The tiny nail scissors have to do with them being prohibited in Europe (or at least in France, where I surrendered mine) but not in the U.S.---in the U.S. you can now carry quite substantial blades (up to, I believe, 3" in length, but I should check that). So it's not just airlines but governments whose requirements vary.

Which reminds me to check Japan's equivalent of TSA...

Whew.

Checked Narita's web site:

http://www.narita-airport.jp/en/whats_new/070209.html

Looks like I'm good with the usual set of restrictions re liquids, etc.

Does anybody know if I can download movies to my iPhone?

scotlib,I think you want to know what I pack? Well for my normal 12 day trip, 1 cotton pants, bottom of bag. 13 pair socks, 13 shorts. 2 t-shirts, 2 long sleeve, button down shirts. Lined gloves and skull cap.

Fold up umbrella and plastic poncho.
Side pockets of bag I use for plastic bag of small sized shaving cream, deodorant,comb, tooth paste and tooth brush. Packet of pills. Couple of candy bars and a paper back book.

My gym bag has a shoulder strap which allows me to swing it back onto my back allowing me to walk with it as needed.

I wear the only sweater I take and my camera fits into my jacket pocket.

If I forgot or need anything I head to a "Boots" drug store.

Roger's list looks like a pretty typical low maintenance casual guy wardrobe. As you see later on, my version of packing light is a bit more, um, elaborate. I could travel this light, of course, but I don't, but because then I'd feel a bit deprived.

Thanks for the list, rogeruktm.

My final list will be a bit different, of course, but I will be going pretty low toward rogeruktm's list, Therese, because the 13 pounds mentioned earlier included the weight of the bag.

My flight home is on Virgin Atlantic. The carry on policy allows the (mostly) standard 22x14x9 inches but weight is restricted to 13#.

I knew the restriction when I booked. I wanted to try going that light.

I've bought a Western Flyer from tombihn.com. It's 18x12x7 inches and about 2 lb. Virgin also allows a handbag/purse, though it cannot be seen as being (from the web site) "used as a container for the transportation of articles which could otherwise be regarded as baggage."

Not entirely sure, but I assume that means it cannot be a huge tote though going light I would not want to lug anything huge, lol. I have a few options kicking around the house to consider.

Now, back to looking forward to your planning, Therese! Cheers.

That bag looks great, scotlib. Very similar to the backpack style Victorinox (Victorinox Standard Traveler 3.0 Standard Overnighter) that I got at ebags for my last trip and then decided not to use since I found the shoulder straps too long to use comfortably (but turns out to be perfect for my teenage son). Your bag is presumably better suited to a female frame.

Since Virgin permits a separate personal item you shouldn't have any trouble at all, since your toiletries bag (relatively heavy) can go in your purse, along with your meds, camera and jewelry if you carry any when you travel. The UK's particularly easy, as you'll have no trouble finding brands you recognize if you want to skip dealing with things like shampoo and deodorant on the trip. You could even start using Boots brands now, as Target sells a number of them.

You've also got a huge advantage over rogeruktm when it comes to underwear and socks/stockings: women's are smaller to begin with, and typically made of much lighter weight fabric. A single pair of my husband's socks weighs as much as several pairs of my tights, and a single pair of his (cotton knit) boxers weighs more than two weeks of my panties.

Upthread I posed the following question:

Does anybody know if I can download movies to my iPhone?

The answer appears to be "yes", but I'm doing a trial run at the moment, downloading a rental of "Transsiberian" from iTunes. My first download ever, so I had to set up an iTunes account, etc. It seems to be taking about as long to download as it will take to watch it (and that's via fairly fast connection).

You might well wonder why I'm interested in this particular piece of technology, and that answer lies in my itinerary: a total of 38 hours in the air, all of it in coach, and on various airlines on various sorts of equipment.

I've previously described how you can go about figuring out what to expect in the way of in flight entertainment, but since this is a new thread I'll go through it again.

The first place you'll want to look is the airline's own web site. In my case I'm flying on 4 different airlines, so that's 4 different sites. I'm not really all that interested in what the airlines have to say about their in flight entertainment, as it's typically just vague enough that you can't quite figure out exactly what will be on a particular flight. Options include nothing at all, movies projected on overhead screens, movies projected on personal screens that start at set times, and movies (and often other amusements) that can be ordered "on demand" (AVOD).

