Comments on: Olympic Dreams on the Line: How American Airlines Risked a Marathon Runner’s Journey

By: Vanessa

Vanessa — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 04:04:47 +0000

Congratulations Ashlee on your time of 2:34 for a marathon! Heck, probably none of the negative folks commenting can probably say that they’ve ran under 6 minutes each mile for 26 miles!!! God bless you 🙂
Shame on AA for not accommodating an athlete after she mentioned her upcoming OLYMPIC RACE…
Gift her a free plane ticket AA.

By: Jackson

Jackson — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 21:11:37 +0000

Geez. Nobody here seems to get the point of the article, or the context.
She has priority boarding, which unless everyone else has priority boarding, she will almost certainly be in the first half of all people on board. There is always space for bags in the first half. It doesn’t help when people don’t tilt their bags upright in bins that can take that, which eliminates some space.
Second, she can’t just “put the stuff on her”. Once she wears the shoes, they become more worn the more she walks/runs. I can assure you that any professional runner knows what a worn shoe compared to new shoe feels like. Same with stuffing them in another bag. It breaks down the shoe making it worse for her to run in.
Third, just because most of the time gate checked bags arrive at their destination, that isn’t all. Things can go wrong, and athletes especially try to minimize that when flying.
Fourth, she probably can’t just leave a week early. Imagine an NBA player leaving for an away game a week early, in this situation taking commercial instead of private, missing 3 or 4 home games. Totally unreasonable.

By: thomasK

thomasK — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 14:44:42 +0000

seems like someone doesn’t get the attention desired. Happens to me too.

By: Brian W

Brian W — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 14:07:47 +0000

Fly Southwest and this wouldnt be a problem if she spent the $25 for early boarding.

By: Boraxo

Boraxo — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 03:33:53 +0000

If shoes were that important she could have easily stuffed them in the personal item bag.

That said I largely ignore the LHR dolts, LH frauliens and all other overzealous GAs who ask me to gate check my carryons. Just step aside, pretend to comply and then roll back onto the plane as they turn to deal with other passengers.

The only planes I see run out of space are WN 737s where ironically checked bags are free.

By: jns

jns — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 01:45:37 +0000

@Michael Jones, a quick internet search will tell you that the US Olympic Marathon Trials are in Orlando, Florida on February 3, 2024.

By: Michael Jones

Michael Jones — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 01:10:36 +0000

So what happened? Tell us the rest of the story. Did Ashlee’s Olympic gear arrive with her? Was she able to claim it in time to use it? Did she qualify for the Olympics? Was does AA have to say about this incident? Is AA an Olympic sponsor?

By: Fran

Fran — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:54:48 +0000

Re carryons on AA: Will be flying on an AA mileage ticket and have no credit card or status with AA. I do have Ruby Status with One World thru Alaska Airlines. Is there any way to get a better boarding position on AA so as to, perhaps, be able to get overhead bin space?

By: DaveS

DaveS — Sun, 28 Jan 2024 23:53:07 +0000

The bag beg and bag grab again. Gate checked bags are rarely lost, but it is super annoying to have to line up and waste several minutes waiting to get it when there was more than enough space for a bag that would easily fit. There will 99.99% of the time be enough bin space for someone with priority boarding who arrives to the gate on time to board when called.

By: NedsKid

NedsKid — Sun, 28 Jan 2024 23:08:07 +0000

I should add on a Delta flight back around the holidays, someone boarding was told to check their bag. It was tagged. The passenger I guess pulled off the tag and took the bag onto the plane. The agent came on and asked why her bag wasn’t in the jetway. The flight attendant was pointing out a nearby completely empty overhead bin (last passenger on) and the agent pitched a fit and demanded either she give up the bag or get off the plane. (at DCA for reference)