cassandra_asl

My Friday and I are traveling to Dublin, London, Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam in September 2015!

We are toying with the idea between Carry on vs Checked bag?

Pros to Carry On's
* carry on everything is with us at all times
*Airlines won't loose your luggage
* you dont have to wait for your luggage arrive

Cons
*you wont be able to fit all of your souvenirs in your bag
*you have to carry it through all of the airports with you

Pros to Checking
*you dont have to carry a bag with you through the airport and on the flights (including the connecting flights)
*its one bag with plenty of room within the bag for souvenirs

Cons
*Its big to transport on public transportation
*It could get lost with the airline

Cost is not a factor, its free on all of our flights.

Does anyone have any tips? also on brands of luggage that you seem to like more than the other.

Thanks in advance!

BigRuss

Are you Robinson Crusoe? How'd you get your own "Friday"?

How many flights are you taking? LOSING luggage is a small concern coming from the US to Europe or reverse because the airlines MUST match bags to passengers ("bag matching").

greg

It depends on individual and the type of itinerary. Using the same rule for all itinerary would likely to end up with an incompatible strategy for that trip.

Go through your specific itinerary step by step in your mind using both types of luggage. Which one would you want to take for this trip?

carl170

Hello,

We just got back from a trip to London, Lisbon and Madrid. While we usually try to carry on luggage, we did check luggage on two legs of the flight. So, it depends.

On the USA-London leg, we carried on, we were getting in late in the evening and wanted to get to our hotel quickly.

On the London-Lisbon leg, we checked our bags. This worked well as there was a long line at Portuguese immigration. Our bags were there when we passed through.

On the Lisbon-Madrid leg, we checked our bags again. This time we waited in Madrid for almost an hour waiting for the bags, we should have carried them on.

Coming home we carried on, but here we should have checked them. There was a long walk transferring in Frankfurt and we had to carry everything through the terminal. Then in the US, we were in the back of the plane and had to wait awhile to disembark.

One point about coming back, we entered the US at our final destination. If you transfer within the US on the way back, you will have to collect your checked baggage, go through customs, and re-check them again.

So, depending on your itinerary and where you are sitting on the plane you may want to check them or not. You should have free travel (no immigration or customs) between Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam if that makes any difference. You can always decide later and buy an extra bag to check on the way back.

Not sure if this helpful or not.

Carl

Andrew

After a few trips to Europe checking a larger bag, I downsized and now travel only with a carry-on suitcase and a "personal item" that fits under my seat (a camera bag). It takes more time and patience to pack everything into carry-ons, and you have to plan on wearing some clothes more than once (or washing in a sink etc.) but for me the benefits have far outweighed the downsides.

I never lost a bag when I used to check them in Europe, but obviously people do lose them - you still hear stories. I like never having to wait for a bag and never have to worry about losing one.

And downsizing to carry-ons means my bags are much smaller and easier to move around between stops.

For domestic travel within the US, another benefit for me has been the ability to switch flights at the last minute if my original is delayed or something. I've done that a few times at the airport, and if you don't have checked bags it's easy to do. Oh, can I take this earlier flight because we arrived really early at the connection? No checked bags? No problem.

I usually don't bring many souvenirs home from Europe with me, but as a compromise, you could carry your bags on the way over then check one on the way home and carry a shopping bag of souvenirs on the plane with you. You don't have to worry about losing a bag during your trip. (who cares if you lose it on the way home? it will probably get to you eventually - just make sure not to check anything super-important in there).

cassandra_asl

Sorry My friend

We will be going from Minneapolis to Chicago and then Chicago to Dublin

Flying from Dublin to London

Train from London to Paris

Train from Paris to Amsterdam

We will be there for 17 days. I am leaning more towards just a carry on, but this is my first time out of the country, and I have a huge family that probably wont ever get to fly over there. So I want to make sure they get fun souvenirs.

I am playing with the idea of buying something there... but on the other hand why buy something when you can just pack in a bigger suitcase and only have to worry about one bag with a backpack for the whole trip....

