Answer Angel: Carry-on luggage

Ellen Warren, Tribune News Service on Mar 25, 2025

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Dear Answer Angel Ellen: I am confused by airline regulations about carry-on luggage. I’m determined not to check my luggage after a disastrous trip last year. My suitcase was lost and my vacation, planned for over a year, had to be conducted entirely without it! It was impossible for the luggage to “catch up” with me since I was moving too often from one city to the next. Add in the anxiety of trying to contact the airlines to find my luggage while traveling!

It isn’t easy to pack for a three-week journey in one suitcase but that’s my plan this time. What are the rules? I see people with small suitcases — a size that would easily fit in the overhead compartment — be required to “gate check” their suitcase at the entry door of the plane!

--Elizabeth N.

Dear Elizabeth: Can air travel get any more difficult? It seems impossible, and then it just seems to get worse. Airlines will tell you that lost luggage is a rarity, but that’s no comfort when you’re the one without a toothbrush or a change of clothes. I can tell you the basics, but if you’re at the cabin door and the attendant says you have to check that little suitcase because the bins are full, you’re not going to get on that plane unless you agree to gate check it.

Most U.S. airlines say your carry-on suitcase maximum dimensions are 22 inches tall by 14 inches wide by 9 inches high. Generally there are no weight limits.

There are “sizers” at airline check-ins to put your suitcase in to see if it is within the carry-on maximum. I can tell you, if you need to sit on your suitcase to zip it, it will fail that test. But I often jam my carry-on luggage to near bursting and have no questions asked when I roll it on to the aircraft.

The one additional “personal item” allowed (like a backpack or tote) must fit under the seat in front of you. Sometimes there’s room in the overhead for that too, but the rules say you can store only one thing up there. If you try to carry on your purse too, you might be told that makes two personal items. This is where I see women getting caught. You might have to jam your purse into that tote or backpack, or check the larger item. I speak from experience.

For non-U.S.-based airlines, consult each one, but you are more likely to fail a common 10 kilogram (22 pounds) weight test. I did. Size limits are mostly the same as domestic airlines but check first. Generally these airline rules apply to flights not originating from the U.S. and not flying to U.S. destinations, but not always.

Dear Answer Angel Ellen: I love my girlfriends and am blissfully happy that they have found the perfect mate. But the weddings have just gotten out of hand. I spent more than $2,000 to be an attendant in one of their out-of-town weddings and I am tapped out. There are three more weddings on the horizon, two of them at destinations requiring air travel out of the country. Add on the hotel cost and the bridesmaid dress and I just can’t afford them. How to tell best friends I just don’t have the money?

--No Name Please

Dear No Name: It is this simple and that hard! Tell your friends how much you want to celebrate their happiness, that they are so loved, but you don’t have the money. And you hope to celebrate with them at another time -- closer to home. Especially in uncertain times, I’m betting this question will come up more and more. But it won’t get any easier to not be there for the special day.

Angelic Readers

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