We just flew American, and on one end there was zero checking, and on the other the gate official was very strictly checking anything he thought was oversized, and even reallllly stuck to the ONE personal item. Made some woman with a handbag, sack of lunch, and a rolly carry on give up the lunch! And then they said they needed 10 people to check their bags, or they “guaranteed” that boarding group 8 would have theirs checked anyway. On the plane, there was tons of overhead space when we taxied, so not sure what was going on.