For the places people have seen an increase of size checks: are they checking the size on the personal item or just the carry on?

This is a nuance free zone apparently.

Pot smoker, jay walker, mass murderer - sentence them all to death. They are all crimes.

I respectfully disagree with the people who think the bag compliance issue is clear cut. Three issues that immediately come to mind: 1) the notion that the bag needs to fit "comfortably" into the sizer -- this is very subjective, 2) handles that sort of "pop up" but recess when gentle pressure is applied -- do these get assessed in the popped up position or the compressed position?, and 3) parallax when assessing whether the bag fits in/on the white line (and maybe that's a fourth, is the standard within the white line, or not extending beyond the white line?)

In all of those cases, someone has committed a crime or the person has not - i don't see the relevance - they are all different crimes

Whether a bag is compliant is a single thing , not multiple different issues

Murder 1
Murder 2
Voluntary Manslaughter
Involuntary Manslaughter
Culpable homicide not amounting to murder

All the same action. Different punishments.

Yes it's an extreme example, but there is nuance here too. There are degrees of infringement everywhere.

Just flew MIA to DFW today and there was a manager (or who ever oversees gate agents) checking carry-ons at boarding. They made a crewmembers check in one of the three bags he was trying to bring on (not working this flight). Good for them.

The last thing we need to AA horrible service are managers on power trip checking bags and potentially making someone check perfectly sized bag just because they can

AA now is required to do 30 "self audits" monthly. What is a self-audit?

There is no punishment being meted out for non compliant bags that I am aware of - just not letting someone break the rules is not the same as punishing for breaking a rule

This is the technicality of all technicalities.

Either you have a bag that is non compliant and just been getting away with it, but may not now - or you have a compliant bag and there is no change or issue for you

There is no justification for allowing non compliant bags even up to now - just that AA has been lousy at enforcing its own rules

It isn't so black and white.You have x resources and y goodwill. Do you blow it on the guy 0.5 inch out of line who hurts no one or the one who has 4 items? There's a reason we don't shoot people who run red lights.

I personally only carry a backpack, so whatever, but I see exactly how this will end up going. AA will go bag Nazi for a month using a millimeter ruler and piss off people for no reason. Then, they will slide right back to where things are now, where people bring way more things on board than they should. Result, pissed off people with no long term solution. And that's why common sense rule application makes sense.

How is a published permitted dimension not black and white? all passengers should be treated equally and all should be expected to follow the rules. It isn't as if the bags one day may be compliant and another day may have grown half an inch. if it is half an inch over today , it will be the same tomorrow and the next day. someone with 4 items may have a one off case of having ended up with 4 - the person with the oversized bag chose to buy something of that size

Is this a case where you have a non compliant bag but think that the airline should not enforce the rules on that bag , or just a general view that the rules shouldn't be enforced?

My Tumi that I've been around the world with more times than I can count is specified at 22x14x9. Truth be known, it is about 3/4" over on each of these measurements. Now, I jumped on line today looking at bags just for the fun of it and it is NOT that easy to just go find one that fits the 22x14x9 criteria. Most are off an inch here, 1/2" there, etc. Most of that is due to the 4 wheels that stick out way too far. So, you see a bag listed as a 20" spinner, but it is really 22.7" or whatever because of the wheel height. Same thing with oversized handles. Don't let the name fool you of 19" or 20" spinners. Look at the actual size. The AA website is very clear that the measurement includes all wheels/handles. The Away, as mentioned before, seems to be compliant, as are a few others, but not nearly as common as one might think.

Funny thing is also that it does not appear to be a linear 45" rule on the roller boards. Each of the 3 measurements must comply invidually, but yet, garment bags are allowed 51" however you manage to get there. Nice.

And for those who say they are running into this in various airports over the last day or so, I thought this was all a November 1st effective date of action?

I check my bags. So one backpack under the seat. Always. And its compliant.

I think that rules are on a sliding scale of most impact to least. Solve the flagrant violators, the problem causers first and then, if desired, focus on the smaller stuff that has less impact. If you have a drunk driving epidemic, then focus resources there and not on parking tickets such as whether a car is 15 feet or 14.5 feet from the curb.

But when you cant and wont enforce the flagrant violators, then ticky-tacky policing is stupid. Either go full SQ and weigh and measure ALL bags and do it forever or tackle the problem people. AA wont do either - this enforcement will last a couple of months tops, at which point they slide further down the rankings of customer satisfaction, solve zero problems and achieve nothing.

Simply put, I dont steal, but I do jaywalk. And theres a world of nuance that differentiates the two.