I'm leaving for Amsterdam on Saturday on US Airways Express out of AVP(Scranton,Pa) with an international connection out of PHL. My husband wants to check our carry-on luggage. I don't think it would be a good idea. Lost luggage worries. Can anybody give me some feed back on this issue. We just cannot settle this.

When you check carry-on luggage, it becomes checked luggage by definition.

Seriously, we always use carry-ons with our important items and a basic change of clothes for each.

Does USAir lose or delay baggage? A big YES. We went to LAX on the way to NZ and our luggage was delayed by a day. If we had not stayed over in LAX, it would have been a disaster for us.

Another time our luggage went to Rochester NY and not to Providence RI.

And changing planes in PHL is tempting the devil.

CARRY!!!

The U.S. Airways Express plane is a small plane that will not hold larger carry-ons. Take your carry-on to the plane, they will put it in the back of the plane and hand it two you before you leave the aircraft after landing.

Then you board the international flight with the carryon. However, if you check it, you won't see it again until you get to Amsterdam. The plane that files to Amsterdam will hold your carry-on, otherwise, it isn't a carry-on.

I'd keep it with you!!!! We had a nightmare mess with U.S. Airways losing half of our plane's luggage coming back from Maine. We went from Portland, ME to PHL to STL. Our luggage got lost in PHL and the irony of the whole thing - the headlines in Philly's newspaper that day were on US Air's bad problem w/ losing luggage at that airport.

I'd definitely keep your essentials with you!

Personally, we'd never check carry-on. We never carry much, but the point of carry on is to take essentials you 1) need/want for the flight or 2)things you can't afford to lose or wait on - meds, extra clothes in case checked luggage does get lost or delayed, camera, etc. The procedure Wally outlines is worth noting since you'll be on an RJ or prop for first flight.

Thanks everyone. That settles it, we will keep our 22inch with us and follow Wally"s instructions.

Just be sure your 22" bag meets the regulations -- 45" or less. Or you may be forced to check. I have seen many 22" rolling bags forced to be checked because they failed the box test.

To clarify fmpden's comment, the 45" measurement is total dimension. So if your carry on is 22" tall, 15" wide and 10" deep, it won't meet the carry on requirement. However if it's 12" wide, it will.

Carryon size depends on airlines, and there's no "sizer" or "box" for most US-based airline.

Some have 45" overall dimension, like fmpden says. Some airline specify its 22 x 14 x 9. Other airlines don't specify it and/or have 51" overall dimension.

And on some routes, it depends on the airport. Coming back from Europe, I believe many airport may enforce the 56cm x 45cm x 25cm rule (which is about 22 x 17.75 x 9.85).

My point is that everything depends, and there's some gray area in the real world. And like others are telling you, you need to gate check anything but very small ones on the US Express flight. On others, even if you're within limited, if all the overhead space are taken and you have absolutely no place to put yours, then you'll still need to gate check it.

<<< And on some routes, it depends on the airport. Coming back from Europe, I believe many airport may enforce the 56cm x 45cm x 25cm rule (which is about 22 x 17.75 x 9.85). >>>

That's the MAXIMUM size allowed in EU airports, your airline might have an allowance that's smaller.

Plus don't forget the UK rules (soon to be EU wide) of ONE carry-on bag only, not one carry-on plus purse plus personal items. If it doesn't fit in the ONE bag it either has to be checked or dumped.