On a 737 a 'standard' bag won't go in the locker end on. Was first on a 737 and found six dead heading crew (with more than one bag each) plus crew bags lengthwise in just about every locker on the plane.

One day airlines will realise they are a service industry.

On many B737s the bins are large enough for a standard 'IATA' bag to go end-on. But not all airlines have use the larger bins.

It's not just that they (allegedly) are a service industry, they sometimes (:sad:) forget who the customer is. Employees, be they deadhead crew or travelling on a pass/ID ticket should know better. And I do understand that flying standby they don't want to check a bag, but that's what the space under the seat in front of you is for.

Has any airline ever tried a slightly deeper bin so that a standard bag can go end-on, on it's side? You would lose a bit of headroom but you could get a third more bags on board.

Positioning crew are fully ticketed passengers too
 

*Exaggeration Alert*.Six positioning crew, plus the operating crew and "just about every locker" was full?Yeah right.

In the airline I work for, Deadhead crew are not on standby tickets, they are working, positioning at the Airlines behest, and hence fully ticketed.
We are only allowed 25 minutes turnaround time, even with a crew change, and the positioning crew operating straight away.

It took you over three years to come up with that?

There is an argument I've heard which runs to the effect that the real function of a cabin crew is to save the life of the miserable passenger when the aluminium hits the tar pit. When I was flight crew, there was a certain amount of stuff I always liked to have with me as a sort of Linus Blanket. In Africa this included a pack of condoms, for water carrying purposes and a .45ACP for hyenas, jackals and other assorted bush vermin.
As far as I am concerned, anything that the crew wants to take along with them to assuage their needs and necessities is absolutely fine. A happy crew means a focused one so pack another pair of stockings darling and don't think twice about your nylons when you're going down an evacuation slide from the upper deck of a 747.

I remember in the early 2000s I had often to deal with a tour company who had chartered a Ryanair B737-200 every weekend. This was in the days before Ryanair offered hot food on board, so not only did we have to make sure the oven inserts were loaded to heat the (rather extensive by today's standards) meals, but the bread rolls for the return sector were put in a huge cardboard box that took up the whole front locker on the DEF side. Every week there was major consternation as the pax tried to jam their bags in alongside and the rolls would end up squashed!

Some of the overhead lockers, generally right at the front and rear are used for emergency equipment which further reduces available luggage space.

And then we get the joys of emergency evacuation and the passengers who insist on leaving with their cabin baggage. A level of stupidity that leaves me agog.

I started flying for a living in 1987 and have watched as cabin baggage allowances have increased to the point that I now believe to be unsafe. When passengering about on positioning trips or going on holiday I often watch passengers being allowed through check in with cabin bags that are outside the legal/airline limits.

Off topic, I went to Philladelphia for a meeting last year for one day. Flew out LHR on Sunday, back on Monday night. I was called to security adjacent to the BA gate at Phillie on the Monday because I hadn't checked in any hold baggage. Spare clothes (now laundry) I-Pad, phone charger, Kindle, paperwork for the meeting etc were all in my old flight case, when I started flying the baggage gauges to check cabin baggage sizes were based around the size of a pilot's flight case, and if your bag didn't fit the gauge it went in the hold. These days the gauges seem to have grown to the size of a substantial weekender bag.

SND

Aircraft manufacturers are increasing the size of the overhead lockers in response to demand from the airlines. Ryanair are quite open about not wanting to carry hold baggage as it increases costs and turnaround times.

I look at laundry facilities when I book accommodation in order to reduce the amount of baggage I need to take with me. If there's a washing machine I can get by with hand luggage.

I work in a passenger carrying environment at 0' ASL. Some people have bags bigger and heavier for a weekend than I emigrated to the USA with...

What the hell do people feel the need to take with them for a holiday?!

HTC

Yes - and this emergency equipment may save your sorry rear end one day! I for one would rather have a BCF, oxygen and a defib etc handy than someone's 30kg overweight and oversized bag. Which is going to be more handy should a situation arise?

I think we all know what emergency equipment is for.

The OP was simply making the point that space for carry-ons is finite and often less than it appears. Nobody is suggesting that the emergency kit be jettisoned to accommodate more bags.