My Question is this . . .
Is there a difference between 'full' and 'very full'?

On my recent flight home from holiday vacation, I noticed the flight attendants kept stressing to the passengers that our flight was 'very full'. I think this was an attempt to get us seated quicker and to make us cooperate with each other on the on-board space available for carry-on luggage. But I found it very odd, nonetheless.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a very full flight today. So please be sure to take your seats as quickly as possible. Put your larger items in the overhead bins. Smaller items should be placed under the seat in front of you to make sure there is plenty of room on board for everyone and their carry-on items, since this is a very full flight."

But if the plane is full, can it possibly be 'very' full? Full is full, right? So if you tell me it is a full flight, I will understand that to mean every seat is taken, thus making it 'full'.

So then, to say it is 'very' full, does that mean it is fuller than full? Are people sitting on other peoples' laps? Do we have people stuffed into the overhead bins and shoved under seats along with the carry-on luggage? Did we put the extra people to work handing out pretzels? Are there crates full of people underneath the plane with the baggage? Is it safe to allow the plane to get 'very' full, as opposed to just regularly full? Will the plane weigh too much? Should some of us get off and wait for the next flight?

It was like the flight attendants expected us to be able to magically compensate for the very fullness of the flight, as opposed to it being 'just' full. Really, all we can do is sit in our seats and experience the very fullness of the plane.

And until they can explain the logistics and the physics of a plane being fuller than full, I simply do not know how to help them.

C.T.