new airline baggage cutoff times
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
Last week I had an extremely stressful experience flying solo with my two children. Arriving at the JFK terminal 40 minutes before our flight (snow traffic in nyc slowed us by more than an hour), I thought we had just made it under the wire. Actually, no. The flight was ‘closed’ for baggage as it was less than 45 minutes before the flight.
Panicked and in disbelief, I refused to believe that we would miss our school vacation over a few minutes. Not knowing what to do, I pushed my way through security with my two kids, single stroller, two carry-on bags, plus one piece of definitely-not-carry-on luggage. I was extremely fortunate that (1) the security gate agent took pity on us, (2) my luggage was just small enough to fit through the x-ray machine, and (3) technically we were carrying the allotted number of bags.
The lesson: these days baggage cut-off times vary by airline and departure city so double check before you fly. (Here is the info on the AA website.) Also, if you find yourself in my position, remember that if you can make it to the gate, they will gate-check any piece of luggage, even one which the gate agent deemed ‘gigantic’. You become just another passenger who miscalculated the size of their carry-on.