What do you "carry on?"
 

For domestic flights, what can you get away with carrying on? Do any of you have the new backpacks that will hold both a laptop and a couple of cameras, and have you taken it along with your regular carry-on bag with no problem? I'm thinking that would be no different than a lady with both a carry-on bag plus a huge tote/purse? Haven't flown for a bit, and I know restrictions are not quite what they were a few years ago ... Thanks, all.

Airlines are getting strictter and stricter - but it does vary by airline, by airport and even by gate agent (they may ber more flixible if the flight is not absolutely full).

I have seen women with a carry-on and a huge shoulder bag (really another carry-on) forced to check one at the gate. Often they will ask for the purse to be put inside the carry-on so it counts as only one.

You can try it and it might work. But be prepared to be forced to gate check one of them.

I fly often, too often, and in my opinion most people carry on WAY too much.

If you can't easily lift if over your head, check it.

If it barely <i>rolls</i> down the narrow aisle, check it.

Unless your time is so incredibly precious that you can't wait 15 minutes for a checked bag, check it.

Unfortunately, many/most people are too selfish to even <i>consider</i> such courtesies.


(Oh, and please don't whine about &quot;lost&quot; bags. The airlines mishandle less than 1%.)

You need to check with the airline for their exact size requirements. Usually the camera backpack will meet the larger carry on requirement. If a second carry on is allowed, it will have to meet the smaller requirement or you'll have to check it.

That means that you are very unlikely to be able to carry the backpack AND a 22&quot; carry on bag, but you might be able to carry the backpack AND an overnight case or tote bag.

&quot;&quot;If it barely rolls down the narrow aisle, check it. &quot;&quot;

No carry on pullmans roll down the aisle. Manners dictate you pick it up and carry it through the plane.

I have a small/medium size wheeled duffle bag. In this are my laptop and any other small electronics, change of clothes, a bag of &quot;stuff&quot; for on the plane- neck pillow, book, ipod, shawl,sleep mask, meds, etc. - and my purse fits in there as well. This way I only have one thing to keep track of after security. When I get to my seat I put my &quot;plane stuff&quot; bag under my seat, lock the duffel (with my purse in it) and toss it in the overhead. Very fast and hard to forget and leave anything behind.

I also check one bag, and when I later retrieve it, the duffle can be belted on top.

Gekko - your advice about checking baggage would be wonderful if we could trust the airlines to get our checked luggage to our destinations on time and in one piece. Unfortunately, that not the case. Too often, luggage doesn't make a tight connection, just doesn't get on the plane, is damaged, and so forth.

For myself, I would love to check everything except what I actually need while I am on the plane, but on trips to my destination, I usually push the limit of the carryon restrictions. I don't exceed the limit, but I carry on as much as I am allowed. That way I know I will reach my destination with as much of my belongings as possible.

I have my carry on down to a 20&quot; duffle this year. It holds all my camera equipment (minus the tripod which goes in checked) and anything else of value or that I will need on the plane. And because it's softsided (I use a smaller beltpack inside to protect the camera and lenses), I can fit it in under the seat easily.

No way in hell I'm checking my camera and my laptop - I'm carrying it them, period. We're talking thousands of dollars worth of stuff (even if it weren't fragile). The airlines don't insure your bags for anything close to that.

So I always carry on both a camera bag and a laptop bag. Sometimes I put the laptop bag into another bag which gives me a little more room for books and some food. I've been able to get away with calling my camera bag (which isn't tiny) a &quot;personal item.&quot; The little bag I plop my laptop bag into isn't huge, though, either.

As a result of all this, I am reluctant to fly into or through London anymore since as far as I know they are very strict since last August about what you are allowed to carry on a plane.

Simply a back pack (goes under the seat) to allow for the ... - never a larger bag - that's way rude, imhpo.
M

I agree Andrew - I would never check my camera or other electronics. That's just asking for trouble.

But because I carry on those, I don't carry on as much of the other stuff. I don't try to carry on all my stuff for a 3 week trip - I'd rather have to buy a pair of pants, a couple tops and some undies (that with what I'm wearing can get me by for a week or more).

I also hate trying to run around the airport with multiple bags. With what I have now, I can carry just my duffle bag, or if I'm bringing home souvenirs, I can remove the camera beltpack (no bigger than a purse) from the duffle for more room.

Elsiemoo, I've seen one of those backpacks, and that would be considered your carry on, period. Don't bring a purse with that, place your purse on the inside of that bag and you will be ok.

It's like others have said above - really depends on many factors, most especially the gate agent. I know gate agents have attempted to get me to check my carryon (a 22&quot; suitcase) at various points in time, but as long as I had just 1 item and it could fit into that little nasty crusty metal contraption by the gate, I've always been let through.

