Before 9/11 passengers were generally allowed to bring two full sized carry on bags on board with them. This was cut down to the current one carry on (plus one personal item) by the TSA, to limit how much passengers brought through security checkpoints. By cutting down on how much was getting screened they didn’t need as many lanes, machines and staff to avoid long lines.
Airlines enforce these limits at the boarding door because now that flights are generally full (they didn’t used to be 20 years ago) it helps get flights out on time.
- There’s not enough overhead bin space for everyone to carry on as much as they want
- Getting on board and finding there’s no space means going back to the front of the plane to gate check a bag, potentially delaying the flight a few minutes
- Besides they charge for checked bags in most cases now, so they need to limit carry-ons or they’ll experience revenue leakage
The idea of one carry-on item and one personal item is that the carry-on goes in the overhead bin, and the personal item goes beneath the seat in front of you unless you’re in the bulkhead. Each passenger gets to take space for one item only above their seat.
That means it’s generally fine to bring a bag that goes in the overhead bin, a laptop bag or purse, and a sandwich or other small bag of items you purchased in the airport. Most agents won’t have a problem with this. You aren’t going to be taking up additional room in the overhead.
Sometimes they give you a hard time, and require you to consolidate your items into two (stuffing your sandwich into your laptop bag for instance) or else you’ll be required to check one item. That’s when they’re focused on a rule for its own sake, not what it’s trying to accomplish.
However I’ve never seen a problem with a passenger carrying another passenger’s stuff on board for them.
- A wheelchair passenger doesn’t lose their right to a carry-on because someone else carries it for them, even if that person has a carry-on that goes in the overhead bin also.
- I regularly help my five year old daughter with her bag while we board, though she likes to take it through the airport.
That is, until this story about an American Airlines gate agent at Washington’s National airport. A husband and wife had three items between them, less than the allowable total, but were required to check one because the wife was carrying them all since the husband’s arm was in a sling.
A couple tries to board in front of me. The wife had a roller bag, a small backpack, and a really small purse. The husband had nothing, probably due to his arm being in a sling.
The gate agent who made the announcement stopped them and argued with them, nearly screaming, how he made an announcement and she can’t bring on three items. The husband steps in and offers to take one of the items, but the gate agent refuses and continues to yell. Long story short, he forces the couple to check the roller bag. The couple was visibly distraught at the ridiculousness of the situation (and so were passengers waiting to board).
…[B]ecause the husband had the aforementioned arm in a sling, it was obvious that the backpack was his and his wife was holding it for him.
When I lived there I found legacy American Airlines gate agents to be fantastic, and some legacy US Airways agents to make up their own rules (that ran afoul of company rules) and get their ego involved in enforcing them – so this doesn’t entirely surprise me.
Your carry-on allowance is supposed to be two items per person, but there’s no requirement that each person carry their bags on themselves, under their own power.
That’s the sound of ADA plaintiff lawyers circling…
Dumbass GA for not using basic reasoning. Is AA incentivizing the number of gate-checked bags now on top of D0?
Agreed, this GA is begging for an ADA Lawsuit. Good luck with that…
The roller bag ought to have been checked in the first place . There are too many roller bags , etc. , being brought onto the airplanes . Next , rather than a magazine , they will bring a few phone books.
@Alert In 2007, my city’s yellow pages was about 3 inches thick. I just got a new edition. The pages are considerably smaller and the thickness is less than 1/4″.
Maybe the man should have requested wheelchair boarding when challenged. Say that the bag is his and he needs a wheelchair then lie down blocking the gate.
A perfect time to ask for a Manager to assist in that discussion.
@Alert, do you even fly on any Airline? There is nothing wrong with bringing a smaller size roller bag on with you. Or maybe you think the outrageous Bag Fees are just loose change. Please get a reality check.
Hey Gary
What are your thoughts on AA issuing their frontline employees a very simple directive.
Like, five words. A five year old could understand it.
NEVER. YELL. AT. A. CUSTOMER.
If a customer is abusive (very rare), call law enforcement for help.
If a customer is violating a rule (e.g. boarding too early), either let it slide given the circumstances or use a standard volume and say Sir/Ma’am, we have not called your boarding group yet.
Everything needs to start with Sir/Ma’am, and you never condescend — these skills are more advanced skills — but it should be simple to NEVER. YELL. AT. A. CUSTOMER.
Just another PTA (Power Trippin Agent).
They need to be retrained, disciplined, and if that fails, let go.
No company needs these types of people working for them. And customers don’t need them either.
She had THREE items. A purse counts as a personal item, no matter how small.
@derek and @American … the airlines themselves are a cause of this entire problem by using overhead bins as a marketing come-on . Normal people collect their bags at the arriving-baggage area . If there would be evacuation into the water , the carry-on bags will be brought down the slides into the life-rafts , thereby endangering the other evacuees .
