Rck Steves sale

The Rick Steves convertible carryons are on sale (20% off) direct from the the Rick Steves travel store. I haven’t tested these but they come highly recommended and look to be an excellent value. Steves popularized the convertible years ago - sort of made the market. Thanks to OBOW regular Paul for the tip.

Cranky Flier's T5 scoop

Cranky Flier has a nice informative bit on the new Heathrow Terminal 5, with tips on how to survive it and the amenities it offers (when working).

 

And here’s some news that will warm the heart of any London-bound passenger who must rely on public transport - a vastly simplified ticketing process for those moving from Heathrow to any part of London.

 

Price point perspicuity

Why does luggage cost what it does? And what does your money buy? Here’s such wisdom as I have on the subject. Let’s divide the type of luggage an OBOW reader might choose into three price categories (give or take a few dollars): $50, $100, and $200.

• $50 buys a bag made overseas that may or may not be a good value - the eBags Weekender Convertible comes to mind. This bag  is as comfortable as most on the back and the design is quite good. The quality is less so. I started one=bag travel with one of these years ago, but after a few uses a main seam began to fail. I know of another that came to its owner with defective hardware. The materials and construction are always suspect with a bag of this price.
• $100 buys a better-made overseas bag that usually has a decent layout and set of features. Think the Rick Steves bags and offerings by Victorinox and the outdoor equipment companies. These will almost always be serviceable bags that are reasonable values.
• $200 buys an American-made bag that should last as long as you want to use it under normal circumstances. These bags are produced by small, conscientious US companies that put a lot of effort into producing a quality product - like Red Oxx, Tom Bihn, Tough Traveler, and MEI.  This price point may represent a good value if you are a demanding traveler who doesn’t like surprises and doesn’t intend to change bags every year or two. You can also spend $200 or more for bags from reputable luggage companies which offer foreign-made bags of good quality, lots of features and excellent warranties.
  

You can of course spend even more for leather or some other variety of high-style luggage, but I’m assuming that most OBOW readers are more interested in quality than in ultra-expensive luggage whose primary purpose is to make the owner feel “special”.

Which category represents the best value? My theory is that in most retail categories you should go cheap or go for get-what-you-pay-for quality. In the luggage world this means spend $50 or spend $200. Buy a bag for a lifetime - or one for a year of hard use or a couple of vacations. This makes the most sense to me. A $50 bag is disposable; a $200 bag is still the cheapest element of your next major trip.

A word about sales: Good value can sometimes be had when a sale turns a $180 bag into a $120 bag. But American luggage companies rarely have sales. Why? Small American companies know how much profit they must build into a bag to keep operating. Their labor and material costs are high and they don’t change much. So they don’t have sales. Foreign-made bags are mass produced and marked up significantly. Cheap labor and materials make this possible. When a retailer buys 500 of a bag and it sells slowly they mark it down to near cost or below. It’s more important to a mass marketer to dump excess inventory so they’ll have the cash flow to move on to next years model or trend. The American companies are under less pressure in this respect since they maintain tight inventories and feel no need to replace their high-quality products with something new every year or two.

What do you think?     

Liquid/gel bombers on trial

The eight men accused of plotting to blow up US-bound airliners with liquid and gel-based bombs are going on trial in London for the alleged plot that led to the now infamous and ubiquitious 3-1-1 carry-on rule.

Terminal 5 fiasco calls for FedEx

What’s a major international air carrier to do when its high-tech terminal of the future crashes? Call FedEx and truck some of the bags to another airport for security screening!

British Airways canceled 50 flights at London Heathrow airport’s new Terminal 5 and hired FedEx to carry about 20,000 pieces of luggage to the airport to reunite the bags with passengers after nearly a week of disruption at Europe’s busiest airport.

Glitches in the $8.5 billion terminal’s computerized baggage system have caused more than 300 flight cancellations since the system’s March 27 startup. British Airways says it has been able to return about a third of the bags to their owners.

The airline had been counting on Terminal 5, which took two decades to plan and build, to cut down on congestion and ease operations at Heathrow.

