Why bother with carry-on bags?

[Evan]

a can of deodorant is the only reason I use checked baggage with international travel. Hotels would make a killing selling this stuff at check in.

And after some complaints to BAA staff i found out the conversion table for deorderant !

62grams = 100ml (hope i got that around the right way)

So all those 100grams cans you get in Australia will be in trouble at some airports, not SIN or HKG usually or a few others like KIX,PVG,TPE but in LHR sometimes they pull you up and say no. Very annoying because its almost impossible to buy spay deorderant of a small enough size.

E

 

[QF WP]

I've successfully transferred my thinking to a "2 carry-on luggage policy" (thanks to simongr's previous thread).

I now use a roll-on deodorant for my trips away and have enough of the small toothpastes and small shaving foams from previous international trip amenity packs to last me months of travelling. The shaving foam is Gillette I think - I haven't paid that much attention to the name on the can. Alternatively, I take the small tubes of shaving cream (but I hate the stuff).

I use the same shoes, suit and pants for the entire trip (as I'm not seeing the same people on following days), with change of jocks, socks, shirts, ties and singlets in my FF bag.

I now find that my flexibility is better (I can change flights at a moments notice even after check-in) and I simply check-in at QC - the queues at the Service Desk have yet to be larger than the queues downstairs. I am always amongst the first to get to the taxi queue or train (BNE, SYD) as I barely break stride going through the Terminal.

I've used this for trips to SYD, CBR & MEL so far this year (longest trip has been 3 days) - will be interesting to see how it also goes with upcoming trip to PER & BME (also 3 days in length).

The only downside is that my carry-on is slightly heavier, but I apportion my clothes and client files between my FF bag and laptop, so neither would be over the 7kg limit.

I'm lucky that I don't have any international trips in the foreseeable future (well, only AKL in Oct/Nov) but it's only a weekend.

 

[acampbel]

Three days???? I just stuff everything inside the laptop bag for those ones!

Apart from trips including the wife and kids I have not voluntarily checked luggage for about 4 years, which includes international itineraries of up to 2 weeks.

That said, I have had to recently check a bag at Manila airport. This was due to Sydney Duty Free forcing me to take 2 litres of booze out of the country or lose my $40 discount. Even after sauntering through the arrivals area and having the usual delays in the "aliens" immigration queue, I still arrived at the carousel long before it showed any sign of life. And to add insult to injury you then have to line up to get the final clearance from border patrol. Maybe if we paid these people by the bag/passenger they would pull their collective fingers out?!?