We have booked flights between SEA and CUN in early 2025. We have no status other than holding Alaska credit cards. This is a dive trip to Mexico (flying to Cancun), so we are bringing along our SCUBA gear. It's somewhat heavy, bulky, awkward stuff, a mix of things. We each get one free checked bag (we both have Alaska credit cards), however, our dive bags are bigger than the standard checked bag allowance. Alaska says "We’re glad to waive the oversize fee or overweight fee for the items listed in this section...." "SCUBA equipment" is one of the items listed. However, it also says...

"We accept sports equipment items as checked baggage, provided each piece is properly packed in a soft- or hard-sided case designed specifically for the equipment." (my bolding)
Really - seriously? EVERY piece needs to be in a case specially designed for that equipment (separately)? Including my snorkel? How about my wetsuit? A muckstick? The point here is that the wording seems unrealistic to me (there are no "snorkel cases" or special wet-suit bags...actually, someone might make such things, but for most recreational dive travelers, specialized cases for such items would be impractical and silly). Honestly, we have large, basic duffel bags that we use, we dump all our dive gear into them (and then we fill the loose spaces with soft clothes both to cushion the gear in transit, and also to take advantage of the spaces that would otherwise be empty)...and I bet most divers do the exact same thing. So the language that Alaska uses seems unrealistic (actually, it seems like somethings written by someone who doesn't know anything about SCUBA gear but who had to write some guideline). We are NOT bringing tanks (or weights).

My point, and my question, is that the language seems unrealistic and silly. So I'm wondering to what extent (if any) Alaska will care or enforce the letter of this policy - if they discover I have shoved some underwear and socks into the empty spots in my dive bag, are they going to throw a flag and charge me $100? Or do I just have to tell them, "it's SCUBA gear, we're going to Cancun" and that's all they need to know? Will there be a hand inspection (looking for prohibited underwear and t-shirts) or an xray looking for (gasp) signs of bathing suits and flipflops mixed in with my BCD and dive booties? Will they only accept it if the bag has a big, orange OEM "This is an Official Dive Gear Bag" logo on it's side from the manufacturer? If they see it's just a big duffel bag with dive gear in it, (because it is), will they care?

Bottom line: How literally do they take the descriptions on their website? If it's just a regular duffel bag full of (mostly) SCUBA gear (with some non-dive-gear also tossed in to cushion things), will that pass muster? How worried should I be about this?

Thanks.