Originally Posted by
Valskate
Thanks for all the feedback. I guess I’ll just have to see what happens. I did in fact read the AA website and baggage restrictions before booking. We chose AA because a carry on was allowed. The point of a carry on for me is to have essentials, a change of clothes, etc in case my checked bag gets lost. Checking it at the gate just defeats the purpose of that.
Well I think the bag is less likely to get lost/delayed if it's gate-checked, assuming you're taking a single flight segment.
But I would expect a very real chance that by the time they start boarding Basic Economy fares in Group 9, there will be no overhead space left and they'll require you to check your bag. If it's valuable to carry on your bag, you should purchase Main Cabin going forward. AA.com should probably be more explicit that the Group 9 boarding could result in lack of overhead space for carry-on bags.