People are bringing hospital beds, massage tables, and wagons on American Airlines flights, and expecting to have them checked as luggage for free.
Apparently passengers are seeking baggage fee waivers for items like this as ‘medical devices’ and the airline sent out an update to agents to make clear what counts – and what does not count – as an eligible medical device to fly free.
Any ‘piece of equipment that assists a passenger in coping with the effects of his or her disability’ is a medical device, and to the extend that they assist them “to hear, see, communicate, maneuver, or perform other functions of daily life” they qualify for a bag fee waiver. But that does not include chiropractice tables! It does not include “[d]evices that can also be used recreationally” and it does not include… “lotion or soap”?
I’m perplexed that apparently people are showing up at ticket counters and looking to:
- check a bar of soap, or liquid soap
- and asking to do it for free
Several years ago a reader showed up at an American Airlines ticket counter and asked to check a deoderant as luggage. He had a free baggage allowance with status, so it seemed like a good experiment. Would they let him? Would the deoderant make it?
The deoderant was successfully loaded onto the flight. It was taken off the plane in Newark. But it didn’t make it onto the baggage carousel. He filled out a missing luggage report!
Apparently Charlotte agents will accept deoderant as checked luggage. It’s even free with status (and would qualify for a cobrand credit card checked baggage benefit). But deoderant does not qualify as a medical device for a checked baggage fee waiver.
Pro Tip: Why waste your precious American Airlines baggage allowance on shipping a boring Degree, Secret, or Mando brand deodorant when you could check in a frosty 12-ounce can of your favorite adult beverage? After all, smelling like adventure (and maybe a little beer) is way more memorable than smelling like “Spring Breeze.”
I checked a tire from a Toyota Atlantics race car (CLE>IAH) in 2007. The desk agent just slapped the tag flat on the tread. It was the first thing off the plane (my window seat was next to the plane-to-carts conveyor). I indented to use it as a base for a decorative table, but after sitting in my garage for five years, I recycled it when I went in for a tire rotation.