So…
My wife & I took a (belated honeymoon) trip to Japan this December. We bought several gifts, but only one for ourselves… a set of sushi plates, saucers & bowls. Things were not intact when we arrived back in Omaha. What follows below is my formal complaint to American Airlines (via their form, which limited text to 1500 characters)
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For our honeymoon, my wife and I flew American to Japan. Whilst in Japan we purchased one single gift for ourselves; a set of sushi plates & bowls. For our return we carefully packed the dishes and carried them on with us… from Kumamoto to Tokyo Haneda, through Tokyo Station, and from Tokyo Narita to Dallas/Fort Worth, the dishes stayed intact. After an eight hour layover in DFW, it was time to board for the final leg back to Omaha. However, at the gate we were told that the bag wouldn’t fit and would need to be checked at the gate.
a)This very bag had already been carried onto an MD-80 (same aircraft) on our flight out, and fit just fine.
b)The flight back to Omaha was maybe half full, and there was plenty of room (including above our own seats) that could have held it.
c)While boarding, we observed an identical bag to our own (carried on by someone else) already on the plane, & in the overhead.
My wife cried the entire way down the jetway, while I hoped that the “fragile” tag on the bag would help save it from some awful fate.
But that was not to be. Upon arriving in Omaha, driving home, and unpacking the bag, we discovered that 1 plate & 1 bowl had shattered.
That night, we tried for hours to reach someone at AA on the phone. No luck. The next day, my wife went to the airport to file a report & was given a $100 travel voucher for the damage. After experiencing the blatant disregard for the integrity of our propery, I hardly think that I want to fly American again.