Quick carry-on question
 

Greetings, all. I'm not a frequent flyer and when I do fly I usually don't need to carry much. However, I find myself needing to take a longer domestic trip tomorrow (AA) and would like to carry my business laptop AND a personal netbook.

Will I be challenged if I place both items in one messenger bag as my "personal item" carry-on? I'm a bit confused by the language that says "a laptop, backpack...". I'll also be carrying my regular carry-on bag as well, so this will be my "under-the-seat" bag. It does meet AA's 36" limit even with both items packed.

TIA!

Welcome to Flyertalk!

I have traveled with both a laptop and a netbook (one for work and one for personal) and never had a problem in flying. You simply need to take them both out and put them in separate bins (I don't think you can get both to be flat and not touching in one bin... at least not in my experience).

Safe travels.

Thanks for the quick reply! I assumed that was the case but wasn't sure about the definition of a "personal item" in this case.

The entire personal item thing was when men started arguing that women got to carry a purse (which by now had grown into a sack) and they could only take one bag, so eventually the term personal item was developed. They use vague descriptions of about it's size so you don't bring a 22 x 14 x 9 carry on and another 22 x 14 x 9 personal item onto the plane.

you should have no problems, as noted above just remove them, put each one in a bin for screening.