#GateLice Getting #NoLove

Spud Hilton over at the Bad Latitude blog has about had it with travelers who board with more carryon luggage than Tom Joad packed for his trip to California, and so he is encouraging travelers to photograph examples of excessive carryon and post them to Twitter with the hashtag #CarryonShame.

And while not everyone agrees with this tactic, it has generated considerable buzz and more than a few shaming posts. Among the thousands and thousands of tweets the movement has generated:

I’m already excited about it. Finally–a reason to look forward to long flights! #carryonshame ~Carrie Yutzy

There’s no shame in making the most of your carry on allowance! ~Bagket

no one angrier at overstuffers than me. but time to shift #carryonshame to the airlines. ~Jon Bonne

The original Bad Latitude blog post has generated nearly 600 comments on its own as of the time of this writing, and judging by the emotion in many of them you just knew this hashtag concept would go viral.

Maybe if the piggy airlines wouldn’t charge us fees to check luggage, and then wouldn’t lose it completely (that’s happened to me twice) we passengers wouldn’t be so eager to keep all our stuff in sight. ~bitterpaul

The real problem is the people who actually care enough about something so meaningless. Worry about yourself and stop trying to police others. ~killerkutty

Just get frequent flier status so you can board early and forget about these morons. ~sfchris2013

We have this all wrong… we need to charge people for carry on bags instead of checked bags… It will make boarding WAY easier! ~caleedubya

While I get as frustrated as the next guy when I have to stow my one carryon under the seat in front of me because the overheads are filled with the 2-3 bags every other passenger has loaded on, I tend to agree with Jon Bonne and bitterpaul and find it difficult to blame my fellow travelers for taking advantage of the allowable carryon rules.

But what really frustrates me is that the #CarryonShame hashtag is taking deserved focus away from the much funnier #GateLice hashtag. It hasn’t gone viral (yet), but that just makes it easier to skim through the images and hilarious commentary.

Read the discussion that started it all.

Image: “Dog carryon” by pauljoelhancock. CC BY-ND 2.0.

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  1. I’m more frustrated with people who don’t load the bin efficiently or who put all of their personal items in the bin. I bring one bag, and it goes in the bin. On occasions when I fly a non preferred airline or arrive at the gate late, it sometimes stresses me out, but otherwise I really haven’t had many problems.

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