My first post on this forum. I have 30+ yrs flying the big 3 and literally millions of miles on all (AA,DL,UA) and am top tier on all. I have flown AS twice now in the past 3 months, both to Hawaii. Fares were good. And everything else is good, too.

My complaint is that, twice now, my wife and I (veteran flyers of the 1st row in F) were unable to get to the head of the boarding rush, due to unforeseen circumstances. We boarded 20 minutes after first call.

The bins above our seats were stowed with FA's stuff on all 4 legs of our two trips. Didn't bug me terribly until one of the flights the FA said we'd have to check our stuff. My wife was very non-plussed and protested significantly (very unlike her). Eventually, one of the FA's relented and we found space.

I don't expect much sympathy (rarely seen on FT for something like this) but is this an aberrancy? Can't the FA's put their stuff somewhere else other than above row 1, where PAX have no option to stow something in front of them?

Thanx