Recently, Chuck’s sister-in-law and several family and friends flew into Orlando and drove over to St. Petersburg to stay overnight with us before their cruise out of Tampa.
A Losing Proposition
As luck would have it her checked luggage was lost by the airline!
For many people on vacation, this is more annoying than a huge inconvenience. In many cases, the luggage appears and is sent to your hotel in a few hours.
However, she was now an hour and a half away from the airport, and as of 10 AM, the next morning would be boarding a ship headed out to sea for 7 days before returning to Orlando.
Ultimately, they tracked her luggage down in Cancun and it would not make it back in time for her departure. So we sent her off on a shopping mission to buy new clothes and toiletries for her cruise.
What’s In Your Carry-On?
We learned a long time ago on a trip from Philly to Walt Disney World to over pack our carryon. It only takes once for your luggage to be “misplaced’ and not arrive until much later that day for you to know to pack a bathing suit and a full change of clothes in your carryon luggage.
Walking around in the same clothes you left Philly in, when it was freezing cold, teaches you a valuable lesson.
Cross Packing
We have talked repeatedly about completely cross packing larger suitcases when we travel and have yet to actually do this.
I can’t imagine what we would have done if upon arriving in Kenya we had one suitcase missing and had to head off to buy clothes for ten days of game drives across several regions of Kenya.
In a few months, we’ll be heading on a group tour to India, visiting seven cities, mostly around the Golden Triangle. We arrive in Delhi about twenty-four hours ahead of the tour and have just one full day before hitting the road.
We ABSOLUTELY swear that we will be cross packing for this trip.
Do you cross pack when you travel?
We definitely cross pack and keep all critical items in our carry-on bags for this reason. Luckily our luggage has only been temporarily lost once and it was on our return flight home, so at least we had other clothes and things at home until they found our bags and returned them!
We just see that lost luggage is happening to people more and more frequently. Better safe than sorry. We don’t want to waste our precious vacation time shopping to replace clothes.
One of my biggest worries when going on holiday is that my luggage will be lost, I learned about cross packing a few years ago so always pack some little essentials in my carry on – just in case
We’ve learned how to pack as many essentials in our carry on as possible! We always look at what can not be replaced or easily replaced where we are traveling.
Cross packing is an excellent idea. I was always down for putting some essentials in the carry on, but have never thought about cross packing. Smart!
I completely agree! I hadn’t heard of the term either, and now I am definitely to keep this in mind next time I travel with my wife or friends. What a great tip.
This is such a great idea. I definitely recommend this too. Especially medication and vitamins, cross packing helps!
Those things are always in our carry-on and NEVER leave our sight!
A few years ago, we learned how to pack light and we rarely ever check a bag anymore. It is unbelievable how little an adult truly needs when traveling. With kids, however, this is a completely different story.
Great idea on cross-packing! Hadn’t considered it so far, but then haven’t lost a bag yet so have been complacent. Better safe than sorry though!
It only takes having them lose your luggage once to learn that lesson.
On our recent trip to India, our transit time was short and the airline (Qatar Airways) did not manage to get our baby’s car seat AND stroller in the city where we landed! Luckily, they were on top of it and the stuff arrived in two days. So in such a situation, we did what we did and just managed (my 6 month old had a lovely cozy ride back home in her great grandma’s arms). But totally agree, cross packing is definitely something worth considering.
Great tips! I have not experienced the misfortunate event of the airport losing luggage, but I still always take precautions. I always tend to overpack my carry on bag and most definitely put all valuables in there. I don’t usually cross pack, but will definitely start doing that. Great tip!
These days I tend to travel with hand luggage only to avoid lost luggage. As a solo traveler cross packing is not an option, but I plan to get a credit card that includes a luggage insurance soon. Never ended up without luggage after 100 flights, but I know it is only a matter of time until it happens
Urgh. It is such a nightmare when your luggage gets lost. It’s a bit scary how often it happens too! Like you, we have discussed cross-packing, but we have never got around to doing it – we really should!
If I can, I try to pack everything into a carry on to make life easier.
Nothing is more scary than losing your luggage at the start of your trip. I usually pack my essentials in hand luggage including a complete set of clothes. And I always do cross packing though luckily never faced a situation till now.
It must be so annoying when your luggage is lost. It is one of the reasons that scares me about air travel.
As a solo traveller, I always try to pack everything into a carry bag so that I can ignore this issue.
We WISH we were able to travel with just a carry-on. We find that even when we scale way down we end up with one small piece that we share.
It sure sucks to lose your luggage. I prefer to travel with just carry-on, whenever I can. Saves me a lot of hassle. Cross packing is also a great tip!