Take your backpack into the cabin

Oh dear - I have just heard from another pilgrim couple whose backpacks didn't make it to Madrid. They spent a whole day waiting, had to book into a hotel, were told the next day that when found they would be sent to Santiago so they had to buy all new things and instead of starting in Leon as planned, have gone on to Rabanal to start walking from there two days late.
This can be devastating when you have agonized over every item in the pack, have put maps, guides and other important items into the pack.
ALWAYS carry your backpack into the cabin. Put your poles, scissors, cutlery and any liquids over 100mls into a postal tube or parcel to check in. Rather replace those few items than your entire backpack & contents.
Most airlines stipulate the required shape and weight of carry on luggage on their website. Most require that the luggage will fit into the overhead locker.

From the Iberia website: hand luggage dimensions are Total Weight 10 kg : Size 115 cms (55+ 40+ 20) Length, width and height.
On top of the applicable allowance (i.e. checked-in hold luggage), all passengers may carry the following items in the cabin, under their own responsibility and at no extra cost:

A lady's ladies' handbag or a small briefcase
A coat, cape or travel blanket
An umbrella or a walking stick
A pair of crutches
A small camera / video camera or a pair of binoculars
A portable cot or a fully folding pushchair, which, duly labelled, would normally be carried in the luggage hold without charge.
A laptop computer
A nursery bag carrying baby's food
Hand luggage should be placed in the overhead lockers or under the passenger's seat. It is therefore strictly necessary that it does not exceed the measurements indicated above.

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I usually wear my sandals (Crocs) on the plane and carry my boots, toiletries, medication, camera etc in a small shopping bag. This keeps the backpack down to the required size.

All the major airlines that fly from Johannesburg and Cape Town accommodate the 8kg - 10kg hand luggage with dimension restrictions.

According to the The Wall Street Journal British Airways loses more luggage than any other airline - they lost lost the bags of more than 550,000 passengers in the first 6 months of 2007.

THE Australian airline industry loses up to 200,000 passenger bags a year – some of which end up being donated to charities when their owners cannot be found. Qantas loses about 150,000 bags a year and Jetstar and Virgin Blue misplace about 12,000 and 25,000 respectively.

About one U.S. passenger in 150 had a mishandled bag last year, with the total number of bags reported mishandled in 2008 likely to top out close to 4 million. For a list of best and worst airline read Forbes:
http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/24/airlin ... ggage.html