NJexpat

I will be presenting a scientific poster next month and I have heard that airlines usually allow these in carry-on luggage. Does this mean that the poster counts as my "small personal item" and I will not be able to also bring a carry-on bag and laptop?

Offshore171

One option would be to buy a cardboard tube at the post office and post it ahead. Should only cost a few bucks and saves the hassle of carrying.

darthbimmer

The poster definitely counts as one of your two allowed items. ...Or it should. Airlines sometimes don't enforce the rule. And assuming it doesn't fit under the seat in front of you, it should count as your overhead bin item, not your "small personal item".

davie355

In practice, the poster is a free 3rd carry-on.

Technically, it is not compliant as a carry-on at all, but it takes a lot of misfortune to encounter a gate agent who would force you to check it.

pharmawalk

Get a poster tube with a strap and throw it over your shoulder - do not consider checking it under any circumstances.

chrisl137

Whenever I've carried posters it's in addition to the personal item and carry-on bag and nobody has ever said anything. A poster tube is pretty small and will usually fit in an overhead that's otherwise full with bags unless they're all the max possible sized roller. If you're on an RJ it's even easier, particularly when one side is extra small.

If you get your poster done early, consider getting it printed on fabric. Print shops are expensive, but Spoonflower.com is an inexpensive custom printed fabric shop that people have figured out can print posters, too. I first found instructions on some astronomer's site, but now they have them on their own site here. Even if you have to pay for overnight shipping, it's less expensive than a fedex store. If your own department has a big printer that someone else pays for, that may be cheaper or comparable.

roberino

I’ve done 30 or 40 conferences with posters in a tube. Never had a GA or FA even look twice at the tube.

FlyingUnderTheRadar

We quit printing posters on paper and went to fabric. Not much difference in cost, it gets folded up and goes into the carry on. Also less apt to be forgotten.

That said poster tubes were never an issue as a third item.

chrisl137

And you can turn it into curtains or a clothing item (like a cape!) after the conference. We always talk about doing that with the fabric ones, but haven't actually done it yet.

raltmansd

Airlines are the worst lately! Be careful and good luck. Mail it if you can!

sweetsleep

All of the medical conferences I have attended in the last 3 years our posters were submitted electronically which made travel so much easier. But I have never been questioned when carrying a poster tube in the past and the ALWAYS fit just fine in the overhead bins-you just have to make sure you don't leave it behind!
Perhaps the organization should consider moving to electronic poster submission?
Good luck and have a nice presentation!

chrisl137

for anything but a small conference where you can check all of the posters for how they printed, if I were a conference organizer I wouldn't want to deal with the tears of the inevitable mixups and misprints.

mlbcard

OldFruity

Took 2 travel fishing rods in a tube which was oversize (about 1metre long x 10cm diameter). Prg Hel Hkg Syd (J) AY, and then Syd Mel (Y) QF. One of 2 carry on items. No problem; just asked the cabin crew to place in the wardrobe on boarding as it may have blocked bigger bags from going into an overhead locker. So hopefuly you shouldnt have a problem.

OF

Palal

Never had an issue. Recently, though I've started printing at the destination (STAPLES has decent rates - upload online, select when you need it, they'll print it)