Originally Posted by
DeathSlam
It's probably not the BA part that will be the issue.
Assuming you are Club Europe on BA they seem to allow a garment bag as well as a roll on and a personal item even though this is not policy.
With a very chunky suit bag you would be pushing it but I would probably expect to get away with it and the worst case would be to be asked to gate check my roller.
Whether AA in J are as lenient I don't know.
If you are forced to check your roller as well as your other checked luggage it will be free on BA (2 bags in J). But I don't know if that would cost you on AA. My understanding was that US carriers were less lenient on this as that is how they make a large chunk of their revenue.
BA is a lot more lenient on non-US flights. On US flights (and hence with all US carriers), the FAA mandates only one personal item (eg underseat) and one rollaboard (eg suitcase/trolley). The carrier is free to set the size (or mandate less, eg on some of the American Eagle carriers where they valet check anything large), but whatever policy they have must go to the FAA for approval, and then they must adhere to it. AA was recently found to be in violation of their policy (eg GAs letting too much or too large items on board), so they have cracked down and are strict on consolidating into 2 bags total. Whether the GA will bat an eye or not will be a roll of the dice, but I find they are more strict on number of items over the size.