The carry-on versus the checked bag—no matter the intention, when the time comes to pack, this is the battle that occurs in the mind of every traveler. Each form of luggage has its merits, make no mistake. Take the carry-on, compact and convenient as it is: Going this route immediately edits your packing list, ensuring that nothing beyond what you absolutely need accompanies you to your destination. The carry-on also preserves one's autonomy—upon landing, collect your luggage from the overhead bin and leave the airport. What's not to love?
The checked bag offers its own sort of freedom. Does your trip exceed a week in duration? Do you need to pack multiple outfits per day for special events? Must you bring toiletries that exceed 100 milliliters? Or return with a bottle of wine that does? Into the checked bag your bounty can go—there's plenty of room! That you must part ways with the bag and collect it from the carousel on the other side can either be seen as a temporary relief of responsibility or a daunting loss of control.
To unpack all of the nuances of the decision, give tips on how to make both choices work harder for you, and more, visuals editor Pallavi Kumar, travel bookings editor Alex Erdekian, associate commerce editor Meaghan Kenny, and editorial assistant Charlie Hobbs put their heads together.
Charlie Hobbs: First question—what is your preference? Do you check, or do you carry?
Alex Erdekian: Over the years, I’ve become increasingly anti-checking and pro-carry-on. Whenever I can get away with just the carry-on bag, I'm always pushing that boundary to the limit. But I feel like I'm starting to take it too far, if that makes sense. It's getting stressful. I'm afraid that someone's gonna force me to check a bag at the gate because it's too big. Or, what's actually happened to me during my last travel—overfilling it to the point where that I can't even lift it over my head into the bin, and have to ask someone to help. But I do hate checking a bag. That's where I'm at. That's my dilemma.
CH: Why do you hate it? What brought you to that point?
AE: I'm really impatient. When I land, I really just want to get out of there. Baggage claim is just so slow moving. It is a slow death of torture. So that's part of it. And also, I'm paranoid. I don't trust the airline with my possessions.
CH: Did you bring a carry-on, then, on your recent travels through Europe?
AE: Yeah, I brought a carry-on. And it was a questionably large carry-on. I was forced to check it by Air France. They made me squish it into a box to see if it fit the dimensions. I was toeing the line.
Meaghan Kenny: I’m with you on the anxiety that comes with checking a bag. I'm very pro-carry-on when I can be. My ultimate fear when traveling is losing my baggage. With a carry-on, number one, I have the ease of knowing that my luggage is with me and not in Nowhere Land. I'm not relying on the airline, but also similarly to Alex, I like being able to get off a plane, grab my luggage, and go. I don't really get nervous about not being able to lift it. Most of the time, before I even put my hands on the bag to do it, someone will just offer to help. I see strangers do that a lot.
CH: Chivalry lives on.
MK: When checking a bag recently, I was nervous the whole flight that my luggage was not going to make it. Especially because I had a connecting flight and I was worried that it would not make the connection. I also hate when they make you check your carry-on because they've run out of room on the plane.
CH: Did your checked bag make it? This was your trip to London for the cruise, correct?
MK: Yes, and this trip was just too long to take a carry-on—it was ten days. And when I was flying from Zurich to New York on the way bag, they told me my bag was too long. I guess Swiss Air has different dimensions or something. But they took it somewhere and had other people at the airline look at it, and they were talking in these hushed voices. I didn't know what they were saying. And they took my bag away. I was so afraid I’d never see it again, but then it arrived in New York.
CH: I wasn't even aware that they had dimensional parameters for checked bags.
Pallavi Kumar: Different countries can do that sometimes. And if it's a weird size, they put it into a special sort of hold and it travels separately from the other bags. It’s similar to traveling with pets and ski paraphernelia—all of those go into like these special baggage pools. It's scary, but they get there in the end.
AE: I feel like part of it is airlines trying to like profit off of forcing you to check your bag. So you'll pay them and they're like, nickel and diming you for inches on purpose. Under the guise of like, ”Oh, it doesn't fit?”
PK: But on most international flights, you don't have to pay for checked bag. I mean, Meaghan, did you have to pay for it?