But the high-tech computerized luggage system refused to allow handlers to log-on, meaning bags that have been unloaded at Heathrow have to be re-screened manually. Some of the bags had to be taken to London Gatwick airport for the security checks.  - Air Cargo World

Update on April 4, 2008 by Frank@OBOW

This just in: Hellrow luggage rage sends a supermodel to jail… For goodness sakes Naomi, get with it and go one-bag!

Voluminous discussion

An interesting new thread on bag volume - how much you need and how it is measured - has begun over on the OBOW fourm - “How many cubic inches are enough?”

Comments visibility issue resolved

You can now see all comments even if a post has received more than 50 responses - just click the link for page two or “Next 50 Comments” under the last comment. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Weight-reducing luggage for the weary traveler

Weary-shouldered travelers will welcome this announcement: a Delaware company has developed carry-on luggage that reduces he apparent weight of the suitcase by as much as 25%. The Helio-Lite case’s sidewalls, made of ultra-lightweight carbon fiber, are actually chambers that hold pressurized helium. The case comes with a tether that the user may attach to his wrist so the case won’t float away when empty. Dr. Herbert Walker of Doubleplus Good Solutions says he expects the TSA will approve the suitcase for air travel use. The chambers may be refilled at any retail establishment that sells helium party balloons.

Update on April 2, 2008 by Frank@OBOW

Please note that the above was posted on April 1…

On a wing and a song

USA Today recently reported that airports are using popular songs as part of their “branding” strategies. That got me to thinking: what would London Hellrow’s theme song be - “The End” by the Doors, “Road to Nowhere” by the Talking Heads? Nominate a song for your favorite place of travel torture.

Of course there’s the Brian Eno classic:

,P>

TSA gets hip, interactive

The Transportation Safety Administration’s new interactive web presence promises great things. Can it deliver?

“In TSA’s checkpoint of the future, passengers will approach the security kiosk, carry-on in hand, and put a biometric on the scanner. While the scanning system clears you after it confirms your identity and flight information, the technology in the kiosk will verify that there are no truly dangerous items on you or in your bag. Total elapsed time: about 1.75 seconds. Version Two will add a Teleporter so that you will not need to get on an airplane.

Your grandchildren will love it.”

 Somewhere, over the rainbow. Closer to reaity:

“We have some significant changes in store for the checkpoint starting this spring. I would like your thoughts and I hope TSA will earn your support in our common mission. Please take a look at our Checkpoint Evolution micro-site.

TSA has taken a fresh look at our checkpoint operations to see if we can improve security and the passenger experience with what we have today. We took what we know from the intelligence and security communities, we listened to our employees, we learned from passengers (including on this blog), we evaluated readily deployable technology, and have come up with changes that we have begun piloting.”

The TSA blog does look impressive and they claim it has already helped shape their procedures. The new “mcro site” - Checkpoint Evolution - is worth checking out, but a grain of salt might be helpful. The TSA’s use of the term “evolution” seems to assume that they are in the process of adapting and improving. Let’s hope so.

Update on March 31, 2008 by Frank@OBOW

The new TSA vibe: CALM.  Are you ready for the calming checkpoint?

The checkpoint to be tested in May at one terminal in Baltimore is based on a simple premise: serenity adds security. Mauve lights glow softly, soothing music hums, and smiling employees offer quiet greetings and assistance.

“A chaotic, noisy, congested checkpoint is a security nightmare. Chaos gives camouflage,” (TSA administrator Kip) Hawley said. “A chaotic environment puts subtle pressure on (screeners) to rush the job.”

Hawley has sought to “calm the passenger” as he has focused the TSA on intercepting terrorists before they get to checkpoints, where they could slip plastic explosives past X-ray machines. About 1,200 screeners at 70 large airports specialize in passenger observation and pick out people who appear suspicious for closer questioning or pat-downs. - USA TODAY

TB Ristretto for mini notebooks

GottaBeMobile has posted a video look at the new Tom Bihn Ristretto cafe/messenger bag which is designed just for small laptops like the Macbook Air, 13-inch Macbook, and Lenovo Thinkpad X300. Since many light travelers are looking at the smallest notebooks this should be a welcome addition to the field. It’s very similar to the TB Cafe bags except it has built-in padding so no need to buy a sleeve. I’ll eventually get around to posting review of the TB large cafe bag which is an excellent day bag/personal item.

