Originally Posted by
EU-US
That's absolutely not "the same". I fly a lot on United, US and Continental. One bag + one personal item = 2. Lufthansa says even on their boarding passes "ONE CARRY ON ONLY".
Only if you end up on the small regional aircrafts like Avro Jet, Dash 8 or CRJ.
As I said, if you have important equipment as hand luggage, plan ahead. With proper casing, there is no reason to not give up the equipment you described.