Budget Travel - Aer Lingus carry-on baggage

Hello,
I'm flying London-Dublin and Cork-Munich on Aer Lingus. According to their website, you are only allowed one piece of cabin baggage (http://www.aerlingus.com/cgi-bin/obel01im1/Services/cabin_bag.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@2056700580.12402652 96@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccfadehdfhiglgcefecfigdffgdfkg.0&P_OID=-536879754&Category=3#all)

Does this include purses? I am assuming that I can bring a small knapsack as my "carry on" and then a purse as my personal item?

If anyone can provide advice as to past experiences it would be greatly appreciated. They note on their website that "Cabin baggage limits are strictly enforced" and I would like to avoid repacking in the middle of the airport.

Thanks

I think this might be an exception to the general FT rule of never calling the airline.

Romelle

As usual YMMV and whatnot, but I've never seen AerLingus staff check the number of carry-on bags and two is definitely possible. You should have no trouble getting through with a purse and backpack, if some of the things I've seen people do are any indication. Just try to board a bit earlier, as everyone else may be doing the same thing, and I've had to put my bags up to 20 rows back just to find a spot.

They've also been a bit less concerned than some about going a bit overweight with checked luggage, although that's not to say it's fair game. I just see people go 2 or 3 kg over without mention sometimes.

Hope you have a good trip; the weather in Cork has been surprisingly nice this year, much more than last!

From my experience, Aer Lingus is pretty spotty with enforcing carryon requirements. I’ve been frced to check my bag because I was 0.5kg over and had a colleague with a much larger and heavier bag waved on through without even getting his bag weighed. I tend to follow the rules as stated because being forced to check a bag you were planning on carrying on is such a big hassle. Your flight isn’t too long, maybe try putting your purse inside your pack and making sure the combination is under the limit.

I'm pretty sure I got on an Aer Lingus flight with four bags (a backpack, a purse, and two bags from airport shops) and a coat, but who knows what happens any given day.

There are very few airlines (I only know of one - Ryanair) that will NOT allow passengers to carry certain small items in addition to their one carry-on item. In the old paper ticket days these items were listed on the inside cover of every ticket. They included a purse/handbag, camera, reading material and various other bits.

I flew on Aer Lingus last week (AMS-DUB). I had a carry-on (9 kg, so over the limit), and a small shopping bag containing the things I wanted to keep by my feet during the flight. No one batted an eyelid. I noticed several other people carrying additional small items.

But... of course... a lot depends on staff at the particular airport, so the fact that I had no problem at AMS doesn't necessarily mean that there won't be problems elsewhere.

I am doing a flight from Cork to Munich, but I want to check a larger suitcase (19 by 26 inches) as I will be flying from the US a few months earlier. Can anyone help me decipher Aer Lingus' policy on luggage? :confused: I see that for US-Ireland flights, they have much bigger allowances, but inter-Europe, it is much smaller. Any advice would be very much appreciated. :)