Aviation watchdog JonNYC says there are reports that American Airlines is planning to remove bag sizers from gates. These are the metal frames designed to test whether passenger carry-ons are within allowable size to bring onboard aircraft.
Passengers are limited to one carry-on bag (that goes in the overhead bin) and one personal item (that goes under the seat in front of them) and there are strict dimensions for each. Gate agents are supposed to enforce these limits, and require passengers with items that are too large (or have too many items) to check them. And these sizers are meant to be objective tools to demonstrate whether a bag is too large – or just right.
someone reports:
"AA bag sizers at the gate are going away"— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) September 26, 2025
I actually like the sizers because it’s nice to have an objective standard to point to for what fits within allowable dimensions. I don’t want gate agents using their discretion, even if that means they sometimes ignore larger items a passenger might want to bring onboard. Of course I’ve had an American gate agent demand I show them an item fits in the sizer and then demand I check it even though it does simply because they were angry at being shown they were wrong.
Of course customers will do everything they can to make the bag fit – even if it means they won’t be able to get it out.
@hotasfo_o dont die for easy jet #fyp #viral #plane #funny ♬ original sound – sam
United announced in January 2020 that it would remove all bag sizers from gate areas. The internal memo said agents should use judgment at the gate and that sizers would remain in lobbies and (some) pre‑security areas. This was supposed to “empower employees” and reduce stressful gate confrontations.
We are removing all gate area bag sizers by January 23… With this change, we will not be removing bag sizers from the lobby and security checkpoints… At the gate… use your best judgment.
Sizers take scarce space at crowded gates and aren’t really used a lot.
Historically, United’s sizers ran about an inch bigger than the published 22×14×9 limits. United has been the only carrier that publicly and system‑wide removed gate sizers.
At American, different airports have different generations of sizers and many range half an inch to one inch larger than published carry-on dimensions – although not all do.
The most common U.S. sizer hardware from Lavi Industries is sold at 23.5×14.5×10, 22×15×9.25, or 23×15×10 inches and optional personal‑item bins of ~16.25×15×7.25 or 18×11×9. That’s why many legacy‑carrier frames appear to allow ~½–1″ of slack in one or more dimensions even though the printed limit is 22×14×9.
It’s important to know that many carry-on bag retailers list dimensions of the bag itself, without wheels, and so are actually larger than claimed.
In b4 1990.
@Jon Ton — You win. I’m ruined.
If they just gate check all carry-on bags it gets rid of a lot of conflict. Not much different than what they do now per the reports here. No real need for a sizer if they check them all. Personally I don’t fly AA.
It’ll be interesting to see how this works out for AA.
Well this should be fun! Even more so if Frontier and Spirit (while they’re around) try the same thing.
AA could give away their discarded and unused baggage sizers to passengers that want one for their home or office. Perhaps this could be a first come, first served elite benefit.
Seems like a silly and pointless change. I could see if they announced they didn’t want to purchase any new bag sizers as a cost savings but otherwise it’s pretty pointless.
Perhaps they will introduce new state of the art “overhead bin availability trackers” to show everyone how much space actually remains for bag storage?
@Ken A — I like where your head is at. As Mel Brooks’ character Yogurt says in Spaceballs, “Merchandising is where the real money from the (airline) is made!”
@Ken A/1990 – nah, if they want to be a premium airline like Delta, they have to sell the checked bag sizers in a warehouse next to Atlanta’s airport on some random day once a month or whatever. Then you can buy one and try and check your checked bag sizer on the return flight home…
That being said, I’m sure we are all excited for Spaceballs 2 – the search for more money!
Easier to end carry-ons entirely and limit passengers to a single under-seat “personal item.”
It’s going to happen, the only question is which airline has the nerve to do it first.
@Peter — We’d have to ‘comb the desert!’ searching for some of these airlines’ memorabilia, especially after they park their old jets in the Mojave.
Maybe eventually they will have gate staff equipped with digital dimension sizers where agent/airline device scans a photo image of the bag and auto-calculates the linear dimensions because there are passengers who do try to take into the cabin bags that are too big for the overhead bins.
That or the airlines are counting on the TSA cabin baggage scanners to be de facto size-limiters of cabin baggage items.
@Denver – no it won’t. The airlines have no incentive to annoy their business travelers / frequent fliers who would revolt if they had to check their carry on. And they can charge more for a carry on if they would like (see United basic economy – even AA lets you bring a carry on when flying basic!).
Travelers need the sizers to protect themselves from overzealous AA employees. In particular I can think of a very embarrassing situation where they called boarding, and then I was stopped because I think the AA ee just didn’t like the looks of me. I assume it was because I am so beautiful and youthful. My bag that I have traveled with hundreds of times fit perfectly. It was just an odd experience.