Update on June 25, 2009 by Frank@OBOW

The Ristretto has been redesigned/upgraded.

Battle of the Bin

The New York Times has an interesting story on the regular disregard of carry-on luggage rules - and the fact that it’s getting worse thanks to 3-1-1. Delta Airlines is taking steps to crack down:

The carry-on wars have gotten so out of hand that at least one airline has begun to crack down on rule-breakers. This month Delta Air Lines began requiring that all carry-on items be tagged with a special approval tag before passengers board any international flight.

“We did see a need to better enforce the carry-on allotment for international flights,” said Betsy Talton, a spokeswoman for Delta. “We are looking to make sure there is enough overhead space on international flights.”

Who is to blame for the overhead crunch? The Transportation Security Administration, which performs security screenings of passengers and bags, says it is up to the airlines to enforce the carry-on rules. Airlines, for their part, say their gate agents and flight attendants are responsible for ensuring that passengers don’t abuse the rules. But the rules, as any traveler can attest, are rarely enforced consistently. - NYT

I’ve never gotten on flight where many of the carryons (often rollers that appear to weigh 30 pounds or more) weren’t obviously beyond the stated limits. And inexperienced travelers often aren’t to blame: lots of carryons are disingenuously marketed as being “legal” when in fact they are not.

In defense of wheels

The aptly named poster High Roller has left the following comment on a couple of older posts where it probably won’t be widely noticed. He makes such well-reasoned points that I thought they deserved wider airing. His position on wheels (obviously the majority position) is only in the minority in a forum like this one. OBOW is for all sorts of light travelers and we’re going wrong if we can’t offer some helpful advice to the wheeling masses, so here goes:

(I had expressed my surprise at the tiny minority of our site’s poll respondents who expressed a preference for wheeled bags) 

“I sometimes find the attack on rolling bags a bit annoying too.

Sites pertaining to one bag travel seem to be populated by folks with a tendency away from wheeled luggage. From what I can gather, the majority of those voicing opinions on these sites are men, in reasonably good health, who travel regularly, who travel without children, in mostly casual to semi-formal environments. Thus the majority seem to have different travel requirements than I do.

A quick glance around any US airport shows that the one bag, shoulder bag group is the minority, and wheeled bags are very popular. The reason for this popularity? Are we all gluttons for punishment, or just too stupid to read a blog or two. No. For many travelers, a wheeled bag is actually a better solution.

My favorite argument against the wheeled bag is the cobblestone argument, I would like to see someone post a pic of a stretch of cobblestones inside an airport, or in a hotel, or a cobblestone sidewalk in a business area in the US. If the majority of your travel involves walking in the street in Europe, then maybe a shoulder bag would be the better choice.

In the past 15 years, I can only recall lifting my bag to carry it across a 2 lane cobblestone road once. Is that what the fuss is about? Believe it or not, my bag wheels reasonably well along most cobblestone streets, only those with a very harsh surface are truly prohibitive.

It is certainly possible to travel well with one bag with a roller. Even the godfather of it all, over at onebag.com reports using an external cart when his bag is heavy.

If your bag is regularly heavy due to business or personal requirements, go with the roller. The downsides to a roller are that the inclusion of the rolling apparatus causes a decrease in the capacity of the bag and an increase in weight, and that the presence of the wheels externally can make it a bit more difficult and a bit more messy to handle when getting it into or out of luggage bins. The huge upside is that you don’t have to carry it everywhere, and in the majority of travel situations you can roll.

All of the other proposed downsides to rolling bags: damage to hotel stairs, noisy wheels, injuring other people in the airport, inability to roll up a ladder, or over cobblestones, are pretty weak arguments.

A well chosen rolling bag can weigh about 3-4lbs more than a comparable bag without wheels, and will hold about one pair of shoes less (actually about 1.5 shoes, but bringing half a shoe has yet to prove useful for me— maybe it would help me find more cobblestones…).

