Originally Posted by
Adstring
I am in the same position as need to take a suit to a wedding in Italy next week.
I am going to take the suit carrier (i.e free plastic cover that came with the thing...not a bought suit carrier) as well as my hand luggage sized suitcase and try and place it on top of luggage in the overhead bin. While it is clearly oversized as a second piece of luggage, I really think that common sense will prevail and unless the flight is packed, there will be no problem.
If challenged, I will simply put the jacket on and fold the trousers up to put in the suitcase...
It's a bit harder for the bride (on the same flight) who with the recent hand luggage enforcement is really worried that BA might make her check in her wedding dress. Again...I hope common sense prevails.
You could take the suit carrier onboard as your larger item and have the wheelie bag hold loaded, then I am sure you will be within the limit.
As I have explained, obviously badly in the view of some, a hanging wardrobe would be accepted as your larger piece of baggage (as long as it was not one of these giant suitcase sized ones) but it would not qualify as your smaller piece. Under the current system it was often far too big too but ground staff were often lenient. In fact, we often refer to them as the 'invisible hanging wardrobes'.
They are fine if they are your main item of hand baggage (and not the really big suitcase sized ones) but if you are going to try and bring them on as your smaller laptop/handbag item they will be too big.
As I understand it, ground staff, particularly in ET, CE, WT, and WT+ cabins are being asked to ensure that hand baggage complies strictly.