Had an interesting experience recently that was probably mostly my fault. Was boarding a J41 to Dulles with my laptop bag (it's the size of a pilot's case - room for 2 laptops).

On J41s I try to make sure I get on the 2-seat side since the bag will fit under there but not under the single seat side. On this particular flight the FA directed me to move (for weight and balance reasons?) to a seat further back and on the single seat side.

I glanced around and saw that all the other 2-seat positions had at least one person already there. Not wanting to be difficult (asking other people to switch or give up their leg space beacause of my carry-on), I moved and grudgingly gave the bag to the FA telling her about the 2 laptops, etc.

Flight was uneventful except for a 15 minute delay sitting on the runway prior to takeoff. I was connecting to another UAX flight so even with the 25 min. connection I wasn't super concerned.

When we landed, my bag was not at the carry-on pickup cart (??). I looked around and saw it sitting on the tarmac by the cargo door and pointed it out to the person there. They said since it was not green tagged as a carry-on they would have to send it to luggage claim. Arrgh! I wasn't given a claim check, but I didn't insist on the bag tagging either.

I argued to no avail about the short connection - that I was not given a tag - blah, blah. Getting nowhere, I said OK send it to bag claim, I'll pick it up, go thru security again, and get rebooked.

At this point a more senior person (based on demeanor and gray hair) walks up and asks what's going on. He confers with the others, scolds me for not insisting on a gate check bag tag, then tells me he's qualified to do security checks and that I could open the bag right there on the tarmac so he could go through it. I do - he goes through it - gives me the OK - and I'm off to the gate for the next flight.

Lessons I took from the situation were:
1) With bag matching in place, always make sure gate checked stuff gets tagged.
2) Some baggage personnel have bag check authority.

Not sure about lesson #2 above. Anyone know better?