Travel & Luggage: To Check or Not To Check Your Bags

Should You Always Carry-On or Is It Okay To Check Your Luggage?

One of the easiest ways to save money on your vacation is to use a small bag and carry your luggage on the plane rather than having the airline store it for you during your flight.

These days, some airlines charge big bucks to check luggage under the plane with fees that can reach $200, should you choose to check your bags at the airport for your departure and return.

However, the cost of checking your bags isn’t the only factor that you should consider when traveling by plane. Some travelers refuse to check their luggage because of the expectation the airline will lose the bag.

So, is lost luggage a legitimate fear, or is it a rare occurrence when flying? The answer as to whether you should check a bag or carry it on the flight may actually come down to a few different factors. There’s no right or wrong answer when it comes to checking your luggage or carrying it on the plane on your next international trip.

Let’s investigate a few factors that can help you decide when to check and when to carry-on.

(note: some of the links here are to websites with which I am an affiliate, and your purchases help fund my website!)

How Many Bags Are Lost Each Year?

One of the biggest issues flyers face when traveling is the risk of losing luggage along the way. In the majority of cases, lost luggage occurs when a flyer checks their luggage under the plane.

According to loads of sources all around the internet, the airlines actually lose millions of pieces of luggage each year. However, you shouldn’t let that number scare you.

Statistics shared by these sources indicate that airlines transport around 393 million pieces of luggage each year and that the total number of pieces of luggage lost amounts to about a half a percent (0.5%) of all those millions of pieces of luggage.

Is that number enough to make you think twice about checking your luggage?

Yes, we’re talking about millions of bags lost, but we’re also counting hundreds of millions of pieces of luggage overall that don’t get lost.

The Benefit of Checking Your Bags

There are several benefits you may enjoy when you decide to check your bags for your flight. The biggest convenience is that you don’t need to haul your bags around when you have a layover. The airline takes care of getting your bags to your final destination.

You might not think this is a particularly significant benefit, but it’s not just the layovers that the airline will handle for you. Let me share a story about crossing the Pacific.

When we flew back from Cambodia to Los Angeles, we took a small plane from Cambodia to Ho Chi Min City on Cambodia Angkor Air. It was a simple one-way flight that took about an hour.

Then, we boarded another plane in Vietnam that would take us to Taiwan for a layover, and then we’d get on a third plane to cross the Pacific back to California.

The cool thing is that even though we had two separate tickets (one from Cambodia to Vietnam and another from Vietnam to Los Angeles that had a layover in Taiwan), the airport crew in Cambodia checked our bags all the way through to our final destination, to Los Angeles.

We didn’t need to worry about getting our bags at the airport in Ho Chi Min and checking them in again to get on our next flight. It was so convenient that we didn’t need to worry about our bags in all those different airports.

When Do I Check My Bags?

Since I’ve been on quite a few flights in the past several decades, I’ve worked out a system for when it’s best to check my bags and when it’s better to carry a bag on the plane.

For the most part, I always default to checking my bags. I’ve flown domestically dozens of times, and I’ve flown internationally a bit less, but I’ve always appreciated being able to walk through the airports, board the planes, and get to my destination without having to haul around a suitcase.

The only time I don’t check a bag is when my trip is brief enough that everything I’m taking fits in a suitcase, and I’m not otherwise trying to bring banned items on board (like an outrageously large bottle of shampoo…).

If I’m flying internationally, I virtually always check my bag. One of the main reasons is that every one of my ocean-crossing flights has included checked baggage, and there was no option to reduce my ticket price by forgoing the baggage fee.

On China Airlines, for example, I was actually allotted two bags checked when crossing the Pacific, but I only used one. There was no option at the time to reduce my baggage allotment to one bag; the ticket was sold with two.

Taking the Worry Out Of Checking Bags

Unless you hold onto your luggage for your entire journey, there’s no way to absolutely guarantee that your luggage will get to your destination with you. However, you can minimize the inconvenience of lost or delayed luggage.

The easiest way is to pack your essentials in a backpack or personal item, so you’re not completely without a toothbrush and some pajamas when you get to your destination. (yes, do stuff a set of jammies in your personal item – you’ll be thankful you did if your luggage lags behind you, and you don’t have any other sleeping options your first night!).

Here are the items I put in my backpack (or whatever small carryon bag I’m carrying on the plane) when the rest of my possessions are checked in a suitcase:

• Toothpaste
• Toothbrush
• Solid shampoo
• Solid conditioner
• Snacks
• Power cords
• Under garments
• Change of clothes

In all honesty, there are very few places you’ll travel these days where you can’t pick up a few essentials when you land, should your checked luggage completely disappear. Not only do many hotels and motels have laundry facilities, but it’s not the end of the world if you have to wear a t-shirt more than once.

You have options, too, for getting some compensation when your bags go missing. The United States Department of Transportation actually forces airlines to provide a pretty generous reimbursement when they lose your bags, so you might not even need to spend your own money to get some clothes or shoes.

---

---