... this always happens to Americans travelling in Europe who fall foul of our different rules over here.

1. US hand baggage sizes are slightly larger than EU ones. 55x40x20cm (or whatever) in the US excludes wheels and handles whereas in the EU it includes them. And many US manufacturers understandably produce carryons that are as large as possible while fitting in the US size requirements. Unfortunately this means they'll be oversized in the EU.

2. US airlines appear to have a different approach to upgrades - people are actually entitled to them in some circumstances, and are often given them in others. In general in the EU people are not upgraded at all unless the airline needs the extra seats down the back. If you paid for a coach class ticket, even if you have a super-platinum card you'll travel coach 99% of the time. EU airlines don't issue upgrade vouchers and don't generally upgrade at the gate. It must be said that intra-EU business class isn't generally as different from coach as intra-US first class is - you usually get the same type of seat but with no-one sitting next to you, a meal, and the option of champagne, but in coach the seat is substantially the same and on most major airlines the wine and beer (no champagne) is still free.



LH isn't really that bad - try flying Ryanair! With Ryanair you have an allowance of one carryon. Period. Including anything, i.e. cameras, handbags, purses etc must be placed inside the one carryon. And anything you buy in the airport airside. (If they're feeling particularly generous they might allow you to take a book with you in addition to your carryon.) And it's then limited to I think 10kg. I've been asked to repack a 10.5kg bag because it was 500g (=a pound) overweight.