Originally Posted by
felipegarcia
Not traveling with a rollaboard, just a backpack with clothes and photo equipment, and a laptop briefcase. I still don't want to have to argue over "can you assure me that the $7000 worth of camera equipment in this backpack will be there and working when I arrive? Worst case scenario the bag *should* fit under the seat infront of me, at least from what I remember doing in the past, and the laptop bag should be easy to stow, but I don't want to take any chances.
Whether you are first or last on a CRJ, I would not count on being able to fit a backpack containing hard equiptment as opposed to soft squishable clothing, onto that aircraft.
No, US representative will guarantee anything about camera equiptment because it's specifically excluded under the COC. While there are isolated incidents involving theft from gate-checked luggage, on a CRJ, it's relatively unheard of, particularly if you are boarding/deplaning via air stairs and the gate checks are picked up and dropped off planeside.