I’ve recently flown on a CRJ-900 on both American Airlines and Delta Air Lines and the experience with carry-on bags could not have been more different. Why does American Airlines insist on such a restrictive approach?
CRJ-900 Carry-On Bags: A Very Different Experience On American Than On Delta
On my American Airlines flight, gate agents were tagging every large bag, saying it would not fit onboard. I’ve flown this aircraft type so often and know that my carry-on bag easily fits, so I did not take a yellow tag.
But upon boarding, I was scolded by a flight attendant for attempting to bring my larger bag onboard. I told her that it easily fit (and pointed to her own crew bag in the same overhead bin) but she was having none of that and handed me a yellow tag with instructions to leave the bag outside the door (with dozens of others)…
I’m not going to argue with a power-tripping flight attendant, but I asked her why and she claimed “federal rules” (which is usually a red herring when there is no rule). It is my understanding that my issue was hardly unique (I don’t fly AA often enough to know) and that you simply cannot bring larger carry-on bags onboard.
But then I flew Delta Air Lines, also on a CRJ-900. Guess what? Same plane. Same overhead bins. But no problem.
Passengers took their carry-on items onboard and placed them in the overhead bin. They fit! There were no issues. In fact, one guy brought an oversized bag onboard and I thought for sure it would not fit, but it did…even that fit.
So my question is why does AA have such a strict policy? Is it really federal rules? Unless my eyes deceived me, the overhead bins are identical.
Lately, I’ve been traveling only with a bag that fits under my seat, but I will avoid the CRJ-900 on American Airlines going forward if I have a larger bag…
Same experience here. As a former AA flyer, when I was on a DL CRJ-900 recently I thought it was odd the gate agent didn’t tag my bag (he did tag the larger carry one) and asked him if I needed one and he said no. To my surprise, yes, my bag fit just fine in the bin.
I can maybe provide some insight. It was a CRJ-900 and I assume operated by PSA? I am not certain, but some regional affiliates do not have an approved carry on baggage program in their operating manuals. Those have to be FAA approved and if they don’t have it they cannot allow carry on bags. By extension that is an “FAA Rule” (rolls eyes).
It does not matter that they fly for American, they have their own separate manuals that need approval. I do not work for PSA or American so I can only speculate, however I have heard of this happening at some smaller carriers.
@Matthew … Two respectful questions :
(a) Second paragraph : “I did not take a red bag.” ( Why would the colour red matter ? )
(b) Fourth paragraph : “federal rules” … “there is no rule” . ( Isn’t the overriding default rule to always obey the FA ? )
That’s where they gottcha .
Surely there are limits to that. If an FA asked me to bark like a dog certainly they couldn’t throw me off for not obeying.
AA doesn’t have the policy. And it is a Federal Rule. PSA Airlines’ FAA operations inspector has decided that roller bags do not get to go in the cabin. This is because of weight reasons and they get away with this based on “safety.” If the bag goes inside the cabin, it counts as part of your weight. If it is gate checked, it is counted separately as additional weight. The FAA group assigned to managing PSA’s certificate has decided for weight and balance reasons that this is the safest way to do things. PSA doesn’t have a choice.
This isn’t AA vs DL. This is just a glaring example of how individual FAA persons assigned to each airline have a LOT of individual leeway. A smaller example is have you ever noticed how on one airline you have to unplug all devices from power plugs for take off and landing yet on others you don’t? Yes because at that one airline it’s FAA folks have decided that cell phone chargers would be an impediment to evacuation.
Believe me PSA would rather let you bring the bags on and not deal with it. But this is how it is. Some years ago, Republic was mandated to not allow ANYTHING but airline provided items in the seat back pocket for take off and landing. Made you take your book out or soda out. Same type of deal.
Why do the DL connection carriers have it different? Don’t know. Maybe they do something different in their weight and balance programs. Or the FAA assigned to PSA has a bug up their behind.
Each operating carrier has their own regulatory team assigned by the government. Not AA vs DL. It’s Endeavour vs PSA vs SkyWest vs Envoy etc.
