Originally Posted by
Valskate
If they try to get me to gate check the bag is there anything I can do?
No. You can state "Didn't AA recently make a change to allow a carry on and a personal item?" But I'd expect your going to get an answer that overhead space is full and you have no recourse. Since this route is a narrow-body 737 and Airbus, thus not abundant on overhead bin space, I'd expect to be getting a coffee while you wait for luggage.
Curious why they gave up on this policy of charging for the bag. I'm sure the revenue was not worth the time to enforce and create a delayed departure especially since they would run out of space.