Travel Without Paying For Luggage

Tricks to travel with just a personal item under 7kg

Travel Without Paying For Luggage

Travelling With Just a Personal Item

A weekend trip to Prague or Paris with just a personal item is not too hard. With the right bag you can fit a surprising amount with that pretty strict luggage limit; but even then, a lot of people will feel the need to take a separate carry on. A big trip to South-East Asia or South America though? Getting everything you need in one bag under 7kg is tough. Some airlines may be a bit more generous with their weight restrictions, but if you’ll be taking any flights between countries while you’re away you need to pack light enough for the stingiest limits you might have to face.

So what are those limits? Generally a personal item needs to be:

The lowest I’ve seen are 41 x 33 x 15 cm (WestJet) and 43 x 25 x 22 cm (United Airlines)

The lowest weight restrictions are 7kg, although 8kg is also fairly common and you may be able to get way with that, depending on where you’re travelling. You can find a table of the limits of pretty much every major here, and some are unfortunate quite tight.

But there is an easy way round these restrictions. I introduce to you, the humble carrier bag:

WH Smith Carrier Bag - Picture 1 of 2

The Carrier Bag Extra Luggage Trick

One thing that a lot of people are unaware of is that you can almost always get away with an extra bag like this. Basically, airlines allow you to have a carrier bag in addition to any luggage or personal items to stop people from being discouraged from shopping at airports. If you buy something at an airport, you can take it and the bag it comes in effectively as extra luggage.

But no one will actually check if you bought something at the airport – you could just ask for a bag from any shop in the terminal and fill it with your own stuff. Or even just bring your own bag from home. Most check-in officers aren’t going to know (or care) exactly which shops are at the airport; although I would try to use a bag from one that is just to be on the safe side, or at least one that is fairly low-key. Wasabi or WHSmith’s? Great pick. Giant Ikea bag or a woven bag for life? Not so much.

Once you’ve got your carrier bag, there’s nothing stopping you putting your water bottle in it, or a jumper, or a book, or basically anything. I always try to put things in that I could’ve been wearing or might have bought at the airport, just to feel on the safe side, but I’ve never been questioned or had even a second glance at my sneaky extra bag, and I’m pretty sure you could get away with pretty much anything. Just try to keep it fairly inconspicuous. If it looks like shopping that you’ve thrown a jumper into, you should be ok. If it starts to look more like luggage, you might start running into issues.

On top of a plastic bag, you can also often get away with a smaller shoulder bag or bum bag. I almost always carry a Uniqlo round mini shoulder bag, and it’s never been picked up as an extra item. If you’re feeling nervous, you can have it on the opposite side of your body to the boarding staff, and wear a bulky hoodie or coat over it to cover it, and it’s a great way to get actually quite a lot more stuff on board. There’s also the pillow trick I’ve seen a few times on TikTok, where you fill a neck (or even just a normal) pillow with clothes. I’ve never used it myself, but my friends have without any issues.

Use Your Pockets

The next trick is a bit more obvious, but take full advantage of pockets. Wherever you’re travelling, you’ll likely want at least one pair of full-length trousers, just in case of colder evening weather or even just for the journey to the airport in your home country. The same goes for a warm upper layer. Choose some cargo trousers and you’re set for any hikes up mountains in the colder morning hours, and have loads more pockets to put things in. If you want protection from rain, a light waterproof that packs into itself or a small bag can be worn onto the plane for you to fill up its pockets and save space, and then packed small and clipped onto the outside of your bag (or squeezed in) once you’re on the plane. If you want a warm layer, picking a quarter zip or light jacket with pockets also gives you more space to play with.

One thing to bear in mind though: you may have to walk around a lot with whatever you’ve got, especially for an extended backpacking trip. So while wearing 20 layers and stuffing a puffer jacket full of extra clothes might let you get a lot of stuff onto the plane, if you can’t fit everything you don’t want to wear on the other side into your bags, it’s going to cause problems. This strategy is really only to cut down on weight in your main bag while boarding, and for things that would stop your bag squashing into one of those measurey boxes. Everything should fit in your personal item or carrier bag, or be something you don’t mind walking around holding.

Avoid Hoodies

It’s definitely worth taking a warm upper layer pretty much wherever you’re going. Even the hottest countries can have cold nights or overly enthusiastic hostel air conditioning, and if you live somewhere cooler you’ll want something to wear to and from the airport. But warm layers can take up a lotttt of space. Hoodies are particularly bad for this, because the hood itself takes up a lot of room without really providing much functionality. Unless you want it to serve as a coat as well and need a hood to protect from rain, a simple sweatshirt or quarter zip is usually enough for hot destinations. And if you’re somewhere cooler and need more protection from the elements, a sweatshirt plus a light waterproof (ideally one that packs into itself) usually still takes up less space than a hoodie, with more potential use cases.