After witnessing an American FA reduce a young female soldier to tears, as she tried to fit her duffle bag in an overhead, and then had the captain come back and threaten to remove her from the plane, I refused to ever fly AA again. That was over 15 years ago. This incident only reinforces my decision.
As Bhn said above, I quit flying American a few years back, after being victimized by similar inept gate agents (at Douglas Airport). It cost me many hundreds of dollars, lost cruise days, and lots of grief. If they can’t hire competent people at the gates, who do they hire to fly the planes? No matter the time or cost savings from a cheaper flight on AA, I WILL NOT book them. And I advise others to do likewise.
American is failing its customers in every way possible these days with the US Airways mentality they brought with them to legacy AA. But, DL and UA are having a field day swooping up AA’s customers.
These type of incidents seem to be a problem with USA airlines. I can only hope that there is an ADA lawsuit. Calling a supervisor is the correct action but by the time the supervisor is there, all of the overhead space would be full and the roller bag would still have to be checked, probably delaying the flight. By the way, a person with an arm in a sling can still put the good arm through one shoulder strap or carry the backpack by the shoulder straps or the top strap.
WOW!!! Firstly @alert:
a small roller bag is a small carry on, the same but worth wheels Secondly: to your full on stood comment @alert about carry on roller bags going down the slide if there was an evacuation haha really really are you that silly to think the air stewards are glib to let something like that happen OMG ♀️
@jns, reading the details carefully, the man did offer to carry one of the items. The GA was not interested in a solution, just in enjoying a power trip.
The TSA doesn’t care how many bags you bring through security. It’s the FAA who have maximum restrictions and the airlines can restrict even further. Get your facts straight!
@DaveS, read my answer carefully. I did not give a timeline. By the time you are in front of a power tripping agent, it may be too late to get your solution heard. Do everything possible to get past the agent with no extra interaction other than giving your boarding pass (have that ready to go and ID if needed). After the agent you can transfer things to the more capable person. I was traveling on EVA once with a mobility limited friend (she was wheelchaired to the gate) and the agent wanted to stop me from preboarding with that person. I was perfectly fine with that as long as the agent carried her bags but the agent thought again and let me go with only a dirty look. Carrying the extra bags was no fun as I didn’t really have enough hands. I had to carry and drag everything to her seat, stow her luggage and then find my seat and stow my luggage. I would prefer that the airline did everything for her. I could have boarded later with only my own luggage.
Don’t get mad at the agent. AA gives two choices to its employees, do what we say or we find someone who will. Like your job, you do it.
@ Gary — The gate agent should undergo sound customer service training.
Another entitled customer. Check the damn bag and move on.
Boarding is already stressful as it is, how long it would have taken for one person to carry TWO probably massive bags and lift them overhead to store them, one by one, by herself??
And I’m pretty sure that the carry on allowance is NOT transferable from one passenger to another, so the GA was 100% correct.
Common sense is really out of the window
Sound like a fare that only allows 1bag under seat….and someone
not minding their business.
As a former airline employee there is something no one has addressed about why we some of us continue to try and carry-on our bags. I have witnessed..yes witnessed airline agents go thru and steal from passenger bags. One particular ramp agent, when he was finally caught had a house full of valuable camera equipment as well as other valuable items. Your baggage is never, ever secure from the moment it leaves your possession. I also have witnessed lost baggage agents peg bags they were sure had “illicit” items and simply retag them outside of view and send them to a different destination so another agent also complicit could grab it. Some had illicit items..some fur coats, camera gear, family photos..you name it..all gone. Nope..I am a carry-on only person and will never forget what I have witnessed myself. Do I think carryon bags need to be within limits etc. yes..I do..but….there are also other considerations.
Now that Parker (Former American Airlines CEO) is gone things can only improve at AA.
@Jake … +1 .
@Dean Grason – the REASON the limits were put in place was security screening lines, get your history straight..
Hmmmm so the writer of the article did not have an issue with that gate agent or AA..so he had to try to get involved in something that did not concern him. As one person pointed out, it could be that they had that super cheap fare that did not allow for extra carry-on. In any case, just mind your own business you do not know the entire story.
“When I lived there I found legacy American Airlines gate agents to be fantastic, and some legacy US Airways agents to make up their own rules (that ran afoul of company rules) and get their ego involved in enforcing them – so this doesn’t entirely surprise me.”
Gary’s comment is spot-on. Not surprised in the least this happened at DCA. There is a subset of AA at the check-in counter and gates that take a delight in lording their power whenever they can, and once their egos are involved, any reasonableness is out the window.
This reply is for Howdy.
AA charges for all check bags and each checked bags must be within the allowable weight and dimensions. AA does not have fares that do not permit checked bags, or carry-on bags.
