Alaska Airlines Shrinks Carry-On Bag Sizes

Contributing Editor Carl Unger believes that every trip is worth taking. He loves an extended trip to Europe as much as he enjoys exploring the towns and landscape near home. Basically, you'll find him wherever there is good food, fresh air, and plenty of stories to bring home.

Carl has been writing for SmarterTravel since 2005. His travel writing has also appeared on USA Today and the About.com Boston travel guide.

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Starting June 4, travelers on Alaska Airlines will face new carry-on bag size limits. The airline says its current carry-on bag size allowance is “larger than most other international and domestic airlines allow” and it wants to “make sure that your carry-on bag will be accepted aboard all the flights within your itinerary. This will help you avoid carry-on bag size conflicts and make connections with other airlines easier during your future trips.”

Here are the new dimensions:

Length: 22 inches (previously 24 inches)
Height: 14 inches (previously 17 inches)
Width: 9 inches (previously 10 inches)

The good news: Alaska isn’t pulling a fast one on us when it says its current size allowance is larger than the industry standard. These new dimensions match the current limits on JetBlue, Delta, American, and United, to name a few. (Southwest’s dimensions are 24 x 16 x 10 inches.) Alaska isn’t implementing some random set of dimensions that deviate from the status quo.

This also means there’s a good chance your current go-to carry-on will meet Alaska’s new limits. For example, all of the options in our list of the best carry-on bags would meet Alaska’s parameters.

That said, regular Alaska customers may want to take a tape measure to their carry-on to ensure it will fit. You can be sure that gate agents will be on the lookout for bags that don’t comply with the new rules, and Alaska says it will install new bag sizers at gates.

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