Month: June 2025

Harry did say he’d only return to the U.K. for a court case or a funeral.

For most flights, I pack a carry-on and a tote bag as a personal item. For a short trip (5 days or less), it’s all the room I need. But sometimes, I need to check a bag. It’s not the nightmare it was when fees were high and lost bags were common. If you’re a committed carry-on-only traveler, here are reasons why you should consider checking a larger suitcase on your next trip.

Fee-Free and Peace of Mind

Like many fliers, I became a carry-on convert when airlines began charging fees for checking bags. Paying an additional $35-$50 for a convenience I’d grown used to seemed unfair. It took me a while to get used to traveling lighter. I’ve mastered it now. My reliable TravelPro Maxlite 5 spinner holds a ton when loaded strategically with packing cubes, and it’s never too heavy to hurl into the overhead bins.

Another reason travelers abandoned checking bags was to avoid lost luggage. Nothing kills a trip faster than realizing your bag is never going to slide down the chute onto the carousel.

But it’s growing increasingly easy to avoid both luggage fees and lost baggage.

Free checked luggage is a perk of many premium airline credit cards and frequent flier programs. I choose JetBlue whenever possible, and a free checked bag is one of the benefits for me and up to 3 traveling companions.

And, according to SITA, a leading provider of technology solutions for airlines, lost bags per 1,000 have decreased by 63% since 2007 despite surging passenger numbers. They cite improved digitization, increased use of biometrics and AI as reasons for the decrease.

Also read, Best Way to Use Packing Cubes – You’ll Never Travel Without Them Again!

Check It or Carry On?

I try to decide whether I’ll be packing a large suitcase or a carry-on a week or so before my trip. It helps me plan outfits, shoes and toiletries, so I’m less likely to forget an essential item like my eyeglasses. If I’m going with a checked bag, I need to venture into the attic. My wheelie bag lives on the top shelf of my closet so it’s ready to go when I am!

Another thing to keep in mind if you decide to check your bag is to make sure you have a well-attached luggage tag updated with your recent address, phone and email information.

Here are the five reasons why I think checking a bag is better than traveling with a carry-on.

Security Is a Breeze

TSA PreCheck eliminated much of my security stress. However, when I travel with a carry-on, I still ask if I need to remove my laptop and liquids. I need to scramble for multiple bins. And I’m always concerned that I’ve forgotten something. When my suitcase is checked, I slide my laptop out of my tote, pass through the scanner and move on my way.

Bring All the Things

Packing a carry-on involves making a series of decisions. This sweater or that one? These sandals or those? It works for me most of the time since I’ve realized that no one cares what I’m wearing. But, for other trips, I like the flexibility to bring more shoes or full-sized toiletries. And I don’t have to overstuff a carry-on, so there’s always room for souvenirs.

Less Schlepping

I’ve been taking more solo trips since I’m retired and my husband, family and friends are still working. It’s wonderful, but I’m frequently navigating airports on my own. So there’s no one to watch my bag while I dart into the restroom. If you’ve tried to wheel your bag into a bathroom stall, you understand the hassle.

No Overhead Bin Drama

Not boarding until Zone 5? The overhead bin space will be gone by then, and your bag will be gate-checked. Perhaps you’ll get lucky and be able to pick it up on the ramp. But, there’s always the possibility you’ll end up at the baggage carousel. When you check your bag, you can board with your hands free and not have to fight for your right to stow.

Special Occasions

You plan on hiking. Or you’re going to a destination wedding. Maybe you’re traveling for two or three weeks. There are times when you need to travel with bulky items, things that need special care or just more stuff. I visit family overseas several times a year. They always have a list of “please bring if you have the room” items. And that’s when a checked bag becomes a trip-saver.

Also check out Best 9 Carry-on Rolling Suitcases.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

Do you carry on or check your bag? Has your luggage been lost on a flight? Is your favorite bag a classic neutral or fun color?

Perfect for that beach belfie.

One of the things I’ve noticed about getting older is my tendency to try and keep things neat and predictable. I often long for a life that requires few changes and gives me plenty of time to control my own environment. I get it that this is a pipe dream, but it’s also not what’s really best for me.

After a lifetime of living, working and playing with other people, I know at least a couple of things are true:

First, other people can make you crazy with their emotional ups and downs and their changeable lives, and second, without them, my own life may feel more in my control, but it is much less rich.

So, despite the countless times we may feel disrupted by our friends and family, the real beauty of life comes from connection.

Connecting Gives Us a Fuller View of the World

As much as I might want to hole up and live my life in peace and solitude, it is by connecting with other people that I can see and experience the world as it really is.

And why wouldn’t I want to do that?

Sure, sometimes it drives us nuts having to put up with other people’s schedules and habits, but we learn about our environment by involving ourselves with it, not by retreating.

If we stand next to a stranger at a bus stop, simply asking them how their day is going can start a conversation. From those first words, the chances are very great that we will learn something we didn’t know before. Not bad for the price of a bus ticket.

Connecting Develops Our Empathy

To truly connect with another person, we need to listen – both to their verbal and their nonverbal communication. We need to see and feel what they are seeing and feeling. This is real connection.

With it comes an authentic understanding, not only of who that person is, but what it feels like to be him or her. As a result, we share on a much more meaningful level, and we come away from the interaction feeling as if we have truly connected with someone else.

As botanist and inventor George Washington Carver once said, “Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the wrong. Sometime in life you will have been all of these.”

Each of these acts requires connection and results in connection.

Connecting Expands Our Creativity

When we are willing to see connections that we might not immediately notice if we’re simply going through the motions and engaged in superficial relationships, we get creative. If we let other people in, we almost always learn a new way to think or solve a problem.

If we remove our self-imposed barriers and let ourselves connect, we get to see unique ways of doing things and more significant links between people, ideas and relationships.

This reminds me of the old adage that “two heads are better than one.” I’ve rarely come up with a better idea or solution alone than I have with another person, even if I was reluctant at first to ask for help.

Connecting Teaches Us About Ourselves

Making a real connection with another person can be the only mirror we’ll ever need. If I stay isolated from other people, I may feel as if I have more control over my environment, but I also have no way of really knowing how I’m being perceived and understood in the world.

If I am a little afraid of connecting or engaging, it’s easy to make up some strange ideas about the way people see me.

When I’m brave enough to have truthful relationships, it definitely helps me to see myself better and to understand how people see me. I certainly don’t have to change to please them, but it can help me to see parts of myself I might not be aware of.

Connecting Reminds Us That We Are Better Together

Naturalist John Muir once said, “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” This is true for people, too. When we meet the challenges of the world together, we have the history, wisdom and resources of at least two people, if not many more.

Avoiding these connections because we are tired or overwhelmed may make sense on an immediate, practical level, but in the long run, it’s the human connection that keeps us strong and moving forward.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

What is the main thing that keeps you from connecting? How can you get yourself past that? What group or individual do you think you could connect with more regularly? Please ponder on this in the comments below.

Fans missed this side of “shady Miley.”