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Alright friends, listen. I think it’s pretty obvious that airlines companies now are not what they used to be in terms of what would come with the price of your ticket. With airlines like Spirit and Frontier giving you the absolute bare minimum for the cheapest possible price but charging you for every little thing, it doesn’t all add up. After experiencing my fair share of these budget airlines, I think the best tip I have ever heard is to take advantage of your free personal item.
In case you are unaware, most of these budget airlines allow from a “free” personal item to go with you on the flight as long as the dimensions are 18 x 14 x 8 inches. This is not a carry-on. Carry on bags actually cost MORE than checked bags… so I tend to avoid them. So, knowing this, I decided to do some digging… and by digging, I mean shopping. I found bags specifically made to reach the maximum size of these personal items so that you can fit as much clothing in there as possible.
For me, I tend to overpack and have a lot of different outfit to choose from, so I used the free personal item bag to lessen the weight on my checked luggage because I also happen to be sharing it with my sister. For my week long trip to Miami I took a checked bag and the personal item bag which fit…
- 2 pairs of shoes
- 1 sweater
- My laptop
- all of the my makeup in a cosmetics bag
- a DSLR camera
- a notebook
- a folder
- a sudoku puzzle book
- all of my chargers
- toiletries
- 2 decks of cards
- a box of gum
- a bag of perfume samples
- a cosmetic bag filled with jewelry
- sunscreen spray
For the same trip, my boyfriend fit all his clothes into the bag for the week, along with cologne, toiletries socks and underwear. The only downside if that he could not fit his beach sandals and pajamas and ended up tossing those into my bag.
It really is about how well you can pack everything in along with how long you are traveling. For a weekend getaway, this is your absolute best friend!
Below are the exact bags I purchased along with a few heavier duty ones with incredible ratings and all different price points on Amazon! I really like the backpack version but I wasn’t willing to spend $40 on a bag for this trip.