@Neds … Clear about the federal rule .
Yet , why would the colour red prevent a carry-on ? How about yellow , for example ?
The red tags are valet tagged bags (security screened bags) to be brought up to the passenger at the jetway on arrival. Yellow tag is the same thing. American just introduced yellow tags recently (and didn’t communicate it very well) for First Class bags. Though it really seems to make no difference since they’re all loaded the same and usually brought up all at once…
Yellow tags has been there since at least 2015, however many airport don’t really deliver yellow tag first at arrival gate
Is this in the same vein as the FA requesting the window next to seat 1A be open for take off and landing? No FA can see out that window while seated… but they have still requested on the CRJ-900 several times.
Government staff (bureaucrats) are to blame. Some believe that regional jets tend to serve more rural areas, which are more likely to be conservative and Republican. Punish those maga people, ha.
No one in government cares enough to do that.
It happens on DL once every while but not as often as AA or UA. When it happens, you’ll proceed to see a DL Diamond/360 member have a prompt meltdown. It’s pretty good entertainment as long as said person isn’t your seatmate.
And I can tell you AA isn’t consistent on this. I have had it both ways on AA CRJ-900 flights. The only real issue is the left side of FC with the shallow overheads where next to nothing other than a coat fits.
There are two regional AA connection flights into SBN. The one from DFW you can bring aboard your bag. The one from CLT you 100% can not and they have done this to me many times even when I show them the bag fits! Yet another reason to avoid CLT!
See my response above. Depends on which carrier it is that operates it. Not the airline’s fault. It is the FAA.
AA doesn’t do that with ERJ-170/175 but with the CRJ-700/900 they do. At least give group 1 -4 a chance and if anything is left open, maybe 5-6. Just dumb AA, dumb.
AA doesn’t do anything…. SkyWest, Envoy, PSA, Piedmont do…
Where is the “injury”? You get the bag right at the door of the aircraft or the jetway before reentering the airport right??
It simplifies getting these flights out on time.
I went on a deep dive on this after a similar situation. When airlines get an operating certificate, part of the paperwork includes weight and balance assumptions (since they don’t actually weigh passengers). For a couple of regional carriers (including PSA if I remember correctly), these assumptions do not include full-size carry-on bags. As a result, they must gate check them regardless of available space in the cabin. In this respect, the FA is sort of right when she cites “federal regulations.”
Most of AA’s CR9 uses older style overhead bins which is smaller than newer bin on DL’s CR9. I think the smaller bin could be the reason why FA did not let you bring your larger carry on bag on board
Had the same BS from UA many times flying small CRIs from Denver. Used to do that a few times per month and knew bag would easily fit but apparently FAs didn’t want any bags inside. It is frustrating because you know they are wrong but if you try to argue they will ruin your trip.
It sounds like this is a problem of communication. I don’t know why GAs and FAs need to lie to passengers and tell them their bag won’t fit when it does. Simply stating “FAA regulations do not permit full-sized carry-ons on this aircraft” would piss a lot less people off than questioning their intelligence
AA refuses to let you onto the plane with a roller bag that will fit in overhead bin or under the seat in front of me.. even with a paid first . They took my new soft sided bag and left it out on the tarmac in the rain then ???ran over it as the wheel was broken when I got it back.. I will never use AA again –once in 12 years was enough.. They refused to do anything about the bag on arrival and after I letter to customer No-Service
The fa is just doing her / his job. Just comply. It all comes down to how the aircraft is certified to operate and there is no time to explain it to every single passange of each of the five to six flights these regional FA have to work in a single day. Another hard working ramp employee will bring up your heavy butt bag plane side upon arrival, and you will move on with your endlessly complaining life.
The answer to this is easy: WEIGHT AND BALANCE! This issue is ***not*** about whether bags will fit or not.
Each carrier has a program that is approved by the FAA. Standard average passenger weight is determined by EITHER (1) carry-on bags are PART of the passenger weight (since they are carried in the cabin) OR (2) carry-on bags are NOT PART of the passenger weight (meaning the carry-on bags are counted as part of the cargo weight instead.
