Knowing how to travel (fly).

[lorimt]

We were on a flight to Alaska several years ago that had to go back to the gate and everyone had to get off due to a weather issue. They stated we would reboard in about an hour but they started boarding about 20 minutes later. Many announcements were made but when we took off less than half of the people that were originally on board were on the flight. We never leave the gate now. Even for delays we show up at the original time because I don’t want to be left behind!

 

[sam_gordon]

We were on a flight to Alaska several years ago that had to go back to the gate and everyone had to get off due to a weather issue. They stated we would reboard in about an hour but they started boarding about 20 minutes later. Many announcements were made but when we took off less than half of the people that were originally on board were on the flight. We never leave the gate now. Even for delays we show up at the original time because I don’t want to be left behind!

Last year I had an early flight (like 6a). When I woke up at 3:30, I had a notification on my phone that the flight was delayed (until 10 or 11 I think). I still went ahead, got ready, and went to the airport. Unfortunately, the flight STAYED delayed. I wasn't taking a chance though. lol

 

[tvguy]

There are some lessons here that I thought most travelers would know, but maybe not...
#1) If you're checking multiple suitcases, CROSSPACK. This won't help if none of your suitcases make it to your destination, but in this case, it seems the wife's suitcase did make it.
#2) ALWAYS have enough with you on the plane (this is why you take a carry on even if checking a bag is free) to handle the first 24 hours. That would have given him at least two sets of clothes (what he flew down in and what was in the carry on). Wear stuff on day #1, wash it in the sink that night, wear outfit #2 while #1 is drying. No, not ideal, but puts a band aid on the problem.
#3) NEVER put your medicine, contact lenses, or expensive items in your checked luggage. I'm sorry, if I'm Delta and the above couple says there was $4k worth of content in the suitcase, I'm asking for receipts.

Interesting about crosspacking. We normally only travel with one suitcase and one carryon, but we are doing a Land/Sea cruise next year, first week on land, second week is the cruise. The cruise line suggests having one suit case with your clothes for the land portion of your trip, and a second for the sea portion. And they offer secure storage of the sea portion suitcase during the land portion of the trip.

 

[_19disnA]

Funny to watch the people at the airport who either act like this is the first time they have ever flown or somehow think the security procedures won't apply to them. Seem clueless where to go or what to do. Maybe if they stopped chatting on their phone/texting/surfing the net or whatever seems so important to them, they could listen the various announcements being made. And YES, once you get to the security line you WILL have to follow the instructions being given, they apply to you and everyone else going through security.

Always good to check the TV monitors to makes sure your gate assignment hasn't changed. NEVER put wallet/cash/ID or passport in your checked luggage.

If you sit near the FRONT of the airplane and have to put your bag in an overhead bin BEHIND you, probably will be one of the last to exit the plane since everyone will stand up once the seat belt sign has been turned off.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Interesting about crosspacking. We normally only travel with one suitcase and one carryon, but we are doing a Land/Sea cruise next year, first week on land, second week is the cruise. The cruise line suggests having one suit case with your clothes for the land portion of your trip, and a second for the sea portion. And they offer secure storage of the sea portion suitcase during the land portion of the trip.

We always cross-pack. Yes, one time one suitcase was delayed, but only by one day, so not particularly stressing. On our Alaska cruise tour we still only took two suitcases and cross packed. Each suitcase had 1/2 of my clothes and 1/2 of my husband's. Also split the cruise/land clothes between the two. Actually, there were few items that were only "land" or "cruise" wear.

 

[barkley]

I had a busy body on a SW flight lecturing me about the amount of my luggage because of my cpap bag.
Uh, if you are going to mind someone else's business, study up on the rules before boarding!

I do often put the cpap bag under the seat in front of me after having the hose crushed in the overhead by someone else forcing their bag in the space.
We now travel with medical tape or a small duct tape for hose repair.

we were so pleased when the cpap recall resulted in dh's machine being much more compact and easy to travel with (the older ones were so bulky).

