I understand your point, but I suppose what bothers me about this is that it's never been a problem anywhere else. If everywhere I went I was told to check my 26" bag, I wouldn't care. When Newark is the only place I've ever run into this issue, it leads me to believe it's not me. Are the RJ's in EWR smaller than the ones in CVG? I never noticed that. Also, I'm not that upset. Yes, it's annoying. Yes, it's stupid. But you are correct that I was trying to get by with something that is not exactly kosher. And as for the family of 4 with one giant bag, that's a bag that's obviously meant to be checked. You can barely tell the difference between a 22 and 26" bag, even if you're not really looking. The funny thing is I've never been stopped when I was to be flying on an airplane where the height of the bag would actually make a difference on a full flight - Mad Dog, 737, etc. In that case I would be more understanding of the "you need to check this" idea, that's all.