Artpen100

I fly a lot domestic and international. To me, if I have to carry it like a backpack, it’s too heavy. I don’t want to carry all that weight on my back. I think it is physically much easier to just stroll it along on a super lightweight polycarbonate 4 wheel spinner. You can get them in the smaller international size. And airlines beat up bags when you do check them, so I’ve had better experiences with hardsided luggage. I like Titan the best, but only get it when it is deeply discounted, which happens periodically. Keep an eye on Amazon for sales on your favorite brands. Only the luxury names don’t seem to discount.

Repooc17

I travel the world in my trusted backpack (more than 200,000 miles/yr). I do a lot of short stint trips (no more than a week). Rolling up clothes save a lot of space and minimize wrinkle.

I have also stopped carrying laptops/tablets on personal trips, as they just take up space. I can do everything I need to do on my phone.

The only time in the last 15 years or longer I have checked a bag is for some bonus miles - I checked in an empty duffel bag. I have gone to Asia and Oceania without checking bags.

invisible

There will be no universal solution fitting even 50% of use cases because people, preferences, trip length, climate, allowed carry-on weight and other factors will be different.

I can tell what worked for me and my wife in the last >10 years. When we lived in south-east asia for number of years, for almost all vacation travels within the region we used LCC/ULCC and quickly learned how to travel with carry-on only within the range of allocated carry-on limit, that usually is 8KG or less.

We both had lightweight backpack (for me)/handbag (for her) that goes under the seat, plus either above mentioned IT Luggage suitcases or one such suitcase and another lightweight bag. In terms of clothing - lightweight Columbia pants, t-shirts, rain jacket/windbreaker that can be folded and put into pocket, three/four set of underwear/socks, one set of footwear for hiking and Spanco slippers. All the clothings are designed to be hand washed in a sink with cold water and fast drying.

With the above set we had no problem fitting everything, plus laptop for each, under the allocated carry-on limits and go on trips lasting 3-10 days across number of countries. Again, worked for us for 10 years.

For travelling to different climate/geo area or for different purpose (business/etc), the above solution might not work. However I was travelling for work >100K miles per year for number of years and had number of TATL/TPAC flights - I still in >99% of cases used carry-on only with the above configuration. Only twice I had to check bag due to requirement to be at work event with the suit and tie. Every other time it was not needed.

SPN Lifer

Keep in mind that polyester clothing will melt on your body when exiting a flaming aircraft.

deniah

do you avoid polyester clothing on car rides?

SPN Lifer

The distance of the path through burning aviation fuel is orders of magnitude above that of an automobile. Normally, a gas tank will burn in situ, so you are either out of the vehicle or not.

Not so with an aircraft, not so! Aviation fuel is stored, inter alia, in the wings.

deniah

Car fires are not localized to the fuel tank. The hottest part of a car is the engine bay, and running through its underside, and in a crash oils and other fluid spill everywhere. The doors and windows may also be jammed preventing egress.

We dont assume plane fires are limited to just the wings.

Heyden

Car fires and plane fires are not comparable.

Car fire: Release seat belt, open door, step out.

Plane fire: Release seat belt, wait till someone else opens the door, wait until people ahead of you are off, slide out.

gobluetwo

As a man, I am most definitely not referring to female clothing. Women aren't the only ones who can wear clothing not made of cotton, and lululemon sells mens clothing. I have no issues wearing these pants in the winter, but I am from the midwest and perhaps am more used to the cold.

I mean, that's a pretty edge case and not something I'm even a little bit worried about.

swampwiz

I once put a pair of portable hard drives in the insides of my socks (and other heavy stuff in my jacket pockets) just to make sure I didn't go over the limit at the weigh-in counter.

sethweinstein

This is the bag I've carried for about 1500 kilometers in my walks around 17 islands in the past three years. It is very lightweight and it holds more than it looks like it will:
I still sometimes use an American Eagle backpack that has detachable daypack. It's one bag for carry-on purposes, but you can leave the main pack in a hotel and just carry around the daypack. In one case when an airline was particularly stingy about carry-on allotments, I hid the main pack and had them just weigh the daypack, and then I reattached it with the "approved" tag on it.

Seth

MajulahMadooba

Are more people simply switching to non-wheeled luggage like a large backpack, but not something that looks like a small hiking pack? You increasingly have full service/non budget Asia and Europe airlines imposing weight limits as low as 7 kg, and/or size limits. A lot of the they don't really check the weight, or they let you do silly things like take out a small rucksack and put your tablet and laptop inside, and then you are boarding with people who seem to have 4 hand carry items, including 2 large shopping bags of whatever.

I find a durable wheeled carry on similar to what flight crew would carry very convenient, but it's getting frustrating.

TGarza

When I fly ULCC, I use a Take Off hard sided spinner which fits under the seat with the wheels removed as my free personal item.

GoBob

I wanted to give a quick shout for this recommendation. What a great bag. I bought it and took it on a week- long trip recently. I really liked the front pocket for my toiletry bag and the backpack seemed to expand for nearly everything I added. The material is incredibly light and appears durable. Thanks again for suggesting.

bwiadca

I can't count how many times I went for overnight or two night trips and my boss asked me to stay 'few' more days.
In that case Walmart, TJ Maxx or Marshalls are your friends.
My last trip to Oklahoma for 2 nights turned out to be extended for additional week in Redmond Oregon...
In Walmart I've got 6pack white Tees, 8pack of socks, 6 pack of undies and I was good to go for under $50. Didn't have to do laundry. Had one jeans to travel with and second pair to go to work.
When traveling to Asia, let say for 14/15 days, I usually take clothes that last me 7-8 days. Even hotel prices for laundry are laughable.
In our last resort in Phuket, I gave them bag of laundry (7 days worth of dirty clothes) at 8am for the same day service.
The laundry was done by 4pm the same day and it cost me $13 or $15 USD. In US obviously you would have paid much more, and that's why it's cheaper to buy extra clothes in Walmart etc.