Tag: suitcase

How To Know For Sure Your Carry-On Bag Will Fit In The Overhead, Before You Board The Plane

It’s happened to a lot of people – they bring their carry on onto the plane and when they try to put it into the overhead compartment, it doesn’t fit.

So they have to take the walk of shame back to the gate so they can gate check their bag. For others, you have a crabby gate attendant who insists your bag won’t fit in the overhead, even though you know darn well that it will (this one happened to me. And then it happened another time.). Either way, if you have to gate check a bag that you weren’t planning on checking, you run the risk of their breaking your stuff in it that you packed with the idea that YOU were going to handle it, not them (that one happened to me, too. It didn’t end well – I had to vacuum glass shards out of my suitcase).

But travel search engine KAYAK may have invented the solution for this problem, utilizing augmented reality (AR), with an app that measures your bag before you board, which can then be compared to the exact size requirements of your plane. Take a look at how it works:

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The Airlines Most Likely To Lose, Misdirect Or Damage Your Luggage (& What To Do If It Happens)

It’s happened to everyone at some point. You arrive in Austin on American Airlines, while your checked luggage arrives in Boise (that really did happen to us, several years ago. They got the bag to us about 12 hours later). Or you arrive at JFK on United and your 4-wheeled bag now has 3 wheels…or a rip…or a dent (that happened to me too, 20+  years ago). Or you arrive in San Francisco on SouthWest and your bag just…disappears. Forever (Well, eventually they’ll find it, but if they can’t figure out who it belongs to, like if your luggage tag broke off and there’s no airline sticker on the bag, it’ll eventually wind up at this place. You don’t want it to go there.).

As it turns out, there’s a group paying attention to, not only how often peoples’ bags are lost, misdirected or damaged, but also which airlines do the most and least amounts of losing, misdirecting and damaging. Of course, trying to figure out the U.S. Department of Transportations’ (USDT) info is like searching for a needle in a haystack, but luckily another group has done the hard work for us.

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How To Fold A Suit So It Doesn’t Wrinkle In Your Suitcase

When Joe and I travel, there’s a rare occasion where he’ll have to bring a suit. We may be going to a wedding, a funeral or (humblebrag alert) we have this cool gig where we sometimes have the opportunity to sing in a choir at Lincoln Center or Carnegie Hall (yes, really!).

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BTW, the 2 people singing out front? Nikki Renée Daniels and Quentin Earl Darrington:-)

Anyway, Joe always brings his suit with him as a carry-on, because it’s the only one he’s bringing and we can’t risk it getting lost. However, if that wasn’t the case, he’d be happy to pack it in his checked luggage. Well, except for the fact that it’d get pretty wrinkled. But now that doesn’t even have to be a factor. Take a look:

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How To Guarantee Your Suitcase Will Be Easy To Find In A Sea of Luggage

If you ever looked at my suitcase, you’d laugh at all the crap I have on it to make it stand out from all the other bags. Above all, I made sure I did NOT choose black when I bought most recent big suitcase…it’s navy blue. I also have 2 Buc-ee’s luggage tags on it, as well as a set of Hoops & YoYo luggage tags. Plus a shoelace from when I had PacMan sneakers in the 1980s, AND a bright pink dog collar around a handle on top. So yeah…easy to see, easy to find in a crowd. But I think I just found something that would make finding luggage not only easier to find, but also a whole lot less likely to be stolen:

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Luggage Review: American Tourister (Under The Seat, “Personal Bag” Size) 4 Kix Rolling Tote

When Joe went on his (very first) business trip a while back, I decided to surprise him and show up at his hotel the day after he arrived. My goals were (A) to do it as cheaply as possible and (B) for him to be surprised and not find out ahead of time (which, under our circumstances, was not a simple task). I’m happy to say that both goals were accomplished ;-).

You can read about my entire planning process and how it all went if you’d like (I must say it was, to date, the best surprise I ever pulled off). But this post is moreso about the luggage I used during the trip.

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