Carry-on Air France & Rick Steves Bag

I cannot answer for Air France. I can only tell you that my wife and I have been traveling with a pair of Rick Steves' convertible back-packs since 2010, and our children have also used these on several flights (for them that is both International and domestic). We have yet to be even asked to measure these bags anywhere (Lufthansa, USAir, BA, Virgin Atlantic, and EasyJet on the overseas).

The soft-sided RS carry-on bags should fit the airline sizing boxes. Tighten the cinching straps so that your bag doesn't look pregnant and carrying it on your back tends to help pass the visual eyeball screening. If asked to test your pack in the sizing box, just push it in and the extra half inch should not be a problem unless you are carrying something rigid.

Sorry I should have added that it is the rolling bag. My husband has had a spinal fusion and my back isn't great either.

Our first RS tour was on Air France in 2012. Though they were not RS bags they were rolling bags and barely, if at all, over the 21 x 13 x 9 requirement. At boarding the three of us were forced to gate check the bags. When I mentioned they met the posted limits they just said to leave them in the corner to be loaded on the plane and did no checking on the size of the bags. I am not sure if that could still be an issue but if a true carry on is needed you may want to make sure you have some sort of bag that will certainly meet their requirements.

Gate-checking of bags can be required if flight attendants consider the overhead bins to be full, regardless of whether a bag meets the limit. A bag that will definitely fit under the seat in front of you is a safer bet for valuables and prescription meds that should not be checked into cargo.

In Nice, Air France weighed our bags after singling out out in the line for the boarding area. Their weight limit is 26 lbs for Economy. So another limit to keep in mind. One bag was a lb or two over but they let it go.

I would suggest bringing a lightweight bag (such as a packing cube) big enough to hold anything you don't want to take a chance on losing in the hold such as camera, medicine, etc. I use several of these, and the one that holds shirts or pants is the right size for this. In the event you are forced to check a bag then you can put those items into the small bag and carry it on.

I went to the Air France website and looked up their restrictions. They were in cm. If you do the math the Rick Steves rolling carry-on (with decimal points) is within those guidelines.