Curious to know if this was possible.

I got in a bit of a pickle last night when boarding late SFO-EWR. On a MR SFO-EWR-DCA-EWR-SFO with a 40-minute turn in DCA. I boarded late because the flight was overbooked, and they potentially needed volunteers (it did not).

Anyhow, it came time to board, and they wanted to gate check my bag, which I had no problem with. However, they wanted to gate check it to DCA, where I have a 40-minute turn. The agent in charge of boarding could not be reasoned with -- I asked them to check it only to EWR, or all the way through on all four (4) segments, or hold it at SFO, or something, but she insisted the ticket was to DCA, the bag flies to DCA. All well and good, but 40 minutes isn't enough to exit security, retrieve a bag from bag claim, and reclear security for the next flight.

She said it's either that or get rebooked for tomorrow -- a classic Hobson's Choice. Any other GA who was there and tried to assist, she would interrupt, "He has been advised the bag goes to DCA and that's it." Total power trip.

I was debating whether to check it to DCA and file a bag reroute request in EWR and subsequent claim to make CO deliver it to my house in SFO or fly another day and then file a DOT complaint and claim I was involutarily denied boarding. Then I alerted a real gem of a GA who went on board and made arrangements with the FA to make room for the bag. Of course there was still a little bin space when I sat down.

Regardless, the rogue GA's behavior left a bad taste in my mouth. More surprisingly this happened at SFO where I had thought all the agents were excellent.

Does anyone know if short checking a gate-check bag (e.g., SFO-EWR in this case) should be allowed? If I'm willing to exit security in EWR and retrieve the bag, and since it's already been screened through security, I don't see why it would be a problem. It'd be much like a gate-checked RJ bag, but it's just dumped on bag claim, no?