2 weeks ago Sunday I was flying PIT-MDW-DFW and I experienced the same painful delays in trying to check my bag. What is really interesting is that I had a ticket mailed to me that used up part of a flight credit left over from an unused DFW-MDW-CLT RT ticket. The ticket stated boarding pass on the right and on the bottom it stated not valid for travel. When I presented it, the ticket agent checked my bag and I went entirely through security and made it to the gate agent who told me I couldn't have made it through security with it when I realized I had no seat assignment. They called the TSA agent and had me scanned and my carry on computer bag checked while he asked me how I "did it". I looked at the clipboard and there were 6 other items listed and all were AA or ATA passengers in the past week.

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AA Gold, Marriott Platinum