BA - no purses or backpacks?
 

We are flying out of Boston to Nice on British Airways in a few weeks. From their website, it appears that you are only allowed one carry on, and no other purses, backpacks etc. Is this really true?

Hi Z,

The reports on this forum have been that you are allowed only one carryon for flights leaving the UK.

However, you should call BA.

((I))

Straight from the horse's mouth:

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

From the Heathrow Airport website - it pretty much applies to ALL UK airports - http://tinyurl.com/2vz9yl

You are only allowed one bag through SECURITY CHECKPOINTS - before and after you can have as many as you want. Purses aren't banned, nor are backpacks. Having them in addition to another bag isn't allowed.

However you can put all your bags into one larger bag (eg garden waste bag) as long as you then make the resultant "bag" fit the 56x45x25cm box with nothing sticking out.

Yes, it is true. The British airport security folks have surged ahead of the TSA in the "let's be stubborn and try to inconvenience travelers as much as possible" contest!

One bag--no more--but, as others have noted, you can simply put smaller bags into a larger one. We used a 22" carryon and stuffed other items into it. A backpack would also work.

<<< We used a 22" carryon >>>

That's 22" INCLUDING wheels & handles. Many 22" bags don't meet that or some of the other dimensions

• 56cm (22in) tall
• 45cm (17.7in) wide
• 25cm (10in) deep

For some reason, the staff at Gatwick were more forgiving, at least they were on my three transatlantic flights from there so far this year. They weren't hassling people who had a regular size carryon and a SMALL secondary carryon. I heard them ask a couple of people if their second item would fit into their primary carryon bag and when they answered yes, they let them keep it separate.

Not recommending anyone count on getting away with two pieces, just an observation on what I've seen at Gatwick this year.

We came through Heathrow on Sunday and the security there could not have cared less how many bags we had, the size or the weight... but can you count on that?
They seemed mainly interested in our taking off our shoes and removing our laptops from our bags. In fact, as tyou put the stuff in bins, and there was a line up, they had no idea how many bins you used - I used two myself - or what bin belonged to whom.
BA at home (Toronto) did want to let us know that the rule was one carry on.

Yeah, we noticed that nobody at Heathrow security was counting your bags either...

In a related note, it was fun to watch the Scottish rugby fans in their kilts, removing their "accesories" at security. To my knowledge, none were wearing a "Sgian Dubh" (traditional knife).

I have been to England and Scotland three times this year-six trips in and out of London and Glasgow. Yes, it's one bag only in your hot little hands.

They seldom cut anyone any slack at Heathrow. On one occassion I had to toss out my one quart Hefty Ziplock bag and substitute the bag they gave me--why I have no idea and they had no explanation except, "just do it".

In Glasgow a travelling companion had to buy another bag to contain her purse and backpack because the backpack was so full she couldn't get her purse in it...I have seen others who had bags that just would not fit the sizing form that measures how big the bag is (If your bag won't fit in here, you can't tkat it on the plane thing)and were made to check the bag. At Heathrow in March the screeners made every one put their bags in the sizer, even ones that obviously were not very big. CYA?

Anyhow, one bag, proper size, any airport in the UK. (including No. Ireland). I take less with me every trip!

Judy and the Panda

Absolutely TRUE. EVERYTHING must fit in one legal-size carry-on--and that size is smaller than here. I have been there twice since the rule mod--and am headed off again on Friday.

t

<<< and that size is smaller than here >>>

It's actually bigger than the the carry-on size of airlines such as AA - 56x45x25cm is about 50 linear inches whereas AA allow 45 linear inches

http://www.aa.com/aa/pubcontent/en_U...eAllowance.jsp