What I really want to find out is what sort of plane the airline expects to use on the flight, and what the seat map looks like for that equipment. The latter point becomes important when you realize that airlines often have more than one sort of configuration for a particular model of plane, so just knowing that it's a Boeing 767 won't be enough to really tell you much.

Next stop: seatguru.com

Actually, before we visit seatguru.com I'll tell you about another nifty site that can help: flightstats.com. You can plug in the flight number and date and get all sorts of information about the flight, including the scheduled equipment and the actual equipment.

You needn't even bother going to the site, though: just google the flight number (first two letter and the number) and it will find it for you. If it's a code share it will show those flight numbers as well, and sometimes that's a good way of figuring out which configuration it is, as one airline's seat map may be more detailed than another's.

So, once you're at seatguru.com you navigate to the airline, find the equipment, and compare the various versions (if there's more than one, obviously) to the seatmap info. Seatguru is by no means infallible, but by and large I find it very helpful.

As a result, I anticipate the following in the way of in flight entertainment:

ATL to CDG on a DL 767-300ER, 8 hrs: overhead projection

CDG to NRT on an AF 777-300 (or possibily -200 as per flightstats.com), 12 hrs:
personal TV (looks like it's on demand)

NRT to LAX on a NW 747-400, 10 hrs:
overhead projection

LAX to MEX on a AM 737, 4 hrs:
overhead projection

MEX to ATL on a DL 757, 4 hrs:
AVOD

So the longest leg is on AF (Air France), and that's good, because the flight's so long that I'd be hard-pressed to make my iPhone battery last that long (and the seats in economy don't have power to recharge it).

The next longest is on NW, and I'm either going to want to be able to use my iPhone or have a stand-alone DVD player along to help pass the time.

I'll have layover at LAX during which time I can re-charge my iPhone.

Time to go see how quickly my iPhone runs down when I watch a movie now...

Hi Therese-

As usual, I love to follow your threads on packing light. Have you ever considered creating a blog for all this info?

In looking at the tombinh website I saw a link to this site which you might find interesting:
http://www.1bag1world.com/
It's all about packing light. Lots of reviews of different products there too.

Nice site, Kristina, with lots of good advice, particularly if you want to go "ultra light." I think of myself more as "high maintenance light" in that I don't want to be slightest bit inconvenienced. Maybe I should call "lazy light." As for blogging, this is about as close as it gets.

My test run using my iPhone to watch a movie is finished, and here are the results:

1. Downloading a feature length film ("Transsiberian", which I quite enjoyed and you can check out here: http://www.firstlookmedia.com/films/transsiberian/) from iTunes took at least 30 minutes (sorry, didn't time it) and cost $3.99. Rentals from iTunes remain viewable for 30 days from the date of rental, and automatically delete 24 hours after you start watching. Movies that aren't recent releases are cheaper, at $2.99 per rental. You can also purchase movies, but I never watch a movie (on purpose, anyway) more than once.

2. Transferring the movie to my iPhone via "sync" took a couple of minutes. In order to download a movie to my iPhone directly I'd have to be on wifi rather than 3G, and I don't know how long that would take (and would obviously depend on the wifi signal).

3. The picture quality was excellent (apart from the small size, of course), and you can adjust the volume and reverse and fast forward just as you would with a DVD.

4. I used my Bose headphones to listen, but any decent quality ones should work. I'm looking into getting some small lightweight in-ear headphones to replace my Bose on-ear noise-cancelling ones. Or I should say that my husband is looking into it, as he's apparently getting me a pair for Christmas. Or possibly for my birthday, which is also coming up very soon. Not only are these smaller, but they don't require they're own power, so no battery or charger to think about.

5. My battery didn't even seem to notice that I'd watched a nearly two hour (111 minutes, to be exact) movie.

6. The iPhone hard drive is large, but not so large that I could store a huge number of movies on it. I also plan on putting music on it, so we'll see how much space I'll have left. I'm thinking maybe six movies.

