Originally Posted by
Crosc
She talked to her friend who works at the TSA who convinced her that she could bring a carry-on and a personal item for free, and the personal item could be something like a backpack or a laptop bag.
This isn't even true in US, only for legacy carriers. LCCs tend to charge for anything but "personal item."
Originally Posted by
Adam1222
To clarify, it's not TSA who will decide this, but the airlines.
This is exactly right.