Originally Posted by
prgboy
I had the opposite problem in 2018, flying CHS-ATL-SRQ. I needed to check one bag only to ATL as I was meeting a friend at the airport and wanted to give him a couple of wine bottles I was carrying from Europe. It was absolutely impossible to negotiate this with the check-in ladies. (They said I could only solve it by buying a new ticket, CHS-ATL, but I pointed out that my next leg to SRQ on the original ticket would be canceled then...).
What you were trying to do may seem similar but is actually very different. You were trying to “short check” a bag. The reason you weren’t allowed to was short checking enables hidden city ticketing. OP is asking about adding a checked bag after completing the first leg. You were asking about only checking it halfway and claiming it during the layover.