Were they looking at the size of the personal items, too?

The reason AA is doing this, is because it was mandated to do so by the FAA. The would seem to indicate the airlines not singled out by the FAA are already more restrictive than AA has been

I buy a lot of luggage on Amazon and over the years I’ve received many bags that are larger than the published dimensions and they are immediately returned. The bag manufacturers are to blame because they publish 21” or 22” or “carry-on compliant” but they’re not counting the wheels or the handles or the zippered compartments and they figure that the generally uninformed flying public won’t notice or will gladly take the chance and use the bag until they get forced to gate check the first time and by then it will be too late to return it.

My own reluctance to check bags (which is a free service for me) stems from the ghost of lost baggage past, the memories of which are hard to shake. Baggage operations have undoubtedly come a long way since my young road warrior days of the ‘80’s when checking bags came with about a 10% chance of either it arriving late or disappearing forever. Today the larger problem is the slow delivery of bags to the carousel, especially on late night arrivals, which I often have. Waiting 40 minutes for your bag at the carousel is more than a minor inconvenience. The airlines want to punish the passenger but there’s plenty of blame to go around.

Yep. I was genuinely shocked when my bag beat me to the carousel in ORD this week. If that was more regular, I'd be fine with checking a bag.

Yes, most definitely. Several were asked to use sizers.

Thanks! I can't see how using the sizer would work on the personal items, since personal items are supposed to be smaller, but still good info to know.

it was mandated by the faa for them to stick to their own posted guidelines. It isn’t an faa requirement. It’s an AA requirement and the faa is telling then to adhere to their own (probably because someone complained to them about it ). Look carefully at the wording - this isn’t an faa requirement on bag sizes.

it’s like the bathroom in your class of service thing. Do you think you really violated an faa FAR violation when you use the economy bathroom from business ? Or vice verse ? No. But AA files for their regulation and the faa just rubber stamps it and says ok.

Ohhh ... sorry, I misunderstood the question. I didn't see anything crazy -- like having to check a newspaper -- but they were watching larger items.

Generally I'm in the camp of "here are the limits plain as day, if you exceed them - tough, you knew in advance." Though funny enough when I look at the published overall dimensions of my TravelPro carry-on, it's technically non-compliant. Really, quite a few of their products marketed as carry-on / "sizer tested" exceed the 22x14x9 that's standard across AA / DL / UA, in one dimension or another.

I flew back from Hawaii earlier this month. The GA's were definitely being Bag nazi's, both at HNL and DFW, on my return. I had to do a minor repack at the Gate at the agent's request. It wasn't a big deal, and the GA could not have been nicer or more professional.

Flying in F, I've gotten used to the GA's almost never asking me to put my small shoulder purse into my carry-on to make two bags. But this time, after asking me if I was traveling with someone, (I wasn't), they asked me to consolidate. Usually it's not a big deal because there's a little room left over in my carry-on and I just toss it in, on the rare times I've been asked to do so. But this time I bought a bunch of last minute gifts at the airport in KOA and decided to put them all in my carry-on instead of carrying the separate airport bag onto the HNL flight. The carry-on was packed to the brim. I explained to the GA that I'd actually repacked everything in HNL after getting gifts at the KOA airport, so that I'd be able to put the carry-on in the OH bin on boarding - easy-peasy like - and not touch it the rest of the flight. To otherwise not hold up others during the boarding process digging stuff out, reshuffling, etc. Be in my seat in seconds so others can move by. The GA was super nice about it, even offering a couple suggestions, and kind of chuckling when I explained. She very nicely said that it made sense, but that unpacking/repacking to settle into the flight on boarding is "OK", but that stepping onto the jetway with more than two items was not, unless I was traveling with someone else. OK, no problem. Usually, like I said, not a big deal at all and there rarely have been times I've been asked to stick my purse into another bag to board. Usually a ten second exercise to get the purse into the carry-on. This time with the extra airport gifts, everything was packed tight and some reshuffling was involved. It took a few minutes even rushing. And while I was doing that off to the side, the GA had asked some others to consolidate also. There were some grumbles about it in the F cabin. The FA came around super quick with PDB's and seemed extra attentive during the flight. And again, the GA at HNL could not have been more professional or courteous in how she approached it. Connecting at DFW, I made sure to have just two items on my person, but a person ahead of me in boarding had to reshuffle.

I didn't think much of it at the time, just figured it was a one-off. Now I think the word had already come to down to AA before the FAA memo Jon posted. My trip back was about a week before that. It was a night and day difference flying outbound two weeks before than on the return. At the time, I thought to myself this would have all been solved, if I'd just left the candy boxes and coffee in the bag from the KOA airport, as usually airport purchases have not counted in carry-on #'s. And KOA let me board with the airport bag and the other items. But that was an HA operated flight AA codeshare. Now I'm not so sure whether the airport bag would have mattered or not.

While some jokes have been made about newspapers and such, if a GA is commenting on a newspaper, what the heck else is going to be a problem? Someone boarding with a bottle of water? A bag from McDonalds? (Ew, but not the point. Although I suppose it will deter people from bringing greasy gross food onboard, if it has to share a space with their clothes in their carry-on until they get to their seat. Especially on an outbound flight.)

AA needs to come out with additional guidance on the definitions, or clearly state an airport purchase made after clearing security will be considered a carry-on or a personal item. Travelers need to know in advance if they can't buy a book or food at the airport, unless they can consolidate it into another bag to board. Lots of time I'll buy a book at the airport store before boarding. Many times I don't travel with a carry-on. There's no way in the world a book, especially a hardcover, is fitting in my laptop bag or purse at that point. At least not without spillover. I've never been questioned for a book. But now I'm not so sure it wouldn't be a problem or what the outcome would be. Throw the book I just bought away at the gate?

I'm a bit wary to travel AA again until this all shakes out more. Especially with winter coming. Are passengers going to be told a coat can't be removed, if they already have a carry-on item in the overhead, and a personal item under their seat? That it would have to be able to count as one of those to remove a coat? (Hopefully that is beyond absurd. But if someone got dinged by a zealous agent for holding a newspaper while crossing the threshold, who knows.)

I am wondering what impact these bag size checks are having on departure times. Surely the checks add time to the boarding process. Are flights going out a bit later than usual?

Let's not forget that the AAgents are not doing this for their own fun and amusement, they are stuck with the problem of enforcing their own rules to the letter and you can bet that if they have any sense that they are under FAA scrutiny while boarding that flight then even a stray newspaper is going to be called out or they risk getting written-up themselves...

The rules don't say 'within 1/2" or so..' so when the FAA hold AA to the standard of enforcing their own rules there is no room for that extra '1/2" or so' which makes it a binary decision, either the bag is compliant or it isn't.

Also consider that many of the new aircraft are designed to have carry-on slotted into the overhead space on edge, not laying flat, so each dimension really is critical as any extra depth to the bag translates into increased width when placed that way around.

This is frustrating for everyone involved so lets try not to take it out on the staff when I'm sure most of us already know if our bag is really compliant or not, it is just question of not having been caught yet...

If this happened, sure. Unfortunately, AA does not charge passengers with oversize bags, they gate check them for free.

There are sizers that show both carry-on dimensions (white lines) and personal size dimensions (yellow lines). Saw one at the D31 ticket counter at DFW, last night. Come to think of it, not sure I've ever seen one of those for AA. Only Spirit.

Here's the AA version, along with a non-compliant carry-on.