Originally Posted by Prospero
How deep are your coat pockets?
Decant the paperbacks, pens, pencils, phone, newspaper, iPod et al into your pockets, remove the clear plastic bag of toiletries (which we must now do anyway) and fill the void with your camera bag.
Would that work?
I find that a combination of a max size roll-aboard and a coat with lots of pockets takes care of the problem. I pack enough from the case into the coat pockets to enable me to fit my laptop case in my roll-aboard, then switch it all back after security. I haven't had a problem getting on the plane with the laptop case out of the roll-aboard.