A couple weeks ago I was on an RJ145 and was blind sided by the same "new" policy. The GA blamed the crew and seemed just as irritated as all the passengers. I had two small back packs, so I put everything in one and put the mostly empty one on my back with my winter coat over it and boarded with both bags. Later that day on the same itinerary I was on a another RJ145 and had no problem with both bags. It could be a carrier specific policy since both of my flights were on different Express carriers.