 

[tvguy]

We always cross-pack. Yes, one time one suitcase was delayed, but only by one day, so not particularly stressing. On our Alaska cruise tour we still only took two suitcases and cross packed. Each suitcase had 1/2 of my clothes and 1/2 of my husband's. Also split the cruise/land clothes between the two. Actually, there were few items that were only "land" or "cruise" wear.

Last cruise we just took one suitcase for the both of us. My wife took one nice dress and I took my suit for formal nights, but everything else was casual wear. We would have had an issue if the suitcase did not arrive as we flew in the day of, which Celebrity booked and "guaranteed" would not be an issue. However, I think our suitcase would have caught up with us the next day as we left from Vancouver and our first port was Victoria which is only 76 miles away!

 

[sam_gordon]

Interesting about crosspacking. We normally only travel with one suitcase and one carryon, but we are doing a Land/Sea cruise next year, first week on land, second week is the cruise. The cruise line suggests having one suit case with your clothes for the land portion of your trip, and a second for the sea portion. And they offer secure storage of the sea portion suitcase during the land portion of the trip.

Well, if you only have one checked luggage, there's nothing to crosspack with. Pretty sure the couple in the OP had at least two suitcases (there were no comments about the wife not having clothes).

And, no need to crosspack if you're always in control of your suitcases.

Sorry if those two points weren't obvious.

 

[SueInBoston]

This just happened this week, a colleague was traveling from Boston to Algeria (visiting family) connecting in Paris. He had to gate check his hand carry in Paris. He forgot to remove his work laptop and the hand carry never made it to Algeria. He was supposed to work from Algeria but now can't and is in deep doo doo with our Data Security group.

 

[Magical2017]

I have to admit, I don’t follow one of these rules myself. I strongly dislike carrying bags through security, around an airport, or onto a plane. If I can go without anything I do but never more than one light bag that I can put under the seat.

That means I (almost) never have 24 hours worth of clothing with me. I think twice I’ve had to do some shopping to make up for delayed bags but I’d much rather do that twice over the years than carrying extra baggage with me every single time.

I understand that goes against traditional wisdom but it works for me.

Have you tried compression bags? I can fit a change of clothing into one and then place it into a small backpack I carry, or place it in DHs backpack and carry just a travel bag.

 

[monsterkitty]

A few years ago, a few of my teammates and I flew to Oceanside, CA for an Ironman 70.3 race. We were all on the same flight.

They laughed at me because I carried on my helmet, bike shoes, wetsuit, and pedals. They put their gear in their bike boxes. I explained that if my bike didn't make it from DEN to San Diego, at least I had the essentials and I could rent a bike (although that would be difficult because my bike is an extra small and they're extremely difficult to find for rent.)

My bike made it, but their bikes did not. They had to not only rent a bike but buy bike shoes and helmets and use regular pedals and rent wetsuits.

 

[DisneylandFreak2013]

We've had generally good luck with United. I never travel with anything on the plane besides my purse because I hate carrying anything through the airport. We just take advantage of the 2 free checked bags with United First, since that is all we fly nowadays. We've been fortunate to only ever do direct flights in the past 10 years, so no connection issues.

 

[Christine]

We've had generally good luck with United. I never travel with anything on the plane besides my purse because I hate carrying anything through the airport. We just take advantage of the 2 free checked bags with United First, since that is all we fly nowadays. We've been fortunate to only ever do direct flights in the past 10 years, so no connection issues.

My story upthread about my husband's bag was United and it was a non-stop route. Last year they had 5 non-stops a day going from Washington DC to San Diego. We never thought it was a problem. Problem was, just about every flight out is/was always full and they randomly pull checked bags if weight becomes an issue (yet somehow they were still gate checking bags). My husband's bag was one of probably four bags they pulled. We were pretty inexperienced about this practice so he was freaking out when we were in San Diego but they did put the bag on the last flight of the evening and all was well, though it pretty much ruined our first day because they kept telling us they didn't know when it would be there and had us come back to the airport twice. Anyway, probably does NOT ever happen to United First customers so no worries for you, and I realize this isnt the same as lost luggage but still not fun.

