Originally Posted by
brettsir
That policy is most likely to avoid bags being checked in and not having enough time to get to the plane. Bags have to go through TSA like everyone else, and at the end, cant walk to their gate on their own. Even if a bag is checked in late, if it doesn't arrive with you and you file a claim at your destination, that claim is reported to the DOT as if AA truly lost your bag. As it is, the policy barely cuts it at some airports. So if you're delayed because of bags, blame the person who arrived at the counter 46 min before departure. They are the one making you wait as their bag travels through the airport, gets screened by TSA, has whatever hazmat is inside it removed, waits for a ramp agent to rush it to the gate, is loaded, and then requires load sheets and manifests must be amended before departure.
On other airlines, they just tag a big red "LATE CHECKED" thing on your bag and make you sign a waiver, so it's really not an issue. I'm not sure if it's the stupidity of AA's ops or their crappy IT system and their quest to remove all aagent empowerment (apparently, a supervisor can no longer override the error). I've been able to get around it occasionally by SDFC to a later flight, checking the bag, and then SDFC back on to the original flight, but I think their system checks if you have checked bags and disallows this now.
Also, other airlines have shorter bag cut offs and WAYYYYYY more checked bags (like WN, with 2x checked bags free), and they don't have this ridiculous bag problem with the TSA causing them delays.
And that's besides the point, I mean why rush to load the plane full of pax if the bags aren't there yet?
Originally Posted by
jordyn
I think you're missing the point. Other airlines allow baggage to be checked later than 45 minutes and don't have this problem. So it's infuriating that AA requires extra time to handle the bags and still can't manage to get them on the plane faster than the passengers.
Spot on.