What's the norm with AJ for carry-on bags? Their website is SEVERELY confusing on that point. The other airlines say I can have one carry-on plus a laptop (I'm presuming out of the bag), and AJ says that on full flights, everything might go checked. Are they putting people in the overheads????

Any recommendations on how to carry a laptop? I've just hauled my PDA before, never brought my laptop... and don't really want it destroyed by the gorilla baggage mis-handlers. I'm open to suggestion and practical experience.

Stan in February took my laptop on AJ from Chicago
as carryon with no problem man. Used it to download our digital cameras but since then have memory cards with more space and might leave it home as one less ting to worry about. Erie and have a champagne flight!

In my six or so roundtrips on AJ, they always have allowed a carry on, and I've never heard anyone one this board mention that they have not been allowed at least one proper-sized carry on. The good ol' rule of one carry on plus a purse or briefcase has been honored many times on AJ, but I do recall someone on this site mentioning that they were restricted to only one carry on. I would recommend putting your laptop into your one carry on bag, making sure that this carry on is within the dimension limits posted on their site under travel tips which is a total of 50 inches width plus height plus length. They claim the weight limit for carry on bag is 40 lbs, but I've never seen one weighed. If ya pack carefully in a decent sized (but still within the limits) carry on bag, you should be able to fit your laptop, critical dive gear (meaning whatever you'd be real upset to be without, usually mask, computer, maybe regs, maybe skin or wetsuit), critical toiletries or prescriptions, maybe a bathing suit and change of clothes. My opinion is that if you go to the airport with a carry on and a purse/briefcase/laptop carrying case, you stand a chance of having to send one to the cargo hold. I've never heard of anyone not being allowed one legal sized carry on.

Yeah, the comment on the AJ site about "full flights" was absolutely hilarious. I had an immediate flash of an ancient Mexican bus with chickens and pigs hanging out all over the place..... but with wings and an AJ logo. After I stopped choking, I took it a little more seriously, figuring there was a reason for the note. Hey, what can I say? I'm an engineer, and what you ignore WILL come back to bite you.

I really wish there was enough room for all of my critical gear, but I'll have to settle for the expensive or non-replaceable items like prescription mask. In a pinch, I could rent or buy everything else, just not the same quality. Rental gear, eeeuuuwwwwww. Sucking someone else's spit, and swimming in a suit that's been (the following thoughtfully deleted for our gentler readers).

Stan,

We've always taken on 3 carryon and never had a problem. Ed and I have our rolling bag bags (probably about the same size of the laptop case) and I have a large bag that I consider my "purse" incase they ask. I actually put a smaller purse inside. They don't consider a purse a carry on (unless you try to pass off something so ridiculous in size). I've seen many take a small carry on and lap top and not be bothered by anyone on AJ. Good Luck!

Why could you not buy the same quality, Stan? Get luggage insurance, and if they lose everything you get new gear.
Unless you are one of those backplate boys.

I take a rolling carryon,max carryon size, as does Mary, she has a big laptop, a reasonably large purse, and I have a medium backpack. Three checked each passenger, in my experience, at 70# each.

I'm not diving a backplate 'cos I'm not strong enough for doubles / deco gas / extra whatnots. I'm all of 6' 2" and 140 lbs, and even getting out of the water after an hour with most partners leaves me limp as a noodle with a single '80 or '95. I'd need a crane to hoist me out with doubles, so it's not worth the bother. I *am* going to take some tech courses just so I can deal with unexpected emergencies properly, but I'm really only interested in your average recreational dives.

I *love* my high performance regs, though. A couple of years ago I dived the alternate instead of the main reg, and was so disgusted with it that I replaced ALL of my regs with the best I could find. I figured the worst time to find out the octo was a POS was in an emergency. Even at normal depths, the Apeks breathe wonderfully. I started replacing and refining the rest of the gear at the same time, and I'm reasonably happy with everything now.