 

[barkley]

A few years ago, a few of my teammates and I flew to Oceanside, CA for an Ironman 70.3 race. We were all on the same flight.

They laughed at me because I carried on my helmet, bike shoes, wetsuit, and pedals. They put their gear in their bike boxes. I explained that if my bike didn't make it from DEN to San Diego, at least I had the essentials and I could rent a bike (although that would be difficult because my bike is an extra small and they're extremely difficult to find for rent.)

My bike made it, but their bikes did not. They had to not only rent a bike but buy bike shoes and helmets and use regular pedals and rent wetsuits.

congrats on the wise decision. timely post-our area is flooded with folks for the ironman 70.3 event this weekend, i hope all the participants that flew in were as wise in packing their gear!

 

[sam_gordon]

We've had generally good luck with United. I never travel with anything on the plane besides my purse because I hate carrying anything through the airport. We just take advantage of the 2 free checked bags with United First, since that is all we fly nowadays. We've been fortunate to only ever do direct flights in the past 10 years, so no connection issues.

This was 20 years ago, but my aunt flew in for DD's first birthday. Direct flight, and her checked bag just never got put on the plane. So she ended up going shopping.

While direct cuts down on possible issues, it doesn't eliminate them.

 

[GreatAuntie]

I do think airlines announce that anything needed (medicines, PASSPORTS, batteries, etc) need to be taken out of the bags before they're checked. Of course, we know from my story how well people listen to announcements.

They don't always make that announcement. We were boarding a flight and starting with my kid all rolling bags that could normally go in the overhead had to be checked. Bags were being tagged as checked luggage as we were getting on the plane. There was no reminder about taking out necessary items and was a rushed process. It was fine to check the bag, nothing important was in the bag but I could see how if your bag was checked unexpectedly last minute people might not think to take out important items.

 

[sam_gordon]

They don't always make that announcement. We were boarding a flight and starting with my kid all rolling bags that could normally go in the overhead had to be checked. Bags were being tagged as checked luggage as we were getting on the plane. There was no reminder about taking out necessary items and was a rushed process. It was fine to check the bag, nothing important was in the bag but I could see how if your bag was checked unexpectedly last minute people might not think to take out important items.

Every flight I've been on, before boarding starts, if they think they'll run out of space, they'll say "we will probably have to check bags at some point. If you want to volunteer ahead of time, you can. Please make sure you remove any medication, electronics, etc, etc... "

 

[EACarlson]

We've had generally good luck with United. I never travel with anything on the plane besides my purse because I hate carrying anything through the airport. We just take advantage of the 2 free checked bags with United First, since that is all we fly nowadays. We've been fortunate to only ever do direct flights in the past 10 years, so no connection issues.

The only airline that's ever lost my bag has been United. Was a business trip to Vegas, I was fine as I flew in business clothes, had an extra pair of underwear and my meds in my backpack. My co-worker had done none of that. She flew in sweats, brought only her purse and had her contact solution in her checked bag.

I now have Galaxy Tags in all of my bags, When I land I open the app and just make sure they're in the same city as I am. Haven't had any issues. I also pay about $70/yr for travel insurance that makes sure I get reimbursed if my bag is delayed.

 

[NYCgrrl]

I only travel with a carry-on so less concerned about losing luggage or it being delayed. The exception is when we cruise and a suit bag is added to accommodate eveningwear.

 

[EACarlson]

I only travel with a carry-on so less concerned about losing luggage or it being delayed. The exception is when we cruise and a suit bag is added to accommodate eveningwear.

Some of us are required to fly on a plane small enough that even what is generally thought of as carry ons have to be checked. There is more space under the seat in front of me than there is in the overhead bin of a CRJ-200.