One of the most frequent questions I get is "what about your laptop?" Well, in spite of the fact that much of my travel is work-related, and my work is very tech-intense, I don't need one, and in fact don't even own one. Instead I have the files that I need (typically PowerPoint presentations) on a flash drive and just internet cafes to stay in touch with work and family as needed. None of my travel (so far) is to areas that are so remote that anybody would be anxious about my staying in constant touch, so I don't usually even both with a cell phone.

But now that I've got the iPhone, I'll be able to skip even the internet cafe, as I can use the wifi option to check email anywhere. Do note that you want to turn off the roaming, as the iPhone will normally be "on" all the time, with potential for ridiculously large bills from overseas phone services.

I haven't yet decided whether to bother to activate international roaming for phone calls on my iPhone. Three different countries to consider, possibly three different types of networks, etc. Any experience with this?

Hmm, wonder if I could use skype?

i wish i were a 'carry-on'person
i wish i were a wash and wear kinda person

alas
i dont even carryon when the stewardess manages to spill the entire drink tray in my lap

i remain quite composed

but hey
theres hope for me
maybe one day when im older and greyer
i will simply wear all of my clothes in layers and strip off as the weather gets warmer
( gotta make sure i book the ticket in the right direction though)

i will follow this thread with interest!

As a photographer carry on only is impossible for me. My camera and lenses are my carry on.

Depending on the definition of "carry on" in play, there some that I'm happy to be, and some that I'm glad that I'm not, lanejohann.

For instance, when told that my carry on luggage won't fit in the overhead bin, I don't carry on as if the world were coming to an end, but simply carry on, serene in the knowledge that I tried my very best.

Hetismij's issue with photographic equipment is one of the more common ones when it comes to packing carry-on only, but I'm guessing it doesn't prevent her (somewhere along the line I formed the opinion that you're female, so please excuse if that's incorrect) from packing efficiently. Seems like it would be all the more important to keep the rest of your personal things pretty streamlined if you've also got a bag of heavy, fragile things to pull around.

Out curiosity, hetismij, what is the aggregate weight and volume of your photo equipment?

Oh I am glad you are posting this. I love these threads

Hetismij

DH is a photographer and refuses to travel without a large bag of heavy equipment. It irks me, but hey, what can I say? It pays the bills.

But we still do carry on only. He has to take a smaller piece of luggage, and crams it quite full. I don't know how he does it, but he does. I've seen undies and socks in the camera bag.

We used to check out bags on the journey home, until last May, when long waits for luggage, as well as immigration and customs, in Dulles, where every international flight arrived at exactly the same time, made us, and most other folks, miss their connecting flights.

United wasn't accomodating anyone on flights until the next day, and our bags were somewhere in the airport. We rented a car to drive home (at least 4 hours) and had to beg for someone to find our luggage. I cried a lot, which may or may not have helped. We finally got our bags, but it was three or four hours of horrible tension in the airport.

DH is a bear over travel glitches and the entire thing was just disgusting.

So when we leave Paris in February, I am mailing home everything heavy and dirty. If we get stuck someplace, I'll have what I need with me.

It's looking like a very Merry Christmas indeed. My scottevest just arrived and it's just exactly as it's pictured on the website:

http://www.scottevest.com/

The manufacturer describes it as close-fitting, and it is. I went with the small, but would have been comfortable in the medium as well (without sacrificing too much in the way of streamlined-ness), and if I wanted to put bulky items in it I'd definitely go with the larger size. If you tend towards the busty, or have a tummy, definitely go with the larger size, as it's fitted through the waist, with side vents to flare a little over the hips. The princess seams really are quite slimming, and the mandarin collar does not stand up too high, and is lined in soft material (so no problem with itchiness).

tuscanlifeedit: sounds like you've experienced exactly the sort of checked luggage fiasco that leads so many of us to look closely at what we really need to cart along with us when we travel.

At this point I'm quite sure that I could manage with a much lighter load than I presently do, but for now don't bother to go quite that light. Unless, of course, we count that time that I traveled to Toronto on business with nothing but the clothes on my back, toiletries, and an empty carry-on.

Well, and my pillow. That's the one thing I'd have trouble giving up. Hmm, I betting that I could compress it very, very flat (it's latex foam) in a sealed plastic bag and fit it in the back compartment of my scottevest. Storage and lumbar support in one.