Airlines shrink carry-on bag size

[Mike Johnson]

Buzz wrote: They weigh the baggage to help calculate the total weight carried for the flight... some "full" flights will actually have some empty seats due to weight restrictions for that flight... Fuel, cargo, baggage, people, etc. all have to be accounted for, and some flights push the total weight limit. Some "non-stop" flights out of high altitude airports may have to make a fuel stop depending on weather conditions at take off... it really is a balancing act.
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Well, sure there’s a reason for it. In the US it happens almost exclusively on small planes, like a little 19 seater Beechcraft. But Americans seem taken aback when they’re flying a transcontinental flight on a 787 and the agent at the LAN desk insists on weighing their carry-ons. I don’t know how much of that is for actual weight issues, or for profit issues, or just following procedures.