I use an Eagle Creek roller for travel. Then I sling my computer over my shoulder in a separate bag with my Kindle, various chargers, wires, some papers. I never check.I’d love the idea of switching to a bag like the Aeronaut but worry about carrying an even heavier bag on my shoulder than the computer I’m always toting. Especially when I’m walking between planes. How bad is carrying vs. rolling. Rolling is easy. Carrying seems hard. What’s the attraction? Is it worth it?
Here’s my response:
Russ,
Thanks for writing. A very interesting, simple and direct question! Bottom line, I’m frankly not super hung up on what kind of bag people use or whether they carry one bag or two. For me, I have 2 really important goals when it comes to travel: I prefer to never check bags if at all possible, and I want to travel as simply and with as light a load as possible. Everything else is secondary.
In my own travels I tend toward one soft sided, non-wheelie bag, but my situation might be quite different than yours. 99.9% of my travel is business casual or casual, and most of my trips are 2-3 days long. I usually leave the laptop home and bring a netbook – or no computer; I have a BlackBerry to help me keep up with emails. As far as business “stuff” is concerned, I’ll just bring along a simple padfolio, a jump drive, and perhaps a couple of folders. (The USB drive for presentations, using someone else’s laptop at the meeting.) I do the whole lightweight/washable clothing thing as much as possible. I’ve cut out all the non-essential crap from my packing list. As a result, I enjoy the freedom of walking through airports with just one bag slung over my shoulder or on my back.
I used a wheelie for years, but I grew tired of having to navigate through crowds,
down aisles, and over curbs with it, hoisting it into overheads, or having to gate check it. The turning point for me came when I was packing to go to a trade show for a couple of days and realized the wheeled duffel was overkill and totally unnecessary. So I used an inexpensive daypack instead, and never looked back.
Only afterward did I discover Doug Dyment’s onebag.com site; I started trying bundle packing and bought an Air Boss shortly thereafter.
In terms of your specific question re the Aeronaut, only you can figure out if it makes sense. If you’re interested in pursuing this avenue, I’d recommend you consider the following:
I’d first cast a critical eye on everything you carry and see if there are opportunities for minimizing the stuff you bring along. Then, figure out how much the things that make the cut weigh, exclusive of the bag: clothing, gear, laptop, etc. Any soft sided bag that’s durable is going to weigh somewhere around 3-4 lbs. If your gear + the bag weighs more than 14 lbs. or so, (my opinion only here) you’re getting to the point where the bag definitely needs to have backpack straps. I personally don’t like taking long walks with 15+ lbs. suspended by a strap on my shoulder. I’ve ended up irritating (muscle spasms) my lower back 3 or 4 times doing this over the last decade or so. Not fun.
In the final analysis, it depends upon the nature of your travel and what you want and value. Once I realized I could get away with traveling light, usually with one bag, I loved it. For me, it’s liberating. It’s also fun – I get a kick out of trying to pare back things to a minimum and pack as efficiently as possible. And, finally, a reality check: I occasionally will travel with two bags, using my Metro or PR4 as my computer/business stuff bag. But I keep it as light as possible!
Let me know what you think, and I’d be happy to provide any help I can. I’m sure other readers could chip in as well. Would you mind if I posted this as a Q&A type post? Thanks.
Kevin
Obviously, Russ agreed with my posting this. Would you like to add your thoughts via commenting? If you’re a committed one bagger, how would you address his questions? And even if you travel with more than one bag, it’d be great if you could chime in with some advice for Russ.
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December 18th, 2009 at 8:01 AM
Kevin,
I definitely agree. My weight limit is about 18 lbs, and if what I MUST pack for THAT trip weighs more, then I will explore either a wheelie bag, or check a bag. I too use an AirBoss as much a possible, and I have worked to lighten my load so that I can do true one bag travel. I am not as relentless as Doug Dyment has been, but I have looked at what I carry and I have made conscious choices in trading off wieght for convience. Like you, most of my travel is business or business casual, and 2-3 days. Whne I have had to travel for longer, or required something other than business or business casual, I’ve been forced to check. Luckily the delay that I suffered by having to check a bag, didn’t really delay me bacause I was traveling with others who check normally and would have had to wait anyways. Its been said already, its all about the trade-offs that you’re willing to make.
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December 18th, 2009 at 9:29 AM
IMHO if you must carry heavy, a wheelie is the only way to go. In fact a 22″ wheelie is my preferred check through bag.
That having been said, the size and weight restrictions for carryon on my international flights are becoming difficult to comply with, and impossible to comply with when rolling a wheelie on board. The base weight of the wheelie is simply too great!
Also, the frame and wheels on a wheelie cut into available volume. If you are carrying heavy, dense items with no carryon weight limit, this isn’t a problem; but if you are traveling to Europe in winter from, say, San Diego, you’ll probably be packing some warm overlayers (instead of wearing them, the first option)and these are so bulky you really need an AirBoss sized, no wasted space, carryon piece.
So – traveling heavy, use a wheelie, traveling light, use a shoulder bag or, better yet, dual strap, backpack style suitcase.
BTW on my last Asian trip I used an 18″ Briggs & Riley wheelie + a Patagonia Lightwire Brief shoulder bag as my personal bag. It meant I had to REALLY off load heavy items temporarily into my shoulder bag to pass the 15 pound weigh in limit at the ticket counter. My checked bag, in that instance, was an ultralight, ultrasimple RedOxx Small Aviator, which is no more than a fabric suitcase.
