Carry-on question Do they measure?

Sounds like your "personal item" is bigger than 21x16x8. Yes? That sounds like a problem to me. I think your personal item has to go under the seat.

Unless your going BIZ - where you get two carry on - that may be pushing it. I try to say make it LOOK like a personal item - even if its heavier than the normal carry on limit bag... daypak/purse/breifcase. That tote may well be looked at as a full carryon. Stick to a smaller size and just cram all the heavy stuff in it - they dont usualy weigh perosnal items that fit smaller spaces (for ref- look at the veloce bag on rigs site - or the other small carry on as a scale).

No one can promise you that you will have no problem. That is a pretty big personal item. It can vary greatly from airline to airline and day to day depending on the checkin staff and who is on duty at the gate. You are close enough that you could have problems. So the bigger question really is what can/will you do if the bag is unacceptable. Are you comfortable having it checked? Because that is what will happen. You need to plan for that alternative.

We tried this flying Air France and had to pay to check one of our bags.

As Frank said, it can vary from airline to airline. Because of fuel prices, airlines in general are getting much more sticky about their carry on rules. It's much better to be certain you are okay by getting something from the airline. Try emailing their customer service, then print out the response and bring it with you in case you have problems.

Brad had some excellent advice. I just hope they get back to you in time!

I know that some airlines will reply right away with a "ticket number" confirming receipt of your inquiry and then give you a standard response that your issue will be resolved within 14 days or whatever the case may be. How annoying...

A half of inch wouldn't be a problem in my opinion, but I heard European airline companies are a pain when it comes to carry-ons.
If you paid, why are you worried then?
Check on line for the limit. That's the best way.

Sometimes you will find a box-shape that your bag must fit into. You may rearrange your things then so that the bag will fit. I was faced with this on either Easyjet or RyanAir (I forget which) and my bag was too fat. I removed a few things from the front pocket and moved them into my purse. Then it fit. I also was challenged to fit my bag into the box last fall when preparing to check into United at Heathrow. It fit easily, so I had no problem. A few years ago an airline from London to Paris weighed my bag. I think their limit was about 20#; I passed that test but my travel partner didn't. We were too jetlagged to figure out to remove some things from her bag and put them into our pockets or purses. So we ended up checking a bag and waiting an hour in Paris for the luggage to arrive. It's not the end of the world if you have to check a bag; it's just a nuisance.

I've been obsessing about our carry-ons for weeks. We're going "carry-on only" in business class from LAX thru Heathrow to Paris-CDG at the end of next week. We've never flown with two roll-aboards before -- we usually have one with us and then check a slightly larger suitcase, mainly because the laptop throws us into a fifth piece of luggage. My husband just bought a midget sized laptop so the fifth bag is not necessary. Our personal items are one of Rick's Appenzel backpacks (6x18x13) and a tote bag (7x15x13). We've packed the clothes we'll want for three weeks into the roll aboards already and the other two bags will be loaded down with travel guides, my purse, his computer, toiletries etc. I'm paranoid that the two smaller bags look too "luggage-y", so once I have all the other stuff packed I'm going to re-pack the roll-aboards to have half his/half mine in each in case they want to take luggage away from us at some point. Hopefully they won't then lose both bags!