Is it not a required part of highland dress? What is the standard for required? Do you mean ESSENTIAL, rather than required? Indeed it is not ESSENTIAL for me to have a sporran on when I wear a kilt but since my attire lacks the pockets that men dressed in trousers enjoy, it is ESSENTIAL for me to have somewhere to keep small personal items discrete, yet readily available.

That is a standard of modern life which even airlines have not managed to pare down.

It is ESSENTIAL for me to protect my modesty when sitting in public areas and a sporran helps someone of my size to do this.

It does not count because it is not an additional place below the waist to keep valuables, for traditionally attired kilt wearers (who don't consider pockets or pouches sewn into kilts to be a part of traditional dress) it is the ONLY place. In fact, fanny packs - so long as they don't hinder movement should not be considered luggage as they are not cumbersome and present little in the way of practical problems for the airline.

Consider: A wallet in a back pocket is not luggage, it is the contents of the back pocket. So strap it round your neck as I do when I travel and it's luggage? I have never been told that, maybe because it sits inside my jersey out of sight.

If the real criteria is whether it is visible then all sporran wearers should just take the sporran off, undo the front apron, and reattach with the sporran tucked between the front and rear apron. Problem solved.

But I doubt that any of us will have to do that because airlines are moving further away from strict interpretation of policy in an effort to secure repeat customers for the future. Recent youtube videos like the one of the girls putting on 8 layers of clothing to beat the baggage limits have ridiculed airline restrictions. Even O'Leary's trying to crack a smile these days.

The incident at LAX sounds more like a "needs more training" issue to me.