This really doesn’t have a lot to do with our vacation, but pertains to another post.
Sara and I bought this suitcase a few years ago. We call it big red. I’ll let you guess why. It’s a giant Samsonite bag on wheels. Sara and I have gone on many vacations only packing one bag… Big Red.
However, we’ve encountered a very real and frustrating problem. Big Red was designed to hold a lot of stuff. Easily more than the 50 pound limit for domestic travel. Yes, that means you can just pack it, you have to estimate how much you think it weighs (a really fun game if you don’t have scales. Let’s see, Francie our Chocolate Lab weights 60 pounds. Let me pick her up, set her down and the pick up the suitcase and decide how close I am.) The real fun begins when you get to the airport and find out that the bag is 4.8 pounds overweight. Usually this happens when the line is 40 people long and our other bags are already over-stuffed. It’s kind of like another game called, ” How fast can I repack my bags while everyone watches.” Five minutes later we’re usually out of breath, sweating, and completely embarrassed after all our underwear fell out for everyone to see.
Yes, we love Big Red, but the airlines strict weight restrictions make using this wonderful suitcase a pain.
My suggestion to the airlines (if anyone is listening): Just give us a weight limit not based on a number of bags. If Sara and I want to pack in just one suitcase, give us 100 pounds to get it all in one if we want to. I don’t see why this would matter. It’s unlikely that 15 people are going to team up and pack one 750 pound bag (although that would be funny).
October 6, 2008
Travel