BritishAir - Luggage question
 

Can you confirm whether we can bring a purse/backpack and a carry-on on to the plane. LA Times says we can only have one. Our photo equipment is in a "roll/carry on" but we also have backpacks we need to bring too!

Any advice is much appreciated.

Your best bet is to check directly with the airline as these rules seem to change so frequently.

Last time I went on BA here in London we could only have one SINGLE hand luggage bag including the purse but they said you could put the purse into the larger bag to get through security (as long as the larger bag still fitted the max dimensions) and then take it back out.

There was something about being able to carry a laptop on top of that one piece but again check whether that's still the case.

And of course, once you're through you can buy as much duty free as you like.

(GRRRR one of my bug bears is that they are strict on hand luggage size but ignore duty free so some selfish travellers can still fill the entire luggage bin leaving no room for anyone else)

One bag thru Security.

So one of the backpacks has to fit into the rolling camera bag, or one backpack has to fit into the other backpack.

And which bag fit in the other, the total measurement of that carryon has to meet the BA limits. Read their website for all specifics.

Once thru Security, you can remove whichever bag went into the other.

Thanks for explaining how it works. I think we will actually have to practice/try out which works best!

They are very strict about this - Transferring planes in London (BA) Jim carried his camera gear and a cold-pack medicine bag (marked as such), I carried a small rollaboard with my purse in it. The lady made us cram the medicine bag into my carry on so we only had one each. It wouldn't go in, and I was hesitant to cram it in as I had a gift that had been given to us of an ebony carved elephant (quite large) in there in just a bag (no cushioning). Strangely enough, the security person's advise was for me to carry the fragile purchase & put the medicine bag in the carry on. I still can't figure that one out.

After I got home, a friend told me that she had just got back from a formal wedding in London - she was carring a purse and a hat box. They wouldn't let her take the hat box, but it was OK if she threw out the hat box and put the hat on her head. She said she looked so silly in her jeans and that great 'garden party' hat that her & her daughter laughed about it all the way home across the ocean.

A solution for you is to bring a rolling carry on that is of an acceptable size, put the two back packs in it, and then ask to leave the empty carryon at your hotel (if you are going back there at the end) or with your tour operator.

I heard recently that thes restrictions were to be amended, but at present can find nothing to say what the amendments are to be. This restriction applies to all travelleres into or out of UK airports not just BA.
Details of the current restrictions can be found at

http://www.britishairways.com/travel...n/public/en_gb

Lynda - why didn't your friend just put the hat on her head and her purse into the hat box? She could have swapped things later on the plane.

The restriction on one bag is due to be lifted later this year but probably not for a couple of months.
Restrictions regarding liquids will remain in place.

lifeslist-

That would have been a good solution, I'm not sure why! Maybe the purse was bigger than the hat box, it could have been a bag instead of a purse maybe?