Although that trial run with a reduced size, lightweight wheelie worked for me, the benefits of reduced weight on my body through the terminals was offset by the types of inconveniences Kevin noted, especially negotiated airplane aisles and wielding it into the overhead.
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Michael W. Reply:
December 18th, 2009 at 12:25 PM
I would add that there is a world of difference between short, focused business trips such as the types that Kevin takes, vs. vacation travel which is less frequent and more likely to be full of surprises. The types of trips Kevin takes can be pulled off with a daypack…amazing.
I can travel that light too – on a weekend car trip.
But it gets tougher on an international flight, gone for 10 days. I like to have a netbook handy, and if I am moving once on the ground, sinkwashing doesn’t always have time to dry even room service can’t turn laundry around enough, that’s when extra clothing comes in handy…and also when it’s REALLY nice to have a “one bag” (and maybe a truly small personal bag) that you can keep on your lap in a minibus, so you don’t have to worry about theft from the luggage compartment at rest stops etc. When you want to be REALLY mobile you’ve gotta have the ability to haul your whole world around with you, with as little fuss and back strain as possible. A wheelie just won’t ride on the bus with me….
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December 18th, 2009 at 3:41 PM
I cannot but second what the others have said. The comfort limit rule of thumb for shoulder carry is about 10% of your body weight. I’d say Kevin probably weighs more than 140lbs but his decision is to keep it on the really comfortable side. :)
My briefcase will often weigh around 14lbs when packed with all the goodies. So forget about onebagging it because first that would drive the weight up to way over 20lbs and second there wouldn’t be a practical way of packing all this because the organization features I have in the briefcase are not really there in something like the Aeronaut or Airboss. Then the access to the items, be it the office items or the clothes, would be difficult and wrinkle free packing, too. I guess, if you do a casual trip for one or two nights it is possible to get away with taking just a change of clothes inside a big laptop bag. But for everything else two bags are practically de rigueur because it would look a little strange to show up to a meeting with an Aeronaut on your shoulder.
Shoulder carrying more than 20lbs is really tough on your back. The max I did was 30lbs. Not again. How stupid was I?
So, to sum it up, if Russ is already traveling without checking luggage and his way of traveling works for him, I see no need for any action that would only cost him money and where he would have to make some serious efforts to make it work. I almost bet he won’t be able to reduce the weight of all the items he needs to take to 14lbs excluding a bag. And even then, he’d still have the “look” problem mentioned above.
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December 18th, 2009 at 4:26 PM
I’d agree with Michael that where you are going should play into it. If I knew I wouldn’t need to carry my bag up flights of stairs or onto multiple modes of public transit, I’d probably stick with a roller. But, if I needed to move around a lot, or needed to get onto trains and buses and subways, well, I’d probably go sans wheels. Also, since many international flights have weight limits, that may decide for me whether I can take a wheeled bag without checking it.
In the end, it’s all up to your comfort zone and personal style of travel.
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December 19th, 2009 at 3:21 AM
Hi Russ, Kevin, and others,
The one-bag thing started for me a couple of years ago. I took 34 flights within 1 year, in Europe, always for business. For me, carry-in wheelie plus laptop bag was a must. As long as yo walk flat within the airport, it’s fine. But when you have to go up and down stairs, in the subway, across grass areas etc… it tends to be a hassle to carry both bags together, or split them for each stairs. When I was about to buy a carry-on wheelie with back straps (Samsonite, as far as I remember, no joke), I stopped flying so much in Europe.
Then 2 years ago, I was in China for 1 week (business), with one big 70-liter suitcase backpack and a laptop bag. I met there a colleague who travelled with 1 carry-on wheely only, including laptop, for the same period ! Then I started to travel with only 1 bag, discovered Doug Dyment, etc… Since, I was 1 week in South Asia for business, 2 weeks in Ireland (no laptop), and even 10 days in honeymoon, always with a carry-on convertible bag, without wheels.
My point of view about wheels : “Wheels are evil” :-). They make noise, are heavy and use room that could be used for other purpose.
That said, the main issue is the weight of your laptop, and the purpose of your travel. On one hand, if you have a big 17” widescreen laptop with extra battery like me, be careful with the weight. It is more comfortable to have back straps when you stroll through airports, cities and customer facilities.
On the other hand, if you travel for business, the backpack does not look professional. If you don’t care of your appearance, that’s fine. But sometimes customers do. In this case, a business-like shoulder bag is better. Or a black suitcase-shape convertible like a Tatonka or a OCK. But the internal organization of the bag is minimalist.
My strategy was until now to use a convertible carry-on, with a padded laptop sleeve plus a light thin shoulder bag like the ones you get for free on the fairs. It works fine for me, but the main issues are at security checks, when you have to unpack yout laptop, and when you have
to pick up something in your bag in the cabin topcase, or during a meeting : a mess !
Only shoulder carrying is OK, and I take backstraps out only for loooong walks. I tested it with 2 different convertible carry-on bags. When the bag is too eavy on one shoulder, I put the strap across the chest and can walk like this. But I am young (30) and fit (185, 80kg). That is why I indulged myself an Airboss for Christmas…
To put it in a nutshell, Russ, you could start with a (cheap) convertible carry-on. Only if you can travel twice with laptop without the back straps , invest in a good shoulder bag (and a good strap) like a Airboss…
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Kevin Reply:
December 20th, 2009 at 8:48 PM
Jonathan,
Thanks for a great comment! Russ, if you’ve been monitoring the thread, I’d be curious as to your reaction. kc
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