Originally Posted by
mahasamatman
It's not a "new rule". I've had a few FAs want to charge for snack boxes in F for the past five years, but most are more reasonable, so it's very much a YMMV situation. As far as being "forced" to gate-check, that's also been around for many years if your carry-on is too large.
We don't know if his bag was too large, now do we?
That United charges FC GS customers for a snack box, is simply stupid, short-sighted, and poor business practice. Why, anyone pays them for this crappy abuse is beyond me.