Thanks again for all of your advice!! I really appreciate it! Any items you guys pack that you wish you didn't or wish you did?

tarquin

You must pass through immigration and security between each EU country if you are flying, which means no liquids in bottles exceeding 100 ml for carry on luggage.

My solution would be to pack carry on, then lighten the load (books etc) if you acquire things along the way, and take a folding bag for the last leg of your journey.

flanneruk

Most European airlines don't believe in inventing rules they're not going to enforce.

So when they say there's a limit to the size of bag you can carry onto a plane, they're highly likely to tell you you're going to put bags over the limit into the hold. Whether you want to or not.

You don't check bags in on a train.

I'd also repeat the earlier points about luggage rarely going adrift. The arguments for carrying bags with you on planes are essentially about your considering your time too valuable to wait 10 mins at a carousel

Mimar

If you're traveling by train, it's much easier with carry-on size (and weight) luggage. You may have to lift that bag into an overhead rack and lug it up and down stairs.

I'd use a lightweight rollaboard. Do compare the weight of bags; they can vary significantly. And make sure your rollaboard is small enough for European airlines. Check your airline web site for their specifications.

HappyTrvlr

You get to passport control ahead of passengers with checked bags if you carry on. Once you pack for carrying on, your bag will much more manageable to handle once you arrive, especially on trains. Less is more. Pack a collapsible small duffle to use for your souveniers when traveling back home. You can check your bags on your return if necessary. I never check my bag whether for two weeks or six weeks.
It is very liberating.

hetismij2

How do you get to passport control ahead of people with checked bags? We all have to wait for you to lug your worldly belongings from the overheads before we can disembark it is true, but once off we can sprint to the passport control and be through and collecting our checked bags while you are still queuing to get a stamp.

Beware of airline size restrictions. Some do not allow two carry on items. You will be limited as to liquids you can take.

You do not go through immigration at every EU country, despite what Tarquin says - once you are in Schengen you don't go through immigration until you leave again. I don't think there is immigration between UK and Ireland either is there?
You do go through security at all the. Make sure any electronics are packed so they can be easily got at, just as you liquids.

Odin

Squashing all your stuff into a small bag for carry-on is just such a pain, I find nothing liberating about having your luggage with you at all times or having the bare minimum of clothing etc with you instead of packing what you need. There is hardly ever any room in the overheads and those who have to take out their stuff from the overheads delay the disembarking of everyone else, so by the time all this happens my luggage is already at the carousel.

Tabernash2

I don't like when I have to 'gate check' my carryon, because it contains my valuables, prescriptions, etc.. Instead, I check one bag, and carry on just my personal items.

Christina

That's a good point, if you try to take something oversize onboard and they catch you (or sometimes just if the flight is full, they get really stringent) and you have to gate check, you probably have all some valuable things in that bag. If you don't have any valuable things at all, or can fit them all in your personal item, it works better. I find that hard to do for a long trip as I know have to take some medication and other things that I didn't when younger, and it doesn't all easily fit into my personal item if I also have all my CCs, money, flight entertainment, etc., in there.

You do not always have to put a bag over your head on a train, people say that a lot on Fodors, but I have never once had to do that in Europe when I had a larger suitcase, on any train system in several countries (CR, France, Spain, England, and Poland). There are places to put baggage in a baggage area or between cars, etc. However, I do agree it is easier, of course, to travel with a smaller bag.

YOu don't even mention the biggest con, which is less space, IMO. I don't buy hardly any souvenirs at all, so that reason is a nothing to me. But the space is why I don't do it. I often travel to several places with somewhat different climates, for one thing, and I will not wear only two pair of shoes for all occasions for two weeks. I also like to dress up a bit for where I go at night, and won't wear what I wear to trudge around during the day out at night, even to a cafe. But some people do and don't mind it. It's just your personal style and how you feel about that, or what your habits are. Footwear is one of the most important things to make a long trip comfortable when you are often walking around all day, so I need more than you could pack in one carryon bag plus the one pair on your feet, given it is heavy and takes up a lot of space (especially heavy duty walking footwear).

