Help, has anyone used the bags that you compress air out of to minimize bulk, if so did you have to open this bag at airport. We are leaving on a 40 day cruise and I thought this (vac paks) would be a life saver. It would not take as long to repack and cut down on the amount of luggage we need to take.

If you're worried about storing your luggage during your long cruise, you might ask the cruise line if they would store your luggage in the hold. On such a long cruise, it's customary to do that.

Sandy,<BR><BR>I cannot assist, but you may want to post on Fodors/Europe. The folks on that board are very travel 'savvy'. Perhaps they can offer tips re: vac paks.<BR>Bon Voyage!

I bought plastic bags from a travel store that take less packing space in your luggage because you squeeze the air out, sort of like a huge zip-lock bag. Works really well, especially for items like socks and sweaters. If you were forced to open them at the airport, which I doubt, it wouldn't be difficult to compress them again.

I agree with Lorraine. We've been using the bags for a couple of years now and they work fine. It's amazing how effective they are. Being transparent, it's not likely that the bags would need to be opened to determine content. But if so, it wouldn't take much effort to squeeze them again.<BR>

I have been looking for those bags where did you find them?

The bags I saw advertised on TV recently required a vacuum cleaner to suck the air out! Not very convenient if you have to open them at the airport for security inspection with a hundred angry people in line behind you. Today is the first day of the new security inspections at US airports of all checked luggage. The news reports on TV were saying that a lot of the inspectors are having passengers open their luggage for inspection prior to checking your bags. We just returned from a 45 day cruise. I opted to pay the fee for extra luggage. We took 5 large suitcases and were one over the limit for 2 passengers on the airlines. Cost was about $100.00 leaving the US and about $80.00 for the return flight and was well worth it. You need a lot of clothes for a 6 week trip! Alternatively, you could take less clothes and pay the huge cleaning fee the cruise line charges but I think in the long run you will spend about the same. We only had to send one batch of clothes to the cleaners on the ship for our whole cruise. Good luck and Bon Voyage!

I think the bags that don't require a vacuum cleaner are called Travel Genie.

We've seen these bags advertised in a number of places including Magellan's and Travelsmith. We bought some at a super K-mart, but I don't think they carry them regularly. The bags that can be evacuated using a vacuum cleaner are fine for home use (for storing blankets, sweaters, etc.) but aren't much good for traveling. You might also try catalogs for Eddie Bauer and LLBean.

I found Pack-Mate bags at Wal-Mart here in Canada, reasonably priced; you can either use a vacuum to comress them or do it by rolling them/lying on top of them. Put four 18" square decorative throw pillows into an XL one and rolled on it - air hissed out rather slowly, but I now have a storage package of throw pillows about 6-8" thick!!! The medium size should be okay for shirts, underwear, etc.<BR>ja

<BR>Hi Sandy,<BR><BR>I have been traveling for over 40 years and tend to believe all the "do-dads" that should make your packing easier makes it very time consuming. I purchase the widest bags and lay everything tight and flat. I carry a small steamer that makes quick work out of wrinkles and if something gets stained I use the ship's dry cleaning. I can not see spending my entire vacation packing and unpacking, sucking and compressing. It is correct that on long voyages they will store your bags for you. You do not have to handle the bags since the porters will do that for you along with your cabin steward. Some passengers bring trunks.<BR><BR>On long voyages I always packed cardboard boxes and tape. All used and soiled clothing, along with souveniers I packed and paid a crewmember to take the box to a postal station to mail home.<BR><BR>But to each his own.<BR><BR>Paul

Thanks for all the advise. Carol you can buy the bags at www.packmate.com. My granddaughter will be going on a cruise with us in Feb and I was able to get all her clothes into 2 med. bags.I am going to use them in Feb and see how it goes, if well then I will use lots when we go in April. Thanks again.

If you don't plan to take a steamer, I wouldn't pack anything in them that you wouldn't want to be wrinkled. I usually take my own beach towels on a cruise, so I do put these in the vac bags that you can squeeze the air out of. It turns two good sized beach towels into a one inch wafer. I also pack tee shirts that my son swims with, his bathing suits, etc in them. For shirts, shorts, socks and underwear, I like the pack it system. These are available from Magellen but I have found them really cheap at Marshalls and TJMax. Wrinkles are really minimized and things stay organized.

Hi again,this is about the wrinkles using these bags, I put my formal dress in one,very few wrinkles. I kept the dress in a dry cleaner bag and put into the vac bag. I then left in the bag for 36 hours, very few wrinkles and what was there fell out in a few hours. Have to go to Ca next week and will post on how they did at the airport. Just want to thank all who answered this post.