Athena53

Average is 0.75. (Sorry, I'm an actuary.) If it's a couple of overnights, I do carry-on. If I'm challenged to pack "lean" I can do it, even though I always need workout clothes in addition to business clothes, and travel with a few books and all my electronic toys (laptop, digital camera, Bose headphones, iPod). I'm flying to White Plains via DTW this week, staying Wed. and Thurs. nights and it will be carry-on only.

I get sloppier once I know I have to take a full-size bag and frequently find that I don't wear everything I've packed. And, while my husband and I used to travel with one bag, they've gotten so nasty about charges for excess weight that we now use 2. There's a nickel-and-dime charge that backfired!

I did make an exception to the one-bag practice coming home from London last year. I'd bought 4 bottles of very good scotch (single-malt, single-cask) and put 2 in the suitcase and 2 in a smaller, well-stuffed shoulder bag and checked both. It was a way of spreading the risk. Fortunately, they all arrived safely.

Orchids

I carried on one piece for a 9 night stay, but had to add a lesportsac large weekender for the return flight. I can manage 15 lbs for carryon and 30 for checked. J Jill's summer linens work well for Hawaii, and I keep looking for ways to cut down on luggage weight.

hbyerly

Carry-on only. One or two rare exceptions for extended trips to regions with good shopping (e.g. India), and then just a single checked 24" per person.

My home base is IAD, which is notable for long checked luggage waits. On the return from India we waited 45 minutes for luggage, even with priority tags.

hollander

Also carry-on only, for trips of up to 2-3 weeks (a roll-aboard + larger tote). If I need to pack a larger suitcase, I use a luggage forwarding service.

oldpenny16

My business attire is mostly dark navy blue. I have a black skirted business suit that I sometimes wear for meetings when driving.

I wish I could get my checked bag down to 30 pounds. When my Delsey bag wears out, I intend to get a lighter bag.

Perhaps I'll succeed in the One Bag Method and go carry on only someday.

boa

I almost always check 2 bags, and occasionally 3. My trips are rarely less than 10 days, and typically closer to 20. I am almost always carrying stuff for my work, e.g. training materials, or materials and supplies for our conference exhibit. (We only ship the big things there, though we sometimes ship the leftover materials back.)

I guess I am the reverse of most people. I don't like to have big carry-ons. I like two small to medium pieces, so I can fit one under the seat, and rarely have problems fitting the other overhead. The carry-ons are filled with equipment and paperwork, not clothes. The work laptop and sometimes my personal one. Sometimes I carry a small travel projector for giving presentations. (Although most customers are better equipped with those these days.) I travel with a minimum of 2 cameras. I never check my bodies and check lenses only reluctantly. I shoot both digital and film, and film can't be checked. With all the parts and accessories for this stuff, there is room really for only a change of underwear and top, in case the checked stuff gets delayed.

(I am a good person to be sitting behind - I don't fill the overhead space and I rarely recline. )

basia

Short trips within Europe: try not to check anything if possible.

Trips to Tbilisi - I usually go for at least two months, on a 20 kg checked baggage allowance, so use all the tricks including chargers in travel vest pockets, etc.

Transatlantic: often for conferences, so I'll bring back a gazillion books. Usually I'll use one checked bag outbound and on the return trip check my rollaboard as well as all those books and presentation copies are just too heavy for one bag (at least after everybody went down to 50 pounds).

So yes, being limited to one bag would impact me.

lvnvflyer

Domestically, I almost never check a bag. I take one roller board and one tote that includes the computer. I tuck the bose headphones into the tote.

Internationally, usually check one and carry on just a tote, but the checked bag is usually a bigger rollerboard (26").

Travelling by car, I'm amazed at how much we'll throw in the back...just because we can!

Analise

0

Owlchick

Outbound, I don't check luggage regardless of trip length. The exception being last year when moving my mom from HI to SAN, and I knew in advance she wouldn't have any luggage. I checked a bag-in-a-bag with me to HNL, then sent her to SAN with both of those bags full of her clothes and things.

Homeward, it depends on whether I've bought something like chocolate sauce that can't be handcarried. If nothing saucy/liquidy, then nothing is checked in on return, either.

SleepPHL

No checked bags for me either. I haven't checked a bag in years. For a quick 1 or 2 days, it's just a 13" (or so) rolling bag (I love my Andiamo bag); for 2-3 days it's my 22" rollaboard (Travel Pro), and anything longer is my 22" and a backpack for my computer and other assorted stuff (paperback, electronic gizmos).

lskohn

A lady after my own heart! Both on the math (I was going to be a math prof, but Larry Summers' ancestors squelched that), but more important - on the scotch. Who cares how many pairs of shoes to pack - it's the number of bottles you bring home safely that count!

As for OPs question -- up to 4 days, no checked bag domestically (US), but my "personal item" computer bag becomes rather large for that 4th or 5th day. After that, only one bag, unless I need to spread the weight of snorkeling/hiking/other recreation equipment to a second bag. Size of the bag will vary from a 19 or 22 inch roll-on, to a 26 inch monster. Internationally I still try not to have to handle more than two items, no matter what the length of the trip - I'm the one who will have to schlep it all.

Kate_Canuck

Most business trips (3-10 days, but often to a country with a completely different climate), either carry-on (for the shorter trips) or a 22" expandable bag on the way out (plus a fairly large capacity business backpack). On the way home, I check the suitcase.

On holiday, where Mr Canuck and I often are trying to fit a little diving into our plans, I check a 24" expandable suitcase for the trips that are 4 days or longer and Mr Canuck checks a slightly larger suitcase.

I moved to the UK for a year in 01-02 for work and survived with two, 26" suitcases that I brought with me. More recently, Mr Canuck and I moved from Paris to New York and expected to live in corporate housing for a few months: we brought 3 suitcases between us.

cawhite

I rarely check bags (aside from golf clubs); the exception usually being if I'm carrying liquids which can't be taken as carry-on or when the UK had the "one carry-on" rule. I don't recall ever having checked two bags/items.

LLM

Wow, I'm in Morocco for a month and will do my last week and return to San Diego with a carryon. I did check a small duffel outbound with stuff to toss as I go/leave at school on the weekends and my textbooks. Duffel is microfiber and will fold up in the rollaboard after I dump the last stuff. And it is COLD here at night so I am usually wearing most of my clothes! I did cheat and take my father's cheapo JC Penney bag which weighs four pounds less than mine.