@ Jaunt411 - thanks, point taken, I've removed the identifying details of the employee. Agreed I'm not faultless for trying to push the limits, but felt threatening offloading from the flight was rather extreme.

@ KACommuter - Agreed, it's in the grey areas without any SOP that things. That said, fully agree that JFK exceeded expectations with managing late check-ins - they had boarding passes printed and ready for pax who had done OLCI but had not shown up in time.

@zrs70 - You got me there! Honestly, I'd have tried to board with it at the gate (I find that cabin crew are almost always very liberal with carry-on limits), but if stopped at that point, would let them gate-check it without a fuss; at least that would avoid infamous JFK baggage handlers and reduce the risk of a lost / delayed bag.