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AA carry on / carryon baggage rules & enforcement (master thd)

Old Nov 21, 2016, 8:48 pm
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Last edit by: JDiver
American Airlines Carry-On Baggage Limits
Strict enforcement directive issued 28 August 2015)
American Airlines Carry-on baggage (link)

Q. Why is AA suddenly becoming so picky about sizing bags?

A. AA formulates carry on baggage policy that meets FAA criteria as well as airline established criteria; these are submitted to the FAA and if approved become the airline's policy. If the airline repeatedly violated their FAA-approved policy, they can be held accountable by the FAA. Recently, during an FAA audit, AA was found to be violating its FAA-approved carry on policy.

What can I carry on?

You can bring 1 carry-on bag and 1 personal item per person (exception: infants. Exception: some regional aircraft have insufficient bin space for otherwise "legal" bags, so carry-on bags might be limited, or even prohibited. If the latter, they will usually be "valet checked" airside and delivered at the jetway before you enter the gate area.

Carry-on bag

Your carry-on bag should be:
  • Up to 45 inches (22 x 14 x 9 in or 115 centimeters (23 x 36 x 56 cm) including handles and wheels
  • Able to fit comfortably into the sizer weve provided at the airport
  • Please note, youll also need to be able to lift your bag into the overhead bin
You can travel with horizontal rolling and/or hanging garment bags as your carry-on bag if:
  • They fit comfortably in the bag sizer
  • They measure up to 22" length x 14" width x 9" height or 115cm (56 x 36 x 23 cm)
You can also carry on a soft-sided garment bag of up to 51in or 130cm (length + width + height)

Personal item

Your personal item must be smaller than your carry-on, able to fit under the seat in front of you and can include:
  • A purse
  • A briefcase
  • A laptop bag
  • Similar items such as a tote
Additional allowed items

You can also bring:
  • Outerwear such as coats, wraps and hats
  • A book or newspaper
  • A small bag of food to eat on the flight
  • An approved safety seat for a lap or ticketed child
  • A pillow or blanket
  • An umbrella stroller for a lap or ticketed child
  • A diaper bag for a lap or ticketed child
  • Duty free items
  • Assistive devices (e.g. wheelchairs, walkers, portable oxygen concentrators, CPAP machines etc.)
  • Breast pump
Liquids and restricted items

TSA allows certain duty-free liquids through security in your carry-on bag if theyre properly packaged in a security tamper-evident bag (STEB). If youre traveling with liquids or are unsure about any item, please contact the TSA.

For more, e.g. special items, etc. please use link
Originally Posted by alien
22 x 14 x 10

So today I took measurements of the sizer at my airport... There is obviously some slippage and subjectivity in the eye of (s)he who must be obeyed due to the open ended 1/4" lines outlining the baggage dimensions placed either horizontally or vertically. But, strictly speaking, the outside edge of the lines are 22' and 14". The depth is a definitive full 10 inches from the back board to the inner side of the metal tube running low laterally across the front of the sizer. This is the current sizer that I measured:


22 x 14 x 10

...We are given a 22 x 14 x 9 but there is some room to maneuver. We have 22" and 14" with a very subjective but limited amount of slippage. And there is definitely 10" of depth.

The subjectivity would be greatly reduced if the sizers were constructed, as Delta's, to form a full sided box.

Those on the margin should really test their bags in advance in all of the different positions to see which allows the most favorable view of its size if required to use the sizer at the gate.
See


AA e-mail to customer re: carry on baggage

and


Comparison of USA airlines carry-on limits Apr '25 by Outdoor Gear Lab

and


Airline carry on variances and the new IATA recommended standard

and


New IATA recommended standard vs. current common


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AA carry on / carryon baggage rules & enforcement (master thd)

Old Jun 9, 2014, 5:15 pm
  #1  
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AA carry on / carryon baggage rules & enforcement (master thd)

Has anyone experienced thing described in this article?

http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/blog/...arry-on-rules/

I will be traveling from LAX to JFK in first class in July. I plan to travel with just a Rimowa cabin trolley, which may be an inch over the limit.

I am only traveling for 3 days, so it's not worth it for me to bring a larger luggage. And I absolutely do not to check my (hard aluminum case) rimowa luggage too because I know the bag handler will put a dent or two on the it.

Do you guys think AA agent at LAX will force me to check the cabin trolley at the gate? I would think they might go easy on first class passenger if it looks normal "visually".
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Old Jun 9, 2014, 5:49 pm
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The gate agent this morning made a passenger in front of me check his bag because it was too large. The gentleman sat there and argued with her and held up the line for 2 or 3 minutes to prove he could shove it into the bin. We were already running late.

YMMV
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Old Jun 9, 2014, 6:59 pm
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Originally Posted by uclacolumbiaunc
Has anyone experienced thing described in this article?

http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/blog/...arry-on-rules/

I will be traveling from LAX to JFK in first class in July. I plan to travel with just a Rimowa cabin trolley, which may be an inch over the limit.

I am only traveling for 3 days, so it's not worth it for me to bring a larger luggage. And I absolutely do not to check my (hard aluminum case) rimowa luggage too because I know the bag handler will put a dent or two on the it.

Do you guys think AA agent at LAX will force me to check the cabin trolley at the gate? I would think they might go easy on first class passenger if it looks normal "visually".
I have seen them monitor bags at ORD and LAX but usually in my experience they are looking for bags that are grossly out of proportion. They don't make everyone use the sizer so it is doubtful to me that you would run into an issue for 1".

