly until the principal U.S. carriers announce acceptance or rejection of the standard.
Is this a sponsored post? It sort of reads like one…
Sponsored post? That’s pretty insulting, Cook. As one of my longtime readers, I hope you know that I always label sponsored posts. I think this is a great new development in terms of luggage standardization and I hope it saves a ton of people from a ton of
bag fees if they previously showed up for a flight with a bag that was two inches too big.
I wonder what will go into those brand new super large overhead bins that have been designed for all this new aircraft models ?
It’s a cartel..now we are .forced to check luggage which means more revenue for the carriers; of course this will happen it was inevitable! Who can pack so little for a trip unless it’s an overnight business trip. This is anti consumer!
The IATA has had a standard carry on size for years. The problem is that the airlines ignored it and set their own limits
So this isn’t a new idea and certainly not a brilliant idea.
It is the IATA trying to regain some credibility by setting their standard to something smaller than what the majority of airlines use today so they can then claim their new standard size is accepted by 120 airlines unlike today where their standard is accepted by hardly any.