Originally Posted by nathanmcginty
what if they did lose your bag? oh no!! MY TOOTHPASTE IS GONE!!
I politely disagree. I work in a high tech field, on a one day business trip I carry some specialized tools which are no longer allowed in carry on, but must be checked. (pre- 911 I sometimes carried on my entire toolbox dumped in a soft side bag, enough tools to disassemble the plane, plus enough electronics, wires, and batteries that if I sent the same bag thru the xray today they would have the bomb squad blow up my bag.
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If I get to my destination and my checked bag is lost, I have no ability to perform the work function my company sent me there for. Not counting the cost of the items in the lost bag if they never are reunited with me, my time is wasted, my company loses the trip cost, the customer is upset at the delay caused by my inability to do what I was hired to do and might cancel business as a result. Specialized tools and electronics cannot always be bought locally if my company and I decide to replace them. Or stay overnight and have the factory Fedex some replacements to the motel. Either way, costly and bad for business.
This is not a vacation. It's called Business Travel. A need for a specialist and some specialized expensive equipment to arrive at a distant location. Together. Emphasis Together. On a short notice trip, there may not be time to ship equipment ahead of time. Everyone does not have the infinite budget needed to have several spare sets of expensive electronics to be able to ship a duplicate set ahead. Some equipment is fragile or can be damaged or knocked out of calibration by a drop. Think of your laptop--you can hand carry it with no case because you can protect it and be gentle to not break it. If you ship it Fedex, you have to pack it very well. Yet you do not know if it fell off a loading dock and got a big shock causing internal damage during shipping. If you hand carry it, you know it never got dropped, it never left your sight.
Far more consequences to losing a checked bag than missing toothpaste. The entire time and cost of the trip is totally wasted. Even today I max out allowable carry on and check as little as possible. It has nothing to do with the time spent waiting at bag claim. The checked bag showing up is the Go-No Go event of the entire trip, the unknown surprise you don't find out about until the empty bag carosel shuts down in another state or country and you know you just LOST.