Additionally as you are flying F on a 3 class plane I would doubt they would even look twice at you.

That's my 2 cents.
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Old Jun 9, 2014, 7:15 pm
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I was on US 797 this morning (PHL-LAX) with my standard rollaboard and my large (Wenger Swiss Army) briefcase...there was an agent at the end of the jetway (near the plane) that asked me about the size...I told him it fits under the seat in coach, but not first...he measured it and told me that starting on the 11th I would not be able to carry the briefcase on board--it was too big.

I am flying back on June 12...we'll have to see if I get away with it, or if they make me gate-check one or the other.

I had not been upgraded this morning at the time I boarded (ended up finding out my upgrade cleared when someone else showed up at my coach seat with the same seat number, but that's a different story)...don't know if that makes a difference. My upgrade has already cleared for the return.
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Old Jun 9, 2014, 7:33 pm
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Originally Posted by salesflyerguy
The gate agent this morning made a passenger in front of me check his bag because it was too large. The gentleman sat there and argued with her and held up the line for 2 or 3 minutes to prove he could shove it into the bin. We were already running late.

YMMV
US GA at my gate in ATL yesterday not only made a woman check her bag, but made her pay the $25 checked bag fee since it was oversize.
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Old Jun 9, 2014, 7:45 pm
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AA still markets that it allows carry-on baggage whose LHW dimensional measurement does not exceed 45 linear inches; and AA also markets the 45 linear inches thing without a directly associated reference that it must fit in these shrunken sizers that UA too now loves to use.

With UA at least, the sizer enforcement is resulting in UA violating its own domestic and international contractual representations since the airline enforcement agents/contractors don't generally reference the ticket issue dates when making a fuss over the bag's fit with the sizer.

Last edited by GUWonder; Jun 9, 2014 at 7:51 pm
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Old Jun 9, 2014, 8:04 pm
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Originally Posted by salesflyerguy
The gate agent this morning made a passenger in front of me check his bag because it was too large. The gentleman sat there and argued with her and held up the line for 2 or 3 minutes to prove he could shove it into the bin. We were already running late.

YMMV
I was talking with an AC agent on Saturday in Chicago who said they were with the company for over 25 years. He said to be prepared that the carry baggage police are going to be starting today. He said that the customers with too many bags and the oversized bags were going to start getting their bags taken and having them checked.

Looking at this thread I get the feeling something did kick in today.
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Old Jun 9, 2014, 8:25 pm
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Originally Posted by shortkidd
I was talking with an AC agent on Saturday in Chicago who said they were with the company for over 25 years. He said to be prepared that the carry baggage police are going to be starting today. He said that the customers with too many bags and the oversized bags were going to start getting their bags taken and having them checked.

Looking at this thread I get the feeling something did kick in today.
For as much abuse as I see GAs and FAs take from pax for having to check bags at the end of boarding, it would be nice to see the people with oversized bags or too many bags be the ones that are inconvenienced instead of those who happen to be in zone 4 or 5.
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Old Jun 9, 2014, 8:31 pm
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My stuff is within the limits by a few inches. I'm not worried, just seems like a lot of people are about to get really upset.
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Old Jun 10, 2014, 12:21 am
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"For travel after June 11, 2014, the personal item does not have specific size requirements, but must be smaller than your carry-on bag and must fit under the seat in front of you."

I am fine with that except for one thing: the new 738's with the new AVOD don't have enough under-seat space (at least for aisle seats in Y) for almost any bag that would hold a laptop. Even a large purse may not fit. And there is no way to know ahead of time whether you will get one of the new 738s.
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Old Jun 10, 2014, 1:34 am
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Originally Posted by uclacolumbiaunc
Do you guys think AA agent at LAX will force me to check the cabin trolley at the gate? I would think they might go easy on first class passenger if it looks normal "visually".
I've heard the same story from AA staff as well, from June 11th things change.

I'd say there was a strong possibility you'll have to check the bag, even if you are in F.
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Old Jun 10, 2014, 4:55 am
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It will be interesting to see how soon/if/when a cabin bag size crackdown gets followed by collecting more checked bag fees for denied cabin bags with a prior history of having been taken on board freely as carry-on luggage before.
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Old Jun 10, 2014, 6:34 am
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Perfectly happy with rules being enforced.
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Old Jun 10, 2014, 6:54 am
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Good on US-AA for cleaning up the boarding process. And good on FAA for stepping up its enforcement against air carriers, which is leading to the enforcement of pretty simple rules.

Rather than delaying the boarding process for those who don't know how to use a tape measure, pull them out of the boarding queue and let them wait until others have boarded. At that point, tag the bags to the baggage office of the final destination where they can be picked up after paying the baggage fees and a processing penalty.

The violators here tend not to be little old ladies who never fly. It is frequent flyers who know the rules, flaunt them and can be -- just like Pavlov's dog -- trained.
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Old Jun 10, 2014, 8:23 am
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A gate agent at DFW last week took a look at my standard Delsey rollaboard and warned me that come June 11 it won't fit the sizer. Bag fits comfortably in the bins of every AA aircraft I've been on E75 and larger.

I'll all for enforcing the rules...but I don't get what changing the width dimension (from 15 to 14 inches) gets you in terms of extra space. It's not like the saved inch of width per bag is going to translate into fitting an additional bag into the bin.

I'll see what enforcement is like...bag's a bit long in the tooth anyway, and could use replacement.
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