CBear

Crap I usually pack my suitcase inside an empty suitcase because if I'm on holiday, I KNOW I will be shopping. And for a work trip...I can't imagine having only two outfits for a week.

mandolino

Average at check in (bag drop, actually) for me would be 2 minutes, maybe less.
Carousel - 2-15 minutes, never twenty. Let's average it at 7 minutes.

Then think of all the time you spend dragging a big carry-on around that you could have checked ...

kb9522

I've been at baggage claims that took way longer than 20 minutes before. Fairly regularly actually.

One time flying back into BOS with checked luggage, I had to wait more than an hour and a half! It was after this flight I decided to stop checking luggage.

Edit:
1. Carry-ons aren't big (that's why they can be carried on) and they roll, so you're not really lugging.
2. It doesn't take any more time to move around with a carry-on than it does without... so not sure what your point is there.

pinniped

A big issue is the length of time it takes U.S. carriers to get the bags to the belt. Waiting 10+ minutes for a bag is never a good option, so I'm going to avoid it if at all possible. If I lived somewhere or flew an airline that regularly got the bags to the belt in the same time it takes me to walk to the belt, then I'd check a lot more often.

Obviously there are cases when it can't be avoided. I'm not an extreme light-packer. But I can do almost any business trip without checking a bag. (Our company allows us to use the hotel laundry for 2-week trips, although these are quite rare for me.) For leisure trips, if I check golf clubs then we go ahead and check everything else. The incremental wait between the 1st bag and subsequent bags is usually negligible, and sometimes the golf clubs show up last anyway.

mandolino

Sounds like a BOS experience.

Hasn't happened to me recently in Europe/Russia, Asia, Australia or even west Africa.
Some of those places I spend more time at Immigration than baggage reclaim , another reason not to have a large carry-on, (i.e anything bigger than a laptop bag) and a lot of them have stairs where your wheels are no use.

I don't go to US much but don't remember any particularly long waits except at LAX Immigration.

YMMV of course - it's nice to go HLO sometimes but experience has turned me in favour of checking bags.

pinniped

A lot of U.S. airports are dreadful when it comes to waiting for bags. 90 minutes is an extreme case, but 20 minutes is not and 20 minutes is WAY too much time to waste waiting for bags unless you really have no alternative.

If other parts of the world are significantly better at this, please fly to the U.S. and teach our airlines how to do it right.

Dylane

One other thing I haven't seen in this thread is the issue of theft. I have had things stolen out of my checked luggage way too many times to be comfortable when I do check my bag. Everything from an iPhone I was bringing to someone as a gift, to bottles of beer, to pocket knives (multiples of these, which has just taught me that the world really, really doesn't want me to have any kind of sharp instrument at my destination). Taking carry-on only, and storing at my seat means my stuff is always within sight and I then worry less about things getting stolen.

mdkowals

The revolution for me was switching to a backpack for my laptop and work files (which requires me not caring if I show up to a meeting with a backpack instead of a traditional laptop case).


Whether or not my other travel bag (the one with wheels) is checked or carry-on hasn't made too much of a difference for me. If it's checked I do stash some underwear and socks into my laptop backpack.


About 7 years ago I did a 2 week work trip to Belgium without realizing that the company allows us to do hotel laundry. Carried with me a personal item (traditional laptop bag), a 21" carryon, and a 28" suitcase. That was a total amateur move on my part.

wrp96

A few years ago, after arriving in Africa without my bags, I made the mistake of asking on that airline's board about what to do if my bags didn't arrive on the flight the next day. I got several replies lecturing me about how they always do carry on only, how I should never check anything I couldn't afford to lose, how I should've expected my bags to get lost, etc. I did not get a single reply that was actually relevant or helpful to my situation.

So yes it is my experience that among a small subset of travelers there is an almost snobbish badge of honor to traveling as light as possible.

Most of us though don't care how lightly or heavily someone else packs as long as it doesn't infringe on our own travels.

ft101

The advantages of getting someone else to carry my stuff and not worry about packing extra stuff I might or might not need, or stuff that's banned from the cabin outweigh the perceived disadvantages of losing c. 1 hour per week (even using your figures) dealing with it at either end.

In addition, that 1 hour is not lost time. If someone wanted to work on a tablet or make calls or whatever they could do that during the wait.

pinniped

I was a holdout on this for a few years. Then one day I looked around and realized that the laptop backpack had become ubiquitous traveling-consultant attire.

So I finally jumped on the bandwagon, albeit with a color scheme that *wasn't* the standard swiss-army looking thing. Still find it amusing to walk into a meeting and see 10 of those identical bags. Mine's a different manufacturer, black with blue trim, but still very functional.

kb9522

I do something similar. I have a small cabin bag that slides over the handle of my larger (carry-on size) rollaboard. The cabin bag actually has a section with compression specifically for clothes... so I keep one set of clothes in there, and the rest in my rollaboard. That way if I have to (gate) check or want to check, I have an extra set of clothes in case my luggage is lost. Toiletry bag goes in the cabin bag as well. Of course nothing valuable or important is stored in the rollaboard, and I keep a couple of bag locks in the pocket as well if I need/want to check.

In either case, I don't think my goal is to ever travel "as light as possible"... but to travel light enough that all I need is a carry-on/personal item. My rollaboard is the largest size domestic US carriers will allow (I have an international sized one for international travel) and my cabin bag is (i.e. can be expanded) to the largest size allowed for personal items. I use as much of this space as needed to travel comfortably. It's always more than enough.

Badenoch

Part of the equation in my packing decisions is destination. I did a two week project in Africa last year with tight connections in Jo-burg. Carry-on only but was flying in J so had a greater carry-on allowance and there were laundry services where I was staying.

One person in our group didn't get their bags. SAA was pretty good about making sure they were delivered when they finally arrived a couple of days later.

wrp96

In my case, I had most of my clothing in my carry ons - I was not surprised that there were baggage issues, even with originally planned 3 hour and 2 hour connections (we also were arriving 2 days before we were needed). My checked luggage consisted of 3 70 lb bags, filled mostly with items to be used while I was doing my work in Africa, not clothing. The bags did arrive on the next day flight, so thankfully we didn't have to figure out a way to source the missing items in order to do our work. But no delivery of bags. I had to go back to the airport to clear the bags through customs which was an adventure on its own.

It was just annoying to be lectured that I should've carried my bags on the plane with me which was not the question that I asked and was an answer that didn't help me once I was already at my destination without my bags.

Calliopeflyer

It really isn't always within sight unless it's under the seat in front of you and you never leave your seat. Theft from carry-ons happens too, and it's increasing faster than theft from checked bags. Personally, my carry on fits under the seat in front of me, but that's because I also check a bag