It might be worth measuring the stroller and checking with American Airlines, but I highly doubt you need to purchase another stroller.

We traveled with our daughter in her stroller until she was 11 years old. When she outgrew her first stroller, we ended up buying a Maclaren Major stroller which was (is?) much larger than a regular stroller (it was/is marketed as a special needs stroller but was ideal for our daughter even though she doesn’t have any special needs).

We traveled with it through all the major hubs in the U.S. and most major airports in Europe, and like yno and Redhead, we never had any issues at security even though her stroller was much larger than a regular stroller. When folded the Maclaren major was long but compact and so could fit through some scanners lengthwise, but even when the security staff didn’t want to put it through the scanner, they just inspected at the side and handed it back to us.

In our experience, we’d suggest thinking about three other things which might help.

First, having some sort of a basic plan before you get to the airport can be a big help. Obviously every kid is different, so it could change when you get there, but we always found a simple plan helpful and stuck to it as much as was possible. For us, that meant as soon as we arrived at the airport our daughter would sit the in stroller all the way to the gate until we started boarding (except for going through security). As long as we kept to that routine, we had the peace of mind of knowing that if we had to talk to airline/airport staff, figure out what direction to go, get stuff from our bags, etc., we were able to focus on that knowing she was comfortable and safe.

Second, if you plan to use the stroller throughout the airport (as we did), allow a bit of extra time than you might otherwise. I apologize if this is something you already know, but going through security can become rather pressured with trying to get everything ready and then collecting it afterwards all while supervising your kid(s). We allowed a lot of extra time whenever we could, especially when our daughter was younger and was excited about various “unusual” things she noticed (such as moving walkways). As she got older and more accustomed to airports and didn’t on some occasions want to be in her stroller, having the extra time to explain why she needed to be in the stroller definitely helped make everything easier. We sometimes allowed too much time but, when we did, having a favorite toy, and when she was older a good book, always helped her be perfectly happy in the stroller even though it could be a few hours at a time.

Third, if you choose to use the stroller through the airport, we suggest always properly buckling in your kid(s) before and after getting their stroller through security. We know many never do this, but we’ve seen a kids jump out of strollers, some strollers tip over having been overloaded with bags and jackets, etc., plus other frustrating and/or dangerous things all of which could have been easily avoided. We had a simple rule that if she was in her stroller, she was buckled in properly without any exceptions. We would always unbuckle her once our place in the queue reached the start/front end of the scanners, and buckle her in again as soon as we had the stroller back. We’d sort out bags, jackets, laptop, etc. afterwards. We were lucky that our daughter always naturally traveled well, and by the time she was 9 years old she would buckle herself in the stroller after security. Having a simple plan and allowing extra time definitely helped with creating that consistent routine – which we found especially valuable with things like security which can easily disrupt things and take up more time than is ideal.

Obviously different things work for different people, so what worked for us may not work for you, but we hope this is helpful in some way!