Where to Pack Everything

Obviously, you’ll want things that you’re planning to use on the flight to be easily accessible, but when restrictions are tight, keeping weight down in your personal item is the priority, and since the bag will be at your feet, nothing should be too hard to get to anyway.

When you’re distributing your stuff, remember that the most scrutiny will be on your personal item, then the carrier bag, then you. Theoretically, there is no weight limit for what you put in you pockets, making this a good place for heavy but small things like portable chargers.

The carrier bag also doesn’t really have any weight restrictions, but remember this is theoretically stuff you’ve bought at the airport and kind of a grey area, so you want to keep it somewhat inconspicuous. Books are a good one here, since you can buy them at any airport, and they are usually both heavy and chunky. Plane snacks too also often take up at lot of room, and in the carrier bag are less likely to be crushed. I have a little zip pouch of electronic stuff (cables, international plugs etc.) which I like to put in the bottom of my carrier bag too. It’s fairly heavy and I’ll often want to get to my cable easily during the flight.

The big one though is your warm layer. In terms of saving space, putting a sweatshirt or jumper in your carrier bag instead of your personal item is huge. If you’re only taking one you could just wear it, but that leaves room to put a different top or even rolled up pair of trousers in the carrier bag instead.

Just whatever you do, don’t put a water bottle in your personal item. They take up a ton of space, add loads of weight when filled, and can easily go in a jacket pocket, your carrier bag or even just be held. No one should consider a water bottle an extra item, so you’re all good there.

What Clothes to Pack

This is where I might lose a lot of people. 7kg of luggage is not for the faint-hearted, and even with the extra carrier bag trip, you may find yourself more restricted than you’d like.

How much you actually need obviously varies with where you’re going and how long for, but maybe not as much as you think. I hope I’m not outing myself as having weird hygiene habits, but personally I think you can comfortably re-wear a top twice, trousers and shorts three or four times (depending on the fabric and how much activity you’ve done in them), and jumpers and other layers not in direct contact with your skin probably about 5-10 times before they start to feel dirty.

Ultimately, I’d say five days of clothes is a good amount, plus whatever variety you need to cover fancy restaurants and different activities. For a hot destination I’d initially pack something like:

This includes what I’d wear. I’d begin by planning to wear the trainers, linen trousers, t-shirt and warm layer on the plane (and pair of socks/boxer of course), and once I’d packed everything else, I’d see how much spare weight I’ve got left. Then I’d start to do things like pack the linen trouser and wear cargos instead, pack an extra set of sock/underwear, squeeze in an extra t-shirt, etc. Remember to be smart about what you’re wearing. That’s a whole extra outfit, so make sure at least parts of it will be useful while you’re away, and wear all your heaviest/bulkiest stuff while boarding to save space.

Also, think about whether you’re likely to buy clothes while abroad which you could wear. This can cut down on packing, but if you don’t plan for it you could easily end up paying for extra luggage on the way back, and suddenly those Thai market elephant trousers become very expensive.

If you’re going for about a week, you might be able avoid doing laundry, but anything longer than that and you’ll need to wash your clothes. Don’t stress, there’s places to wash clothes everywhere. From travelling around SE Asia and Europe there’s plenty of public launderettes, but hostels and hotels are also options, and even if they don’t advertise laundry as a service, if you just ask and you’re staying there you often won’t even be charged.

Final Things to Consider

Don’t forget to factor in potential souvenirs. You can probably throw away any remnants of toiletries on the way back, but mostly everything you take out will be coming back with you, so if you pack to the limit you might not have room to bring back anything you buy.

You could just pay for extra luggage for the return flight though. You still save money flying out, and on any more local flights once abroad, and if you do your shopping near the end of your journey it might just be one flight home you have to pay for. Just think about the cost of that extra suitcase added on top however much your souvenirs are, and then it’s up to you to decide id that’s something you’d pay for them.

Another great way to minimise costs but get extra space is to share with someone. Splitting an extra carry-on, or even hold bag, with one or two other people slashes the cost for each of you, but adds a lot of extra space. Especially if you go for checked-in luggage, which then allows you to take more liquids too. If you’ll be comfortable taking turns carrying it, this is a really nice option, but bear in mind the extra time you’ll need at airports if you go for a check-in bag.

I haven’t covered toiletries or electronics much here because they vary so much between people. I’ll just remind you that you are going to a country. Even if your destination is somewhere remote, the airport you land at will have shops, or at least shops nearby, and you can buy almost any toiletries abroad; so save your liquid allowance for things where you like specific products or brands, like makeup.

Lastly, don’t stress too much. There’s a lot of luck involved, but I’ve found it actually pretty rare that bags are measured, even by budget airlines, and I’ve never seen one get weighed. Often there isn’t even a weight limit for personal items; only a size limit. You can honestly get away with a lot if the staff aren’t being overly rigid.