Since you don't seem to have any problem at all about the space, I would do it in your situation. Your only cons are souvenirs and lugging it around the airport, so the pros by far outweigh those. Don't buy souvenirs or just buy very small stuff like jewelry, that solves that problem. The airport issue is trivial, just go in and sit down someplace ASAP.

greg

It is not necessary to let go with valuables when one has to gate check. Put all valuables in a small "what if" pouch. If you are told you have to gate check your carry-on, pull out this "what if" pouch from the carry-on and put it in your personal item bag.

Tabernash2

Christina, many times I've been on flights where they wanted to gate check carry-ons, but not because they were oversize.

Because the overheads were full.

On some flights, I didn't mind, because I may have been carrying on a bag, instead of paying to check it as a second one. In that case, I had packed appropriately and I saved money.

But usually that is not the case when we fly.

happytourist

I would check the bags, but still use carryon size. The only time I had a problem was once flying from Dallas through Chicago to Frankfurt, when a thunderstorm messed up the plane schedule and my bag didn't make it to Germany. However, it came in on the next flight and was delivered to me (via Deutsche Post) at my hotel in St. Goar by 8am the next morning.

You asked about brands: My suitcase is a Victorinox Werks carryon and has held up perfectly for almost fifteen years of travel. You can usually find it on sale somewhere online.

As for souvenirs, buy a few Irish linens in Dublin (lace coasters are nice) and small usable items like magnets, pens, small notebooks and earrings. Personally, I bring back a few miniatures, the smaller the better, and have fun searching for the smallest item I can find (the Seattle Needle, Eiffel Tower, crucifix from the Vatican, etc.). I display them in a printer's tray mounted on the wall. Don't spend a lot of time on this problem--you're supposed to be having a good time seeing Europe, not sweating over buying trinkets because you feel you have to.

Andrew

I always plan ahead in case I need to check my carry-on bag and am forced to carry on only my camera bag. My laptop is small enough to fit in the camera bag, and I can re-arrange to fit everything valuable in there. I've only had to do it once - on a very full KLM flight from Milan to Amsterdam, where we had a student sports team flying with us and they all had big carry-ons.

My carry-on is a larger roller bag that still fits vertically in the overhead bin of a 737, so it's not one of the huge ones. I've never been questioned about carrying it on (other than that one time on KLM, when an agent requested it) on KLM, Air France, and Croatia Airlines flights within Europe not to mention Delta and American getting to Europe. On a Eurolot flight from Amsterdam to Gdansk on a prop plane, everyone put their bigger bags on a cart as we boarded the plane and simply picked them up by the plane as we got off in Gdansk. My bag seemed about average size compared to everyone else's though it's technically a little larger than most airlines' stated size limits.

Before I switched to carry-ons only, I used to pack way too much. Having a constraint to fit everything ONLY in two bags for 2-3 weeks is a huge help in narrowing down what you REALLY need. I've done it five times now and it has worked out well.

Mimar

Well, Cristina may never had to lift a bag overhead on a train ride, but I have. More than once on my train travels in Scotland, England, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. This is more likely on smaller, regional or local trains rather than fast trains between big cities. Ditto stairs down to or up to the tracks at non-terminus stations. Though I was surprised to arrive at Brussels and have to carry our bags up a grand staircase in the main terminal. Oh, and, arriving in Rome, we went to an alternate train station in Rome because it had an elevator only to discover the elevator was out of order. Up the stairs with all the stuff for my son's semester abroad. Sometimes, if the train's not very full, you can leave your bag down, on the floor or on a seat.

annhig

You get to passport control ahead of passengers with checked bags if you carry on. >>

as hetismij says, that's not right. you pass through passport control before you get to baggage reclaim, so we are all equal opportunity travellers at that point.

I find nowadays that by the time we've disembarked the aircraft, and walked what seems like miles through the airport to immigration, by the time we've got to the luggage carousel the bags have arrived.

and I have ended up sitting on my case on the train from Pisa to Florence - I was glad that it was a substantial one.