even if you get your bag 100% of the time, consider a road warrior that takes 100 flights a year. that 30-40 minutes waiting for a bag two and a half days a year that you could be spending doing something more important.

This is the same problem that I and others have talked about for years on AA.
AA chose the rules that it filed with the transportation authorities for carry-ons, and AA chose to NOT make allowances for first/business class.
Having chosen and filed those rules, they're obligated to enforce them.
It's just not customer friendly, and it's entirely AA's business choise, which makes little sense to me. (Slight simplification for the premium cabins' boarding processes, over customer experience).

Putting the rules aside for a second (which are never enforced consistently anyway)...any pax on a flight to CUN with a tuxedo in a garment bag is clearly on the way to a special event (Assuming the GA knows it's a tuxedo). A little common sense from the GA could have made the OP's experience a little bit better. Instead, AA just pissed off an EXP/FC customer who now shares his horrible experience with everyone he knows (including FT and other SM) as well as possibly losing future business from the OP.

Exactly. In my early travel days I checked. I never lost a bag, but had several that missed connections and I had to wait another day for them to be delivered. Waiting for the bags got extremely annoying. When I land, I either want to get home or to my destination ASAP. Not spending another 30+ minutes standing there. I finally figured that out and always carried on. Plus it allows you to be more flexible if there are flight issues and you want to grab a different flight.

few years ago my family was flying home from Florida. Due to a great deal I found using miles we had to spend the night in Dallas coming home. We had a late morning flight from DFW-MHK. On our way from the hotel to airport, I checked and everything showed on time. My wife's back was hurting her so she didn't want to drag her suitcase around. I figured we would be safe so ended up checking all bags. After all, we were going home, had no connection, plane was at the gate and on time. Our flight ended up canceling and we ended up renting a car. They wouldn't get our bags for us in DFW. Told us to check when we arrived in MHK. We drive right by the airport and asked. They were very unhelpful. Went back the next day to find out they sent them to ICT. It took 3 days for them to get them to us. Even though it was mostly dirty clothes, there was still stuff that we needed. Not going to do that ever again.

This scene from Up in the Air summarizes it well. I always think about it when checking bags, even if I don’t have a choice :D

While I do think you need to operate with rules, employees should be empowered to apply common sense every once in a while. That’s the difference between delivering a product and a service. Although I suspect GAs have the latitude to do that and this one chose not to.

There was also a time when my (forced) check bag arrived covered in bird poop, to add to reasons why I prefer to not check a bag when possible.

Technically a garment bag would be a carry out. Now the OP was traveling in F and the bag could have been hung up in the front closet. Being EXP means very little anymore. You're not much beyond all the BE fares in the crowd.

I'd expect this at MIA but not PHX.

I travel A LOT.

Do you have any idea how many hours/maybe days? I have saved by NOT checking a bag?

This is why the Delta 20 minute guarantee for bag delivery is so very nice. In the time I was flying Delta, I think only once did I get to the carousel before my bag did... out of ten or fifteen times checking my bag.

The bag rules are FAA regulations, not AA policy.

No. The FAA does not set carry-on requirements. The FAA requires airlines to adopt a safety program, which includes, among many other subjects, carry-on rules. The safety program as a whole is subject to FAA approval.

The assertion that FAA sets the actual limits on carry-ons is completely false.

It's the same issue with no rollers on PSA CRJs even if the bag will fit.

I've been bitten by the PSA Ops Spec more than a few times; fortunately haven't misconnected (yet) due to having to wait for a roller bag to appear in the jetway after arrival

that said, perhaps there was a supervisory FA conducting a line evaluation of the FA who stuck to the letter of the policy ... failure to follow the policy could well mean suspension or firing

As someone who almost exclusively uses a cross-body handbag, I learned a long time ago to make sure my under-seat bag has enough packing space to put the cross-body inside while boarding, so that all I have is my roll-a-board and my under-seat bag. I have seen other women who seem to forget that their purse DOES count as your one personal item...it's not a freebie.

Once we've landed, no one cares if the cross-body takes it's usual place over my shoulder...it comes out of the under-seat before I get off the plane.