I absolutely agree - I hated every moment last time I had to check luggage, simply because lugging what seemed like an enormous case (it was probably only 25", but it seemed much bigger compared to my normal routine) through the Bangkok transport system was a relative nightmare as far as I was concerned. After that, I vowed to never again go beyond hand luggage - so for our last two-week trip to the USA we went with carry-on and an hour sat in the laundrette less than a minute's walk from the hotel.

That hour was probably more than recouped by the time saved in not standing around a baggage carousel at both ends of the journey, plus for the US internal flight. MrsNWIFlyer's training does continue in terms of packing only the bare minimum, but she's getting there ...