was surprised a few weeks back when my wife and i rode to philly on a republic 170. I had ridden the 190 out of CLT on mainline once, and was the last passenger on the aircraft, and over my seat i had enough bin space for my overnight bag, and on the opposite side of the plane, i had enough room for my flight case. Was very very impressed, when on a republic 170, they were checking the last 5-10 bags that were coming on board, stood out as interesting. Makes me wonder if with the decrease in length, the overhead bin space (per passenger) was reduced some?

Also, i have a hard time believing that companies will pay their employees more to fly these larger 100 seat aircraft. When good companies (or even bad companies) go to the negotiating table they all start from the same play book, pay as little as you can get away with. The company doesn't WANT to pay you a RESPECTABLE wage to fly the airplanes, if they did that, it'd eat into profits, and management bonuses. Also, soon as company A decides to to pay their pilots more, company B will swoop in offer their pilots the ability to fly the same airplane, but for a couple bucks less, and the pilots will agree to it so they can get the planes on property (with the hopes of negotiating better pay at a later date), company A will now not be competitive, and all those pilots with better pay will be trying to find other jobs....it's happened before, and, sadly, will happen again.