FWIW I always travel with soft backpacks instead of hard-shell roller bags. I've never gotten the "you should gate check that". Soft bags fit much better in the

FWIW I always travel with soft backpacks instead of hard-shell roller bags. I've never gotten the "you should gate check that". Soft bags fit much better in the overhead and can be squeezed to make room, so the airline employees will never pick the soft backpack guy for gate check.