Originally Posted by
guv1976
jerry90210, you're asking for certainty in an uncertain world. Even if you would only be forced to check a bag once in a hundred -- or a thousand -- times, your very next flight might be that time, so you need to have some type of Plan B should it happen to you.
If you go to AA's baggage page, you should find the allowable dimensions for an under-seat "personal" item; but from your description, I doubt that your messenger bag would fit.
As noted by Cledaybuck in Post #67, there is a free way for you to get Boarding Group 6 on an AA Basic Economy ticket: just sign up for the AAdvantage program (it costs you nothing), and include your AAdvantage number whenever you book Basic Economy on AA. Boarding Group 6 should reduce -- but not eliminate -- the risk that you would be forced to check your messenger bag. That's probably the best you can do when flying AA if you're not willing or able to pay extra for things like Priority Boarding.
I'm confused with the AAadvantage program. Is that something you just sign up for in their website or it's a credit card? Because I already have an account on aa website so don't I already have an AAdvantage account number? When I go book flights on aa website, I enter my AAdvantage number and then last name and password. So you are saying that the few times I flown with American, I was in group 6 because of this? I always thought I was the last group to board on American though now I'm not 100% sure on this. I just checked my aa account on my phone and it shows my AAdvantage account number and being an AAdvantage member. It does show I have 0 award miles and 0 loyalty points. Does this mean I'm already in group 6?