Being able to pick light and travel with minimal belongings is a great skill to have. But on the other hand, if your itinerary looks like home -> car -> plane -> car -> hotel, then you can pretty much go nuts bringing big checked suitcases with as much junk as you think you might need. Just keep the essentials in a carry-on in case the airline loses a bag.
Why Can't You Pack a Bag? (2024)
51–60 of 83 posts
Re: Why Can't You Pack a Bag? (2024)
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
No major commercial airline allows a passenger to put 3 large suitcases in the overhead bins: it's one carry-on bag in the bin plus a small personal item. If I'm going scuba diving, especially technical diving in a cold environment, then I need to fill my carry-on and personal item with the expensive or fragile dive gear plus check two large bags for the bulky dive gear plus whatever else I need for the trip.
The description is a bit exaggerated, but I regularly see families with a large overhead suitcase + personal bag + secondary bag per person waiting at the carousel. I don't think many of them are diving in the places I go to, but who knows.
You misinterpreted what you saw. I fly a lot and most airline gate agents are quite strict about enforcing carry-on bag limits. They frequently pull passengers out of the boarding line and force them to gate check extra carry-on bags. The only common exception is for medical equipment needed during the flight.
Re: Why Can't You Pack a Bag? (2024)
#53Used to travel for work 3 weeks a month and worked with a group of folks who took pride in traveling light. I learned to never pack for more than 6 days. After 5 days either do the laundry or use the hotel laundry service.
Hotel laundry service tends to be quite expensive, but many hotels have a coin-op (or maybe an app these days) laundry room where you can do your own. That's very handy for underwear, socks, and casual items. And some people for whatever reason think that everything you wear once needs to be washed before you can wear it again. Break out of that mindset. You can usually wear pants and shirts several times if they are…
Also washing and especially drying is what causes the most wear to your clothes, unless you are performing manual labor in them.
Re: Why Can't You Pack a Bag? (2024)
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
> For one, rolling luggage is usually a mistake for anyone who's not flight crew. Rolling luggage is amazing, especially that that goes into the overhead compartment. "I bring a week's worth of thin clothes that layer. If I need more, I'm either washing by hand or using a service. Basic toiletries, an e-reader, phone, keys, charger bricks, a notebook/pens, daypack. It fits into an underseat backpack with room to spar…
I'm not sure what you're considering "heavier" clothes, but my layers work just fine to about -20C. It was a bit chilly the times it was The comment covered special gear, so not really sure what you want me to add there. I use a slightly larger bag that fits in overhead.
Boots for -40 are practically a carry-on item just by themselves.
Re: Why Can't You Pack a Bag? (2024)
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a New Yorker style manual thing, just like diaresis on reëducate for example [1]. I think it's sensible in this specific instance (and others like it generally) because it allows the user to disambiguate [I had my worst] [ever packing experience] from [I had my worst ever] [packing experience]. I'm not sure what other punctuation or style you'd use there to clarify that, besides letting the user figure it out fr…
Actually my question was about teen-ager. Haven't seen that hyphenated since before e-mail stopped being hyphenated. Worst-ever does make sense in that usage.
Yeah it's definitely New Yorker style manual, archaic but imo charming
Re: Why Can't You Pack a Bag? (2024)
#56I really don't understand what people are putting in the 2-3 large suitcases I see them struggling to shove in overhead. For one, rolling luggage is usually a mistake for anyone who's not flight crew. I bring a week's worth of thin clothes that layer. If I need more, I'm either washing by hand or using a service. Basic toiletries, an e-reader, phone, keys, charger bricks, a notebook/pens, daypack. It fits into an und…
Recently I visited my parents and had to pack cycling gear, backpacking gear, wedding suit, on top of my daily clothes. I had two pairs of shoes in my luggage which alone takes up like a quarter of a carry-on. I filled a carry-on and a big checked luggage. For a week trip without significant activities it would just be a light carry-on.
Also small rolling luggage is fine if you’ve got status with the airline. If you board in group 2 you will never be forced to gate check your bag. Just make sure it fits in the smaller RJ overheads and you’re good to go.
Re: Why Can't You Pack a Bag? (2024)
#57The advantages of packing light aren't always obvious[1] until you experience them, so you can pretty much tell someone's level of travel experience by how small their luggage is. I've yet to meet someone who packs more and more stuff based on past experience. As the article mentions, good fabrics (like merino wool) can go a long way. (1) Reliability and flexibility being foremost. Not having to worry about lost lugg…
I've been on both extremes - single carry-on (with no personal item, or a laptop in a bag solely to watch movies on the plane) for a two week vacation, and checked bag for a 3-day work trip. It depends entirely on context. Purpose of the trip, length of the trip, optionality with extending the trip, how locked in your itinerary is, all can play a role in whether it makes sense to pack a little, pack a lot, and whether you expect to use everything.
I took a checked bag on my last < 1 week work trip and didn't use 2/3 of what I brought but I'd bring the exact same bag if I had to because you never know what might come up.
Re: Why Can't You Pack a Bag? (2024)
#58We recently traveled to Italy, and after purposefully packing light ("just a carryon"), of our 8 gate-checked carry-on bags, we received 2 on day 7 and the rest on day 8.
It was revealing to see how much our agonizing "should I take this or not" decisions just did not matter, because we didn't have them anyway. Receiving our bags after the week was somewhat overwhelming - look at all this stuff!
In the future, we will bring less (but maybe not quite "travel with a passport and a credit card"), but we will make sure that our bags-that-stay-with-us contain at least needed medications and next-day necessities.
And if given a choice, we'd all much rather we make it to the destination without our bags than the other way around!
Re: Why Can't You Pack a Bag? (2024)
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
> For one, rolling luggage is usually a mistake for anyone who's not flight crew. Rolling luggage is amazing, especially that that goes into the overhead compartment. "I bring a week's worth of thin clothes that layer. If I need more, I'm either washing by hand or using a service. Basic toiletries, an e-reader, phone, keys, charger bricks, a notebook/pens, daypack. It fits into an underseat backpack with room to spar…
I'm not sure what you're considering "heavier" clothes, but my layers work just fine to about -20C. It was a bit chilly the times it was The comment covered special gear, so not really sure what you want me to add there. I use a slightly larger bag that fits in overhead.
>I'm not sure what you're considering "heavier" clothes, but my layers work just fine to about -20C. It was a bit chilly the times it was
What I mean is that even for 0C, I'd take a heavy padded jacket which would fill 1/2 to 2/3 of the backpack by itself.
I wouldn't be letting it "a bit chilly" with mere layers in -20oC.
Re: Why Can't You Pack a Bag? (2024)
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure what you're considering "heavier" clothes, but my layers work just fine to about -20C. It was a bit chilly the times it was The comment covered special gear, so not really sure what you want me to add there. I use a slightly larger bag that fits in overhead.
> I'm not sure what you're considering "heavier" clothes, but my layers work just fine to about -20C. It was a bit chilly the times it was What I mean is that even for 0C, I'd take a heavy padded jacket which would fill 1/2 to 2/3 of the backpack by itself. I wouldn't be letting it "a bit chilly" with mere layers in -20oC.
Most of that volume is air, and I use vacuum bags for storage/laundry organization. My jackets only take up the volume of a few t-shirts en route. Sweaters are more difficult, because I don't want to put handknit fabric into a vacuum bag, so the times I've needed to travel with those I wear them onto the plane as normal clothing, or slung over an arm.