June 27, 2009 Another way
From Implicit Simplicity: Pack like a carry-on traveler (tight and light) but check for ease and retain the carry-on option…
My solution is to have a small carryon-sized bag small enough to bring on the plane if that would be the best choice and sturdy enough to be checked in. This means I can effectively trust my bag to the airline instead of carrying it through the airport and worry about it at every turn. I know some people won’t agree with me here, but strangely enough, I find that I am more at peace when I don’t have to be responsible for my bag. Besides, I never pack anything in there that cannot be replaced. That would be stupid. If my bag should be misrouted or stolen or whatever I can use the BIT method of travel as described by Tim Ferriss.
Note that the key to my method is to have a choice, not to haul a lot of stuff. My bag need to be sturdy enough to survive the not so gentle treatment of airline personel
Here’s his followup post with lessons learned. And don’t miss the “crap-factor” post.
Frank@OBOW
More on the Diablo method.
Reader Comments (2)
Good plan. I will frequently check the main bag on the homeward leg of a trip, since all that's in the bag is dirty laundry anyway. Anything important (camera, ipod, medications, etc) stays with me in a Gator bag. That way, I don't have to schlep the main bag through the connecting airport.
I am moving to a 3 bag approach:
1. “Seat side items” bag – a small bag, 600-1000 cubic inches. The RedOxx Gator works very well for me in this capacity. It is rated at 648 cubic inches, but somehow swallows more than a simple tubular top-opening, draw-string knapsack like the REI Flash 18 ultralight peak bag, which has a much more generous 1,000 c.i. rating. At the same time the Gator fits easily under the seat in front of me, even one that’s crammed with new-fangled in-flight entertainment electronics to power the LCD screen on the back of the seat. With room left over for my legs on either side.
A seat side bag needs to have good organizing abilities – for me that means quick and easy acces to reading glasses when I need them, to boarding passes, and, if possible, not having to go through a bunch of tiny organizing “ditty” bags to find what I am looking for (the beauty of pouches and slots built into a bag like the Gator, as opposed to using ditties and Ziplocs in an unstructured knapsack like the Flash 18, is that the pouches and slots stay put, while ditties meander!).
2. “Must haves” bag – a medium-sized bag, that contains all the essentials REALLY necessary for the destination portion of my trip (assuming almost nightly sink washing).
This is the bag that gets stowed overhead, out of the way, during my flight, that I don’t have to access, thanks to the “seat side” bag.
This is the bag that let’s me travel without stress, because I’m not going to waste a valuable morning running out to “buy it there.”
This is the bag that actually counts as my carryon luggage – and not as my “personal item” – and hence is going to get weighed by the Asian carriers I fly and therefor HAS to come in at less than 15 pounds or they force me to check it – so I can’t afford to waste any of the stingy weight allowance on the bag itself. This bag has to be as light and simple as possible, a niche that Patagonia currently has to itself with 10 OUNCES to 1 pound options as bags. Yes, less than a pound.
Since this bag always ends up being so light, the carry method (backpack straps, shoulder strap, or handle) isn’t that important. (A strap or straps does help keep hands free to pull out boarding passes, however, or to pay for duty free items without setting the bag down.) Even handles themselves may be enough, a new approach being explored by RedOxx with their Aviator line.
I say this is my “must haves,” bag because if my checked bag gets mislaid, I would only be out my “luxury items” and not my necessities.
There are a lot of bags that can be used as this actual carryon bag, since you won’t be accessing it during transit (except possibly to show your TSA permitted liquids Ziploc). If your carrier has a more generous weight allowance than mine, you can go all the way up to Rick Steves Classic Convertible or RedOxx Air Boss size. I’m not sure that’s the way to go, but if need to carry essential sports gear or are traveling in winter, it may be the only way to go, even if you DO have a checked bag for “extras” as well. For me, traveling to hot climates, 1,600 cubic inches seems to work well.
In that medium size range, I like the following bags for carryon: Patagonia Lighweight Travel Duffel (handles and hideaway backpack straps, verges on maximum carryon size with 2,196 cubic inche); Patagonia Lightweight Tote (handles and hideaway backpack straps, s 1,525 c.i.); Patagonia Lightweight Travel Pack (1,647 c.i.); RedOxx small Aviator Bag (a steal at $35, but “stripped down” a classic soft-sided suitcase with NO luggage tie downs, slots, or compartments – other than the large main compartment; 1,926 c.i. for 23 ounces). There are some other options, but those have enough intrinsic bulk (unlike the ones I mentioned) that they won’t pack away into your checked bag later, if you want to reduce your bag count from 3 to 2, plus they weigh a lot more.
3. “Luxury items” bag as checked luggage. Note that my strategy is based on long-haul, transpacific flights that don’t charge for checked luggage, where I invest so much time in actual transit that I don’t mind spending a little extra time at the luggage carousel at the destinatio – a useful trade-off to me, for (a) not having to haul all that stuff into the cabin and (b) getting to bring some luxury items (and having room to take home souvenirs).
There are two things to note about the “luxury items” checked bag:
first, I really only pack the things here that I can easily replace locally, in an emergency, or can live without, in an emergency;
and second, I don’t want to go crazy with the size or weight of this bag, since I want to be able to use it as a substitute carryon later (for example, to use on destination trains and buses and boats).
So have been using the very light, inexpensive Rick Steves’ Classic Back Door Bag as my checked bag. This is among the lightest and least thief-appealing “one bags” on the market, and it’s very reasonably priced and often goes on sale. I’d like to get a RedOxx PR5 or PR5.5 Adventure Duffels for their more upscale look and better organizing features (more useful compartments), but they are costlier and more appealing to thieves.
In my travel scenario it’s essential to “underpack” this checked bag, so there is room to dump the carryon bag and its contents inside in a pinch, to essentially collapse down from a 3 bag system to a 2 bag system (from a mdeium carryon to a max-sized carryon) if I need or want to do so.
So now you see why it’s essential to keep the start-out carryon bag as non-bulky and light as possible, under one pound if possible (not counting contents). While I don’t WANT to end up hauling a “one bag” the size of the AirBoss and Steves packed to the max, I may HAVE to at some point, and packing with this in mind preserves my options.
Another advantage of underpacking the checked bag, is that if I decide to shop for souvenirs, I can carry the souvenirs back home in the checked bag – or move my clothing there and carry the souvenirs on-board where they might be safer from breakage and pilfering.
Finally, the personal item (seat side bag) is a critical part of the wole scenario. It’s the bag where all my transit items go, from book to read, to music, to tickets, to snacks, to nylon pull-over to keep warm on the flight and dry at my destination. The seat side bag is, ideally, the only bag I’ll actually have to access during transit, the others are shut 'em and forget 'em, and it'salso the bag I’ll empty at destination and use as my daybag there.