Also based on my observations of traveling on AA – there is not a bag or a purse that could actually fit under a seat.
@Jake
Read the article before commenting. One of the bags was a backpack, not a “massive bag” and she was not transferring his carry on to herself
Rather, she was assisting a disabled passenger who was unable to carry it because of his injury. Certainly not an “entitled passenger”. In any case, the GA should NEVER yell at a passenger.
I’ve hit this before–I was pulling her rollaboard, someone thought I had three items. Even when we explained they were determined to check it–they wouldn’t admit they were wrong.
If I have the 3rd bag back to my companion and they still wanted to force me to check it I would have refused and taken the IDB.
@alert the fact that you put a space before your punctuation tells me two things. First you’re over 65 years old, and second, you’ve chosen not to learn how to correctly type in the past thirty years since typewriters became obsolete. Given those two things, your opinion on any matters of current times is irrelevant as you’re stuck in a past that no longer exists and refuse to get with the times.
As for what happened, this seems to be a pretty straightforward violation of the Air Carrier Access Act and the pax should file a DOT complaint.
@Steve:
Why do you infer that @Alert is incapable of typing properly? I have never learned a space before punctuation as proper typing and I’m old enough I learned on a manual. I think it much more likely a simple typo. Or, it occurs to me the possibility that he deliberately avoided the construct of “1.”, which would look a bit weird in scientific realms. While I do not do that particular one there are occasions where I throw in a space to avoid running things together. I have yet to see a parser that will correctly handle a description + URL in parenthesis, always tacking the closing parenthesis onto the URL. What does show my age from my typing is the double space after the end of a sentence, these days mostly moot but there’s no reason to try to unlearn the habit.
@Loren my comment was in reference to @Alert other two comments.
The use of a space prior to punctuation was necessary with typewriters as the punctuation would be typed too close to the word and would be difficult to see if a space wasn’t added. This stopped being an issue with the invention of computers which had typefaces that automatically accommodated enough space.
This is wrong . So is this , and this !
I get that people were taught this forever ago, but the fact that they haven’t figured out they are doing it wrong after seeing how every other person types, or worse, they’ve decided we’re all wrong and they’re right, says that they’re incapable of changing with the times. Back in their day I’m sure everyone checked their bag (it was free and convenient), but that isn’t the world we live in anymore, so saying people should still do that is an irrelevant (and priviliged) opinion.
Jake – GFYS. You’re the entitled one. Lithium batteries can’t be checked. Are you going to pay for the laptop and medical equipment when the airline loses it?
Grow up, little boy. Ask your mommy when you’re allowed to fly on your own.
@Steve:
I see what you mean about the punctuation, but it’s certainly not how I learned and I’m old enough to have learned on a manual. And I saw enough of my father’s typing, he didn’t do it, either. If he were still around he would be past the century mark.
Typewriters are monospace, why would there be an issue with leaving enough space??
@Jake:
Carry-on allowance isn’t transferable, but it’s quite possible for someone to carry someone else’s bag(s). Suppose you made my wife bring her own rollaboard on, would you have helped anything? Certainly not, I can handle two faster than she can handle one. And when we get to our seats things come to a screeching halt–the only way she’s putting **anything** in the overheads is by climbing on the seat. Is she to be denied bin space because she’s small?
And not everything can be checked. I would say 75% of the total item weight (not counting bags) of what I bring on board is either illegal to check (Li-Ion) or stuff the airline tells you not to check (laptop, DSLR.)
I am a flight attendant. If you cannot place your bag in the overhead bin yourself, you need to check it.
Also security measures would require that you do not carry on to the aircraft someone else’s bag. You do not know the contents of it.
@Maresa Bache glad to know you’re a flight attendent trained in the ACAA. It’s opinions by employees like yourself that end up getting your employer sued for discrimination.
Based on your logic, my six year old child cannot bring a carry on because they cannot stow their luggage in the overhead compartment. Same logic, a little person with their standard height spouse cannot have a carry-on because they cannot reach the overhead. Your alternative is that they check their bag, which costs them a minimum of $40 each way now.
So what you’re saying is, if you’re disabled, or incapable of reaching the overhead unassisted by a loved one, that the airline is allowed to fine you $40 each way, and if you refuse, some power hungry GA or FA can refuse to let you board, causing you more financial harm.
People like you are why we had to create laws to protect the disabled.
@Meresa Bache:
> I am a flight attendant. If you cannot place your bag in the overhead bin yourself, you need to check it.
Also security measures would require that you do not carry on to the aircraft someone else’s bag. You do not know the contents of it.
Stranger’s bag, I agree. Traveling companion, especially family member, what’s the issue? The threat vector that the rule is concerned with is a bag getting on board without the passenger, but I would most certainly be aware if my wife wasn’t beside me!