Thanks for a great comment! Russ, if you’ve been monitoring the thread, I’d be curious as to your reaction. kc

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…

In the end, it’s all up to your comfort zone and personal style of travel.

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.

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….