Static Line

Our domestic first class award miles flight out of DCA is at 7:00 pm on 30 May, but we're arriving in DC by Uber in the mid-morning. We want to do some sightseeing in DC without dragging our luggage with us, so can anyone please tell me the earliest time we can drop off or check our luggage?

The AA site says the passenger can check in online up to 24 hours before departure, but not a word about how early bags can be checked. I telephoned AA and the CSA cited the same policy that I noted above, and she assumes that means we can bring our bags to the airport 24 hours early. I'm not so sure about that. I need a definitive answer. Would prefer to physically check our bags in the morning and return to the airport for our flight at the scheduled time.

Thanks in advance!

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I finally talked to a AA CSA and she stated yes, we can drop off and check our bags early and return later to board the flight.

JY1024

Welcome to FlyerTalk Static Line !

I've generally never had an issue checking-in a bag earlier in the day - sometimes 12+ hours early. HOWEVER - there are a few handful of airports that do not accept bags earlier than 4 hours prior to departure; I learned that the hard way.

https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/...nd-arrival.jsp

platbrownguy

Any time the same calendar day is fine, except at those listed exceptions.

I've personally dropped bags early at DCA numerous times, including 12+ hours, never a problem. (Happens when we get into Dulles early on an international flight and then fly out of DCA later in the day.)

Static Line

That's all good to know. I wonder about other airlines.

Fly'nAAgain

+1 to the above...drop whenever your UBER gets you to DCA and then head in to the city. Weather should be fantastic for some sightseeing.

joeyE

I suspect for all carriers across all airports on the planet...it's purely luck of the draw on the ticket counter agent, their awareness of the rules and their engagement to their company. I work in the bag rooms... There's nothing special and nothing in common about the airports on that list that they would have their own set of rules. Carriers and airports can have as many rules as they want....if you have 1 new employee working the counter then none of the so-called rules about early check-in matter. They're paid to process passengers as quickly as possible, not interrupt the process. I suspect in all cases, they just want to get the bag on the conveyor belt and move on. A few airports on the planet have special cold-storage bag rooms (bags checked in > 4 hours before departure. If you arrive at 6 am for a 10pm, they'll probably just take your bag, and it'll spin on the make-up conveyor n the bag room until it's time for your flight,..If it's a domestic flight, they might just load it onto an earlier flight to your destination just to get rid of it.

platbrownguy

That may be the case for some airlines... even many.

But with AA, computer will say yes or no, so there's much less chance of an agent going against the rules one way or the other, at least with regards to early bag drop.

As for the exceptions airports, they generally fall into 4 categories:
1. Cruise ship locations (passengers get off the boat early morning and try to ditch their bags before a later flight)
2. West coast cities (plus Hawaii) or Vegas with lots of redeyes heading east
3. Ski destinations (lots of bulky bags to store)
4. MCO, Disney, lots of families with lots of bags to store

The only one that doesn't fit is MCI, which maybe someone else can explain.

joeyE

Fair points…. I didn’t see the groupings as you’ve neatly laid out.

libove

Just FYI, we checked in for a pair of business class flights from PHL airport on Xmas day - one, departing in just less than three hours, and the other departing in almost five hours) and there was no problem at all with the early drop-off of the checked bags for the later flight.
The AA webpage still exists which does NOT mention explicitly how early bags can be dropped off in general, but which DOES still explicitly list only those airports with a shorter (I think it's four hours) earliest bag drop (and, PHL is NOT on the not-earlier-than webpage).
AA could make the information a little more clear, (I called in to AA in advance to ask about it, and it took AA's own staff a while to figure it out), but anyway the information presented in this thread seems to remain accurate.

born sleepy

Hmmm... so I can't check a bag the night before? Have a Saturday morning departure out of ATL and staying at one of the Gateway hotels, and I'd rather check the big bag the night before then just cruise right to Precheck without the long detour to the AA counter.

jhalapin

Yeah, I had the same question. I have a 5AM out of DFW (overnighting at the Grand Hyatt) and wanted to drop my bags the night before about 8PM to save an hour of sleep (and to add insult to injury, it's March 10th so I'll lose an hour anyway due to daylight saving time).

fastflyer

Might it be that the new terminal building at MCI has some kind of new kind of baggage operation? I have not yet checked a bag there. Wondering if the newest "automated" baggage systems might not play well with early checked baggage.

platbrownguy

As a general rule, I would not expect an AA phone agent to be knowledgeable about these kinds of rules. They may happen to get the answer right some of the time, but nothing they say will matter if you show up at the airport and the agent there says otherwise. Same with every other airline/hotel company. The days of calling to find out info are long gone.

Can't do the night before, period. It's a little silly, because AA now has the 16.5-hour rule, so I have been scheduling a number of trips with, for example, BOS-DFW arriving mid-afternoon on day one, so that it can be on the same ticket as an early a.m. DFW-to-wherever on day two, so that we can check the checked bags from BOS and not have to get up extra early at DFW. No trouble yet with AA keeping track of however many excess bags it is storing due to the 16.5-hour rule, so presumably if AA wanted to, it could permit check-in of bags the night before. But I doubt it wants to.

I still don't think I've ever been to MCI. If I go, this will be high on my list of mysteries to demystify!