New TSA guidelines/rules for carry on bags

This is not a rule. It was a proposal that each airline could adopt or not. So far, nearly universally not. For information about carry on rules you should check the website of the airline you are using, as there is some variation, particularly differing in restrictions for European flights from US carriers.

There is a new standard recommended by an international organization called the IATA, but you are right, it hasn't been adopted widely yet.

At the same time this IATA group is recommending smaller bags, Boeing and Alaska are introducing new bins to better fit the luggage they accept now: http://blog.alaskaair.com/alaska-airlines/news/to-increase-onboard-storage-alaska-airlines-will-be-first-with-new-space-bins-from-boeing/

Rules are only effective if they are enforced. I've flown a lot in the last years, and I've found luggage size enforcement to be very lax. If they would just stop those people from taking on luggage that exceeds the current regs, there would be more room in the overhead bins.

I flew through SF twice last year on United. They had a sizer box next to the desk in the gate area, and they kept making the announcement to check you bag in the sizer - that only bags that fit would be allowed as carryons, but there were a lot of people with oversized bags, and they did not bother to use the sizers (they knew they were too big). When it came time to board, the oversized bags were allowed on.

Hopefully they were just giving people a warning time before they start strictly enforcing the size regulations (I can hope).

The proposed new size restrictions were kind of ridiculous. They basically trimmed about ½" off of each of the current dimensions. So, 21½" instead of 22"; what are they going to do with the ½" between the bag and the door, really? And what good is an extra ½" on top going to do; maybe more space for a coat? If they are going to decrease the width it is pointless to do it unless it's enough to put in one more bag in the bin, and ½" per bag won't do that.

Per the link to Alaska Air on nordheim reply: This looks great. I recommend sending the link to other airline's customer service email contacts suggesting they adopt the same system.

Mary,
Where did you read about these "New TSA guidelines/Rules"?

As Patricia mentioned above, it's best to refer to your airline's website to check their guidelines/rules about carry-on luggage.

Nordheim; those new carry-on storage bins look great, however... this only means that flight tickets will probably increase in price!

I have heard of the proposed new size but the TSA has nothing to do with bag size so the idea of TSA certified bag is a little over the top. I am positive the TSA does not certify any bag. Would love to know the source of that claim. TSA has trouble enough trying to do their current job without getting into the bag judging business.

Yes, there is no such thing as a TSA certified bag and has never been proposed as far as I can tell. That would be a very big deal, and I just did a news search and saw absolutely no mention of such a thing. No official mention, but also no discussion or blogs about it.

Are you thinking of the IATA proposal from a few months ago? TSA had nothing to do with that, it's not governmental at all. That's an association of air travel industry companies. They issued RECOMMENDED international guidelines for size, and suggested some sort of designation for bags that fit it. However, it would be up to the airline. Airlines aren't using them and don't have to. In fact, in many airlines in the US, 22 inches is still perfectly allowable. I don't know of any immediate plans to change that, and the IATA size guidelines won't really come into play.

The OP got TSA confused with IATA. As mentioned, they did come up with rules but they have now been abandoned.

The new rules were based on metric dimensions but when the U.S. media got them, they rounded them off when converted to inches. So 55 cm became 21.5 inches and so forth.

As I mentioned, these rules have been abandoned and it is still up to the individual airlines to make up their own rules.

Rules are different for each airline AND ticket class you are using. British Air (and Air France) first class has more generous size allowances than economy. Alaska Air has THE largest allowable size (10 x 17 x 24 I have found anywhere.

GO online for the Air Line you are using and get the information you need.