Consider that if your bag is heavy, the alternatives are: 1) a carried bag without an external cart (i.e. lug it around), 2) a carried bag with an external cart (the onebag.com solution), and 3) a rolling bag. I’m not going to suffer carrying a bag too heavy to handle, so my options are 2 and 3. Taking an external cart negates the weight and capacity advantages of a carried bag. So if your bag is rarely heavy, perhaps 2 is the option for you. If your bag is regularly heavy— perhaps due to medical supplies or a company issued laptop & projector setup, or other heavy burden (try stuffing a 8lb, 17 inch laptop and 4lb projector in your Air Boss), then the roller is the way to go.

My rule of thumb is that if the bag weighs much more than 10% of the bodyweight of the carrier, then the extra 3-4lbs for a well chosen roller will probably be worth the tradeoff.

Knowing that a rolling bag is my better option, I try to use the information on these sites to maximize my own solution— and do my best not to be annoyed by those who are not seeking a solution, but seeking rather to criticize others for using a wheeled bag.”

The 10% weight rule is a good one. I hate to carry a bag that’s much over 15 pounds - that comports with your 10% rule. And my sympathies to anyone who travels with a mega-laptop and projector. I have found one way that using a shoulder bag helps my family (my wife anyway). She’s a teacher who leads trips to Europe. Going with one shoulder bag means I can carry (or roll) her bag, freeing her up completely to shepherd 40 kids and chaperones through Heathrow. Chivalry is not dead, and sometimes it carries a shoulder bag :)

How bad can it get?

 

The Heathrow story is just too compelling to drop. LHR is simply the focus of evil in the modern travel world, and it’s the best conceivable argument for NEVER checking a bag:

Last night, hundreds of passengers were forced to sleep at the terminal after waiting for their luggage for up to six hours.

By 4am queues of hundreds had formed, with airport officials handing out boxes of blankets, sleeping bags and bottled water.

Tempers boiled over and some passengers were close to tears when they were told 75 flights had been cancelled today - some for the second time in 24 hours.

By noon, the situation had become so bad that the union representing BA staff was forced to issue a statement asking angry passengers not to abuse or attack staff. - thisislondon.co.uk

Where’s the UN High Commissioner for Refugees when you need him? This is astounding. The story quoted above has some classic lines: “national disgrace and a national humiliation,” “forced to stuff her wedding dress into her hand luggage,”  “one of the worst days in history,” “I am embarrassed as hell to be a British citizen.” 

The failed baggage-handling system has 10 miles of conveyor and 140 computers to make it work. Parking spaces may have been the ultimate problem. The fiasco started when much of the baggage-handling staff were late for work because the new terminal didn’t allow for enough employee parking.

It all got worse: 15 of 16 elevators weren’t working. With classic British understatement, one official said, “It was disappointing that the opening day was marred by operational difficulties.”

More from Bloomberg

Terminal 5 no Heathrow panacea

UPDATE - latest news here 

British Airways vaunted Terminal 5   (recently opened by the Queen) was supposed to alleviate some of the chaos and congestion that is London’s Heathrow. Well, it didn’t work.  The terminal crashed Thursday and today, or at least its incredibly complex subterranean luggage handling system did. Twenty percent of BA’s flights were canceled and guess what - no checked luggage, If you flew ouf of 5 it was carry-on only. Share this story with your friends who think you’re a ridiculous travel geek/luggage freak!

Some excerpts from RTTNews:

British Airways on Friday canceled about 20% of the flights scheduled from Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5, after a chaotic opening to the GBP 4.3 billion facility yesterday.

The airliner said it was canceling around 76 planned flights from domestic and short-distance European destinations to places like Edinburgh, Glasgow, Paris and Frankfurt. British Airways said that all long distance flights from Terminal 5, or T5, would operate normally.

The operations at Terminal 1 and Terminal 4 will function normally, the airline company added.

In a release issued on early Friday, British Airways said that passengers will be able to check in with both hand and hold baggage. On Thursday, the airline had allowed passengers traveling in the afternoon and evening to carry only hand luggage, after its baggage system to carry luggage on and off flights failed.

