I was on a 3-segment run yesterday, unfortunately routing through ORD (BNA-ORD-DFW-BHM). My flight into ORD was two hours late due to the problems, and as a result I missed my DFW connection (and lost my F upgrade). AA put me on the very next flight out, which was due to depart within 20 minutes of arrival of my inbound.

I made it to the gate just a few minutes before departure time. I was the last person to board the flight, and as I walked on the FA at the door told me the bins were all full (which ultimately turned out not to be accurate), and that I would have to gate-check my carry-on. A ramp worker rushed up and demanded the luggage, giving me no time to get anything out of my bag.

She asked me if DFW was my final destination, and I answered no. She asked to see my boarding pass for the next flight, which I showed her. She scribbled a barely legible "BH?" on a manual luggage receipt, shoved it in my hand, grabbed my bag, and ran off, leaving me to find my seat in the Kettle section.

From the moment she ran off, I had this feeling that something was not right, and I wondered if I would see my luggage again. Upon arrival in BHM, I was pleasantly surprised to see my bag appear on the carousel, but sure enough, her handwritten bag tag had all kinds of fail on it. The BHM flight # was 1224, but she had written "2214," and again scribbled "BH?" as the airport code.

I owe big thanks to whoever it was in DFW baggage services that looked at her shoddy work and figured out on which flight to put the bag.

So, the tl;dr version - is there any way to avoid or get around a forced gate check like this? If not, what's the best course of action? Could I have insisted that there was likely to be bin space for my smallish rollaboard (turns out there was). Should I have said I didn't have another connection, then just collected my luggage in DFW and headed back through security to catch my final leg?