Fourteen days, carry-on only: the case for travelling light

The real argument

The case for carry-on only is almost never about the packing. It's about optionality.

When your inbound runs late and you've got a 50-minute connection, a checked bag is the thing that decides whether you make it. When your flight is cancelled at 11pm and the queue is 200 people long, the passengers who get rebooked onto the last seat on the 6am are the ones whose bags aren't already in the system. When you land and the carousel doesn't deliver — roughly 6 bags per 1,000 passengers, which sounds small until it's yours — you're in a taxi and gone.

We book a lot of complex multi-city itineraries. The clients who travel carry-on only are, without exception, the ones who have the fewest bad days.

What actually makes it work

It isn't discipline. It's three decisions made once:

• One colour palette. Everything goes with everything. This is the whole trick, and it does more work than any packing cube ever sold.
• Laundry as a plan, not a failure. A sink wash every four days, or a €15 hotel service. You're not packing for fourteen days; you're packing for four, four times.
• The heavy things go on your body. Boots, coat, the laptop. Cabin baggage limits weigh the bag, not you.

The limits worth knowing

TAP's 8kg cabin allowance is real and is weighed at the gate far more often than it used to be. On Ryanair, easyJet and Wizz Air the trap is different and worse: the free allowance is a small bag that fits under the seat, and the overhead-locker bag you assumed was included is a paid extra tied to priority boarding. Buy it when you book, never at the gate.

The dimension limit matters more than the weight on the American carriers, and the sizer at the gate is not decorative. And on any regional aircraft — anything under about 76 seats — your bag is going in the hold at the airstairs no matter what, so keep the passport and the medication on you.