Barb, Is this airline specific? I flew on Alaska a couple of weeks ago, and was able to take both my carry on suitcase and a largeish computer case on board.

I think some of the smaller/regional airlines aren't quite so anal, Perkins. Frontier was pretty good about it when we flew to San Diego in February, and that's actually who I was going to fly to SF, except they quit flying out of Jacksonville effective immediately back in May. I had two options: either drive two hours to Orlando so I could still fly Frontier, or accept a refund on my flight and rebook.

I rebooked and wound up having to pay nearly $150.00 more plus flying out at 7AM instead of 10.

Really, really hating air travel right now.

They have to be much smaller AND you're only allowed one carryon-- and carryons now include purses, so you can't even carry a purse and something else anymore.

No no no--it's one carryon and one "personal item". The purse is the "personal item". So you can have one suitcase and the purse. And they usually interpret "personal item" pretty damn loosely, so personal item=purse, backpack, laptop case, etc etc. Anything that's not a rolly suitcase can be a personal item, really. {Edit: trust the girl who flies every dang week}

She says it's a Jewish thing, but I dunno-- my mom used to try to have family meetings in the bathroom until I finally locked the door when I was about ten or so.

My mother STILL tries to do it, and gets slightly offended when I don't play along. ARGH.

My mom likes company when she's in the tub but thankfully we keep our toilet time to ourselves in my family. I don't even like it when people try to talk to me through the door.

{Edit: trust the girl who flies every dang week}

And because I trust Buffista wisdom, I went and checked and you're right.

::feels stoopit::

Of course, the downside is that the luggage Nazis at Jacksonville International Airport could still make me check whatever carry on I take when I get to the plane. I know it's a full flight to Charlotte.

oh, I hate gate checking.

There are men at work who will go the the bathroom and keep talking on their cell phones the whole time.

It's really wrong.

the downside is that the luggage Nazis at Jacksonville International Airport could still make me check whatever carry on I take when I get to the plane

Yeah, but gate check doesn't count. So just make sure there's nothing SUPER vital (laptop, prescriptions, things you're going to read on the flight) in the rolly bag.

So you can baggage check one. Go through security with ginormo-"purse" and another rolly. And then they may or may not make you gate check the other rolly because it's a commuter flight. But that doesn't count as a checked bag.

You know, I think that next year, I'm going to drive to D.C., especially since I plan on making it part of Nate's birthday trip and I'm definitely driving to Nashville the year after.

It's just easier, especially since I like driving.