I try to carry on as little as possible - less to remember - and i fit it all into one carry-on which has lots of compartments and pack my handbag into my check in luggage. I always have with me anything i don't want to lose, my essential paperwork, my camera, a light magazine and my cellphone which usually has two books downloaded onto it - its a real luggage space saver.

My husband is one of those rude people who carries onway too much - and has never been stopped or asked to gate check except on smaller commuter planes. He carries a too-big roll-on (way over size requirements of any airline) and an enormous briefcase with computer and god-knows-what-else inside.

While I think this is rude, it is also becoming more of the norm for business travelers who often can not spare the time to wait for lulggage - and it is rarely the 15 minutes one poster mentioned. On recent pleasure trips at 5 different airports, it was closer to an hour than 15 minutes.

People will continue to carry on whatever they can get away with - on a BA flight 2 years ago they were uniformly strict about carry-on luggage, and boarding and deboarding took 1/3 time on most other flights.

We flew through London Gatwick last month and they are serious about the one carry-on per person rule.

Bags such as a camera bag, laptop bag, tote bag or purse are considered your ONE carry-on, if you have one of these you may not have another bag or suitcase.

The carry on bag may not exceed their metal sizer which sits next to the security gate. If you try to put an overstuffed suitcase in the sizer and it doesn't fit then they won't let you through with it.

You can put your purse, etc., inside your tote bag or suitcase but only if it doesn't make the bag bulge too much to fit into the sizer.

It would be a good rule if everyone understood that in advance but as it was it slowed down the line. Everyone was trying to stuff their bag into the sizer to prove to the guard it would fit. If it didn't they they had to step out of line and try to reconfigure which jammed up the line.

We had a small 21&quot;x14&quot;x9&quot; bag that was okay but when I put my very small purse into the side pocket it would no longer fit into the sizer. I had to take stuff out of my purse and put it into coat pockets.

However, keep in mind that you can stuff your coat pockets full. We put the extra toiletries (non liquid), digital camera, guidebooks, into coat pockets in order to not have the extra carry-on bag. Once on the plane I took all of it out again and put it back into the tote bag. Seems rather silly but those are the rules.

15 minutes to get your checked luggage? Really??? That's not the norm, unfortunately. SFO is known to be in excess of an hour for some strange reason. That's an hour longer than I'd like to wait biting my nails to see if the bag even makes it..

You're fine with a carry-on plus a tote bag, just make sure that it can fit under the seat in front of you. I feel like for some reason that space has gotten a bit smaller.

It's never been 15 minutes, always at least 30 minutes. Even longer when I flew into LAX the other day and there were SEVEN flights that were using one carousel. A nightmare!

I've always flown with a laptop bag and backpack (with books, jacket, etc). I lay the laptop bag down and put the backpack on top under the seat in front...usually fits no problem.

If I'm checking bags, I keep carry on to a medium purse or smallish day pack.

FYI, a medium purse to me is a 9'' by 12&quot; by 3&quot; deep.

Yeah, I guess some people's time is precious and more valuable than everybody else's, so they can selfishly inconvenience others so they don't have to wait for their checked luggage.

Where do we get a list of who's &quot;special&quot; enough to be such an inconsiderate ass?

I carry my cell phone and any jewelry in my purse and check my bag. So far, it's the liquid thing that I haven't been able to get down to the quart sized zip lock. I'm still working on it, at least for short trips.

I would happily wait for my checked luggage (and let the airline employees do the lifting) if I had confidence that said luggage would arrive intact and complete on the carousel. But after the second time I got off a flight and the my checked bag <i>didn't</i> arrive on the carousel, I became a &quot;bin hog.&quot; Dealing with the airlines' &quot;efficient&quot; centralized lost-baggage system cost me too many precious vacation hours that I would much prefer not to waste. This was some years ago, but I could not possibly imagine that today's bankrupt understaffed airlines would have instituted any improvements, especially now that checked bags pass through another set of TSA hands (who must be dealt with separately if they contribute to lost, damaged, or delayed bags or stolen items).

Airlines, security officials, and everyone else seems intent on completely ignoring the reliability problems of checked baggage. They apparently prefer to put all the blame on &quot;selfish&quot; passengers, as if there is something wrong with a desire to have your property arrive intact with them rather than spending hours on hold to an 800 number waiting for a distant, overworked, indifferent employee to tell them that they don't know when the bag will arrive.

If they made checked baggage reliable, believe me that most passengers would be more than happy to give up their kitchen-sink carry-ons and enjoy swift and safe boarding and deplaning. But it would cost too much to make checked baggage reliable. It's far simpler to vilify &quot;bin hogs&quot; and impose strict rules than to do anything to fix the real problem.

So what do I carry on? A carefully-packed rolling bag that meets published specifications. Except that the new restrictions on liquids and gels mean that I spend a few minutes at my destination in a drugstore buying samples of whatever versions of my favorite toiletries are available, since that is far less hassle than juggling a clear plastic bag in addition to my shoes, carry-on, camera bag, and boarding pass at the security checkpoint. That minimal hassle is worth it because it's an opportunity for me to make a small contribution to Victory in the Global War On Terror.

