Good for you, but with a published 2 hour rule in place, I am not willing to make a long term committment to a carrier that may or may not choose to enforce such a rule on a whim. This indeed has increasingly been the case at several US airports and folks have reported showing up a full hour before flight time and having the ATO refuse to check bags. Utter nonsense and a very solid point of consideration for any pax looking to shift their loyalty to US in ATL.

What should happen is US should address their ground staffing situation in ATL and offer the same terms as the other carriers against whom they compete there.

Bottom line = in my job, I must check baggage. If an airline warns me in advance that they have ground handling issues and may or may not accept my bags after a 2 hour limit, I'm looking elsewhere.