I just flew today from JFK to AUS on American Airlines. I've been traveling for the past 3 weeks to different cities on different airlines like Delta and Northwest and Continental, never with any problems. JFK turned out to be bad, they thought that I would jump out. They refused to let me board the aircraft with my rig, even though I showed them my Cypress card and explained that I can't jump out at that altitude without oxygen. The TSA managers at JFK told me that it is against federal policy, but that is so inconsistent with other TSA managers at other airports (one in an airport in AL responded that he was also a skydiver and he has no problem whatsoever with having sport parachutes on his planes). Does anyone have anything in writing from American Airlines saying that they won't allow sport rigs as carry-ons? I haven't seen anything addressing the issue.