Talk about &quot;karma&quot;. I'm sitting here at the airport since 3:15 for my 5:15 flight (it's now almost 8:00). We have had two delays for maintenance. At this point, I will not make my connecting flight until tomorrow am. I have a good size tote with my non-liquid articles, my one qt bag with liquids, my medicine bag with my liquid medications (such as saline for my contacts). I then have a small rolling suitcase that meets the requirements with my laptop, my critical client files and two lightweight outfits for client visits. If I didn't have this I wouldn't have anything for my overnight stay and then of course, who knows if and when my luggage will arrive at my destination.

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someone mentioned if you can't easily lift a carryon over your head you should check it. i'm one of those weakly people who can't do that. yet i don't want to check my bag for a 3-day trip. what do you do if you can't life it? is it okay to ask for help?

well, I am not willing to ask for help putting my suitcase into the overhead bin. If I can't handle it myself, I check it thru. Even then you'll need to be able to get it off the luggage carousel, etc.

That said, will some kind soul assist you?... sure, someone will.

Another option if you can't life it is to just put it under the seat. That is where we always put our bags. Except last flights where we were in the exit row, so had no choice except overhead.

<i>Another option if you can't life it is to just put it under the seat. That is where we always put our bags. Except last flights where we were in the exit row, so had no choice except overhead.</i>

That's fine if it fits, but an overhead-bin-size suitcase (a 21&quot; carryon) will not fit under the seat.

Before I got married and the idiotic and oppressive FTA rules I would not take anything unless it fit in the carry on.

My wife however can take a suitcase full of shoes.

dmlove--I have always managed to get my 22&quot; bag under the seat in front of me, but maybe bags differ enough that it doesn't work for all of them. I then mine as a footrest. Granted I am very short, so that doesn't work for everyone.

It depends the type of airplane you are on. A 22&quot; suitcase does not normally fit under the seat in front of you.

suze--Very true. I do recall one flight that I was not able to stash it at my feet, and that was a Horizon hop from SEA to PDX. But otherwise, that bag has traveled underfoot on flights for about 12 years. Maybe because it is not one that expands, so it isn't as bulky as others that are the same size? I don't know. But I do love that bag, and my new 21&quot; and plan to keep stashing them at my feet whenever possible.

I have found that most bags over 17&quot; don't really &quot;fit&quot; under the seat. However, I usually get a window seat, shove the bag as far as it will go under the seat, put my feet on the bag, throw my jacket over my knees and hope the FA doesn't notice the bag hanging out 2-8 inches... :)

P.S. Why do they tell you to stow your heavier items under the seat and lighter items, like coats and purses, in the overhead, when most heavy bags won't fit under the seat??

When I carry on I have a 20&quot; duffle at the largest, and a purse or fanny pack. And my purses are usually small to medium (11&quot; by 8&quot; by 3&quot; for the largest).

I carry a backpack that has wheels so I can carry it or drag it, and it fits under my seat or in the overhead. The back straps can be tucked in when not being used. I am used to walking to the subway when traveling, so I have gotten in the habit of not bringing more than I can carry myself.

I have a backpack on wheels, which I may take on my long weekend to NYC next month. Your subway comment has me thinking it may work better than the duffle.

Um, everything in one small roll-along. Regardless of where I am going. If it doesn't fit in there, I don't need it.

If I'm going on a long trip, my luggage gets checked (especially if it's non-stop or direct) and I carry on a large purse -- holds paper and pens, ipod, and a book. If the trip is shorter and we need only carry-on size for the entire trip, then I just take a 22&quot; rolling suitcase and put it in the overhead, still using that same large purse for my &quot;on-plane&quot; activities.

Something to consider about your &quot;checked luggage&quot;. These days everything is subject to being opened and checked. Make sure you carry your medications with you and not in your checked luggage. I went on a recent trip, and when I arrived at my hotel, it was obvious that someone had gone through my bag (toiletries were all over instead of being in their case) and my prescription drugs were missing. Mind you, the only ones missing were the drugs that could have some street value, the others were left behind (obviously someone knew what the drugs were...even with generic names). Nice. So, live and learn. Anything like muscle relaxants, pain pills, anti anxiety meds, sleeping pills ....carry them with you if you want to have them at your desitination.

I've had too many issues with checked bags. So I've reduced my carry on to an oversized Marc Jacobs leather tote. It holds my clothes, my purse and my plastic baggie items and other little knickknacks. If I need to, my second bag is my dog carrier and that counts as an item as well. So I'm always good to go.

I take the essentials and I'm out! I feel so smart when I watch everyone else wandering around with half the crap they own up and down the terminals.

With two bags you should be good but just try to minimize as much as you can.