 

Gee, 4 is still running. I have had some misery there. I’ll bet 5 has that priceless “new terminal” smell though.

 

From the BBC story: One baggage handler said it was “a shambles the moment the doors opened”.

 

One saving grace - only BA uses T5, but you’ve got to think it’s screwed up the whole wretched place.

 

 

 

 

Northwest charging for checkage

News release from Northwest Airlines:

EAGAN, Minn. – (March 28, 2008) – Northwest Airlines (NYSE: NWA) today announced changes to its luggage policies for coach class customers traveling within North America.

For coach class travel on or after May 5, 2008, Northwest Airlines is matching several other U.S. network carriers and implementing a $25 charge for the customer’s second checked bag. The fee is applied each way. Coach class customers may continue to check one piece of luggage free of charge.

Other changes include an increase from $80 to $100 for three or more checked bags, and an increase from $25 to $50 for overweight bags greater than 50 pounds.

These policies also apply to Northwest Airlink customers flying on Mesaba, Pinnacle or Compass Airlines.

Northwest Airlines’ Silver, Gold and Platinum WorldPerks® Elite customers, SkyTeam Elite customers and passengers booked in full fare classes (Y or B) may still check two bags free of charge. Customers booked in first class can continue to check up to three bags free of charge.

Rumor is that American Airlines may implement a similar policy.The day isn’t far away when airlines will be charging for all checked luggage, not just the second piece.  

Rick Steves: "Pick two"

“You’ll never meet a traveler who, after five trips, brags, “Every year I pack heavier.” The measure of a good traveler is how light he or she travels. You can’t travel heavy, happy, and cheap. Pick two.” - from Newsday
 
Some highlights:
 

• “Whether you’re traveling for three weeks or three months, you pack exactly the same.”
  
• “Pack for the best scenario — not the worst. You can buy yourself out of any little jams as you go.”
• “The bulk of your luggage is clothing. Minimize by bringing less and washing more often. Every few nights you’ll spend 10 minutes doing a little wash.”

Advice from Joe

“Even as airlines hike their luggage fees, they are losing more bags than ever before. That’s a double whammy you can avoid by packing smarter and buying better carry-on bags. If you don’t want to spring for the custom-made stuff from artisans like Myron Glaser, you’ll find capacious carry-ons from the better commercial suppliers. And when you must travel with lots of luggage, ship with Fed Ex, U.P.S., or the special services rather than paying for the privilege of using the inefficient airline system.”

- from air travel guru Joe Brancatelli - Portfolio.com

Packs & packing

Andrew Ho, a veteran poster in the Tom Bihn forums has some interesting stuff on his personal site: a packing list and comparison chart of convertibles & travelpacks (somewhat outdated but still good). Here’s hoping Andrew will contribute to our reader forum.

 

Here’s a very sweet deal (less than $80) on a convertible similar to the Victorinox Andrew mentioned, the Victorinox Travel Luggage Werks Weekender Travel Bag - Expandable.

 

 

Hits & misses from ExOfficio

I’ve previously reviewed the ExOfficio Air Strip Lite shirt and it’s a winner. It’s pricey so look for a sale. I’m less impressed with ExOfficio’s vaunted travel underwear. The men’s boxer variety - at least in my case - came oversized; they were the blousiest, largest mediums I’ve ever seen. This led to a good deal of bunching and discomfort. The fabric had more of the tacky, polyester feel when sweaty than I expected. My old Terramar Visaendurance briefs were much more comfortable and more odor-resistant. Alas, a far-sighted sock fairy made off with them and they’re no longer available. This looks like the replacement though: Terramar Underwear Boxer Briefs - with EC2 and 4-Way Stretch (For Men).

Update on April 4, 2008 by Frank@OBOW

Briefly: To be fair, I now believe that some of my gripe with the ExOfficio boxers is that - as I must admit  - I am really used to wearing boxer briefs, not true boxers. If you are used to wearing blousy boxers you’ll probably love the ExOfficios. My beloved and long lost Terramars were boxer briefs with tight legs. And so are most of the rest of my shorts. The ExOfficio fabric really is quite nice. I’ve given them something of a workout recently and I think my original comments were rather too negative.