Years ago, operators of the Embraer 145 struggled with being “overweight” and operated flights under weight restrictions (meaning flights departed with open seats and left behind angry passengers). American Eagle Airlines (now Envoy Air, Inc. dba “American Eagle”) discovered that gate-checked bags were effectively counted TWICE (both as passenger weight AND as cargo). Due to this, the FAA approved a program where passenger average weight would be LOWERED for weight and balance purposes on flights designated as “no carry-on baggage” flights *as long as* ALL carry-on bags were gate checked.
This solution immediately addressed the overweight issue and allowed previously weight-restricted flights to go out at full occupancy.
I’m willing to bet that AA never bothered to change this program because unlike its Embraer 170/175 fleets where most passengers can bring on their carry-on bags, less than half of passengers would be able to do so on the Embraer 145 and CRJ 700/900 fleets. Allowing carry-on bags would mean that not only would ALL passengers be counted at their heavier weights again, but they would ALSO be gate-checking a ton of bags as the bin space will have run out counting those bags as cargo (bringing us to the original issue that forced the airline to leave passengers behind on certain flights with sensitive weight and balance issues).
I travel with the 19″slim TravelPro Flight Crew 5 that was designed for CRJ bins. I have the same problem with United Express mostly with the IAH and IAD operators. I’ve been told at IAH that Commute Air doesn’t allow ANY wheeled carryons period, regardless of size. I had a coworker have his rolling laptop bag taken and gate checked with the laptop and battery still inside of it. I was given that weight per passenger excuse at IAD once. and though I usually never have an issue with Skywest, just recently I had a flight attendant stop me and tell me my bag would not fit and did not want to hear any argument about it. I contacted United years ago about this and was told that their express operator should be allowing rollaboards that fit.
WOW… Now I’m wondering how many of those bags have potentially hazardous lithium batteries in them when their unsuspecting owners were assuming they’d be taking them onboard ( not to mention the usual keys, meds, etc. ) ?
And can’t the airlines request to amend their operating certification requirements ?
I”ve actually appreciated being able to board a flight without lugging a piece of luggage onboard, provided it’s there at my arrival gate ( so far so good -… ask me when the bag doesn’t materialize ! )…
It’s wild people read articles from someone who does no research before like so often calling a flight attendant out for a power trip. When simply it’s a flight attendant DOING THERE JOB. Now you can disagree with the rule but place the blame on the company or FAA not an underpaid regional flight attendant. It is in fact a FAA rule on some operators due to weight and balance.
The combination of an odd rule plus the tendency of some flight attendants to power trip made the conjecture wholly reasonable. However, the discussion in this post was overall quite constructive and helpful to me.
I found it educational as well. My critique for the FA that you (very) wisely decided not to “argue with a power-tripping flight attendant”, is that she justified the policy inaccurately although this may be due to her being unable to articulate the situation so it’s easiest to just say “It doesn’t fit in the bin”.
This is an example of how FA’s could use better training in situations such as this and for disruptive passengers that ultimately require costly diversions when some emotional management skills would suffice. That’s not to say it always works, of course. It shows your own emotional maturity when you decide to quietly comply even if you know the reasoning is unsound.
Let me give you a bit more education. I’ve been a F/A for well over 40 years. I could say the bag doesn’t fit, the Captain said you can’t bring it on, the FAA regulation requires you to check it, my CEO says all bags must be checked on this plane or just because I said so. Doesn’t matter what the F/A says. Most people will be ticked off and try to argue. I’ve learned you say whatever you need to and get everyone seated so we can push and everyone can get where they’re going ASAP. I commute on these small planes and work only on widebodies. If the F/A tells me I need to check my bag, my bag is getting checked and I’m getting to my destination.
It’s one of the many poorly conceived or poorly executed methods AA uses to try to achieve D zero.
Sometimes it seems no one in AA management flies much less flies ec9nomy.
Matthew Klint is an ugly retard
I’ve been called worse.