Just has a bunch of issues related to this. DCA-MIA-Central America. Overnight in MIA wiith 15 hours layover. First agent (at priority check-in) said no way would the short check... such option doesn't exist in the system and "never existed." Went to a different counter and they said it was fine. They short checked all the bags to MIA. Upon arriving at MIA, 2 of 3 bags made it. The third bad never came. Despite having a claim tag showing it was tagged to MIA, baggage "services" said it was tagged to our final destination "at the gate" with a new claim number. After pushing back that we did not gate check any luggage, they said that it must have been changed by someone. They said it would take up to 4 hours to get the bag back at MIA.

Do you think they have people scanning bags looking for skiplaggers? We aren't skiplagging.. but this is the only reason I can see such an aggressive customer unfriendly approach to this. If AA sells a ticket with an overnight connection, they should put a huge warning that you won't have access to your bags overnight. It used to be they actually wouldn't let you keep the bags overnight at the airport that long and forced you to pick them up. Waste of time and typical AA nastiness from customer "service."