This
When people state “I never have a bag problem”, I’m thinking they don’t fly American.
On the last flight we had on American (one of those 5am flights), the gate person gave a second look at my partners bag and questioning the size. My sleepy partner quipped back that it has never been a problem before with other carriers. The gate person did not like the tone and went into authoritarian mode and checked the bag out of what felt like spite. A minute later we are handing the bag to the bag crew person, who was apparently already mad about something else, and exclaimed loudly “this is not a gate check!” as he tossed it down the slide.
Ok… no big deal, we made the plane and will be in full on vacation mode by dinner time, right? Nope, this was only a prelude for what American Airlines had planned for us this trip.
