I'm going to attempt my first one bag trip in the near future. But I like to have some stuff at my feet when I fly - ipod, magazines, trail mix, etc. So I'm wondering about a personal bag.

My thought is to get a Tom Bihn large cafe bag, put it in my carryon through security, and have it at my feet on the plane. The questions come as to how to do that.

I assume, the stuff I want at my feet should already be inside the personal bag. But do you pull it out as you put your carryon in the overhead or do you pull it out before you go down the ramp? At your seat seems like it would be nice, so I'd have my hands free, but that's always such a hectic time I hate to hold everyone up. At the gate there's plenty of time, but then I have to carry it on my shoulder on top of the backpack carryon or in my hand.

Anyway, any thoughts or tips would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Birch

Usually I keep my cabin bag in my main bag until I've boarded the plane.

I do certain things to prep my carry on if I'm pulling things out of it for the cabin. First, I will make sure that the cabin bag is on top of all my clothes etc. so I can pull it easily out of the main bag. I will make sure the main bag zippers are placed at the "top" of the bag for easy access. When I get to my seat I place the bag on the arm rest of my seat, open up the bag, pull out the cabin bag, and quickly toss it on my seat before zipping up the main bag and shoving it in the overhead. Then I steap into my seat and place the cabin bag at my feet.

If I'm on an international or redeye flight I will have more stuff in my cabin bag because I will most likely have my sleep sack and perhaps some sort of pillow. The extra bulk makes it more difficult to pull the cabin bag out of the main bag. In this case I pull the cabin bag out at the gate and have the cabin bag slung over my shoulder (it's small) and the carry on in one hand. When reaching my seat I will toss the cabin bag on my seat and then put the carry on in the overhead.

One of the keys to a good cabin bag is that it is slim and trim. I like to have either 1) a small knapsack (like the kind from barefoot enterprise) or 2) a stowaway bag that is doing double duty as a cabin bag or 3) a very large thin bag type purse that is doing double duty as a cabin bag.

On business trips I'm much more limited as my cabin bag is actually my company issued behemoth laptop. I can still preload a lot of my cabin things in the side pockets. I will use the same technique as for the bulky cabin bag.

I will usually wear my main bag as a backpack until I get to the aircraft door and then drop it and carry it by hand from that point on. It is way too easy to slam someone in the face if I continue to wear it as a backpack past that point.

Do others have alternate techniques?

For the GUYS: What do you put IN your cabin bag? Toiletries yes, but what else?

Thanks

I like to dedicate one of the end pockets of my tom bihn Aeronaut for my cabin bag and the other has things like my 3-1-1 bag and my shoes. For a cabin bag, right now I have a north face purse, but I'm looking at a new Bihn packing cube that has clips for a shoulder strap and is an exact fit.

In the cabin bag is: ear plugs, reading material, jerky, other snacks, platypus water bottle, rehydration salts (NUUN or Emergen-C) phone, ipod, notebook, sometimes a laptop, travel pillow, face mask, ultralight jacket, basically everything I need for 6 or more hours on a plane.

I find that having just *1* bag is much easier than even having 1 carry on bag and one personal item so I like to have my personal item fit inside my carry-on for walking around airports, making connections etc.

best,

Carl Coryell-Marting

I use a United long haul bag from a trip million miles ago (3x4 inches of soft material with a pull drawstring). Inside I have eye shades, a few sets of ear plugs, asprin, a light warm and a pen.

I used to use noise cancelling headphones, which reduced the whine from the airplane and made the me hear the flight attendants at volume 10. Not the most comfortable way to wake up.