It's been a pain in recent years flying through the US to other destinations, or even to within the US, to have to collect your bags at the port of entry and haul them across the airport to your connecting international or domestic flight.
Solution: I stopped flying through the US and therefore with US airlines - that's how I came to start travelling East instead of West and found my way to LOS
There was a radio piece a couple of days ago about changes to British Airways' carry-on baggage policies. At the moment they are pretty Draconian, particularly for economy passengers. Apparently the rules will change very soon to allow two pieces of carry-on luggage of ANY WEIGHT (so long as you can lift it) and it fits within a little basket at check-in that didn't sound much different from the current size limit (size of a weekend bag). The second bag would be a smaller laptop case or similar. They said the cabins could take it, although the ridiculous limits currently imposed were always said to be because of the risk of injury if bags were to fall/be dropped from overhead lockers - that seems to have been thrown out. The new rules will apply to all classes.
This is good news for me because I like to travel with just carry-on, and when I don't, such as when carrying scuba gear, I'll be able to take some of the heavier stuff as carry-on and fit more clothing, and souvenirs on the return, into the checked bags. Checked bag rules are not changing at the moment but are expected to be next to be reviewed. At the moment there is a huge difference between most destinations (20-odd kg) and the US/Canada/Caribbean (60-odd kg). It is said they are likely to be standardized.
Why change the carry-on rules? Seems to be driven by security; people like me carry lots of stuff in small bags (camera, small bag, pockets filled to the brims, bags on the belt etc.) and those that do not organize themselves as well as I do on the approach to security checks slow things down considerably. If they can be encouraged to put everything into one or two bags, then it will speed things up. Also the airline anticipates savings in checked baggage handling.
This does seem to be at odds with rising fuel costs, as more cabin weight will mean more fuel usage.