MK: I did not, it was included because I didn't do basic economy. I was just economy.
CH: What is your preference, Pallavi?
PK: I think it depends on a few different things. If it is a domestic flight, and I'm going for a long weekend, I definitely try to carry on. But if it's an international flight, and I'm going for a longer period of time, I'm checking that bag to relieve the anxiety of: I really wanted to wear this shoe or carry that perfume or whatever else. I travel like a snail and take my whole house with me.
Do any of you have a tracking tag? You can track your bag and see exactly where it is. That’s really alleviated my fear about the lost bag. I will say, as well—it’s never lost forever. It always makes its way back to the owner, even if it’s a few days later.
Here's another tip! I always carry my camera with me with a few different lenses and things. There's been times when I've got to the gate on a domestic flight in America where they’ll ask me to check my bag. When I show them the lenses, they usually find some space to take it on. They look at the lenses and they're like, “This is just too much trouble to deal with if it gets broken, so keep it with you.” That’s a good trick, but just be ready to show them because they’ll ask to see it.
The last time I went to India, I traveled for a wedding and needed a lot of checked bags. So it really depends on why you're traveling, and where you're traveling to, and how long you're traveling for. There was a time when I was traveling so much, I could actually pick up a bag and tell you the weight of it and be pretty spot-on. I believe 23 kilos—I don't know what that is in pounds—is the weight limit for checked-in bags. I could tell you whether it was going to be over. That used to be my talent.
CH: That's 50 pounds, which is the standard limit.
MK: There are trips where it's unavoidable, when you’re going for too long and you need to check it in. But I really try to push it with the one personal item as well. I see some people walk around with a little purse or tote bag—that's never going to be me. I'm always going to bring the biggest weekender bag possible and fit as much in there. I’m traveling for a wedding later this summer, and my bridesmaid dress is going to be in the duffel. I am not checking it.
AE: I think the duffel is so key because you don't have to stow it above, so you can bring back a bottle of wine from the country you go to or whatever other special thing.
CH: I might just be operating with wrong information, but if you take a carry-on somewhere, can you bring back a bottle of wine if you don't get it at duty free? My understanding is that, if you want to bring the bottle of wine or vinegar or oil, you need a checked bag which is why I often do it. I love not being subjected to the milliliter limits.
AE: I didn’t bring anything back in my carry-on from Italy.
CH: I wanted to ask you all about this news story from a few months ago: this low-level government official by the name of Sam Brinton who was caught stealing suitcases from baggage claim.
AE: This is my greatest fear.
MK: Charlie, don’t tell me this.
CH: They were caught because they were posting pictures of themself in the stolen clothing, and one woman recognized her clothing and was able to press charges.
AE: But it’s one of those things that you shouldn’t worry about too much because the airport is really one of the most surveilled places on the planet—if your bag gets stolen, there is certainly footage of it. Why would you commit crimes at the airport? Not that you should commit crimes anywhere.
PK: What would you do if someone caught you stealing the bag?
CH: You have a built-in excuse: You say, “Oh, I thought it was mine.” But I would never steal the bag in the first place!
PK: In Bombay, I once came off a flight and picked up my checked bag and got home. When I opened it, nothing inside was mine. I hadn’t checked the name tag; it was just someone else having the same exact bag. I turned around and went back to the airport, and this couple was there freaking out because there was only one bag left on the carousel—and it was mine. They got my cell number from it and called me as I walked in, saying, “You have our bag,” and I said, “I know,” and we swapped bags and they made their connection. Now I have the tag that tracks my bag, which really helps.
AE: I really screwed up by not checking my bag to Italy, actually, because I was packing last minute in panic mode and for some reason threw in a wine key that I was really fond of, which had sentimental value. If I’d checked the bag, I could’ve brought it through but at security they confiscated it. They said, “This is a knife.”
CH: When you check a bag, you have more rights! Okay, any closing advice?
MK: Your checked bag should be a bright color that you can pick out easily!
CH: No navy, no black. Mine is red.
MK: Red is the best color for a checked bag.
