Sleeping bag and a backpack as carry-ons?

Question

Can I take a sleeping as a carry-on and have my backpack be considered a personal item? I'm flying with American Airlines. How picky are they about carry-ons? I'll also be flying on Qantas from LA to Melbourne.

Answer 1

Depends on the size of your items. Sleeping bag, when rolled up, will probably be a small enough size to fit in overhead bin and be considered carry-on. With the backpack, it will really depend - if it's just a regular-sized city backpack, you should be ok, but if it's one of the larger camping ones that people use when, say, backpacking through Europe, it may need to be checked in (it must not exceed 45 linear inches (length + width + height) or weigh more than 40 lbs/18 kgs).  If it's not much larger than an average carry-on bag, though, you may also have the option to gate-check it (i.e. check it in on the jetway before boarding the airplane). On American in U.S. domestic coach you can now check one bag free and a second bag for $25.