How I roll... through airports

There are three basic types of travelers.

Type A travelers are your classic shoulder bag, under seat, minimalist packers. These fliers can pack for a week in a Tom Bihn Aeronaut or even a Tri-Star. They're the guys on FlyerTalk who think you should just take a RedOxx Air Boss for two weeks in Europe!

Type B travelers -- my tribe -- take a rollaboard. In contrast to Type A, many of us also take the "personal item" the airlines allow. My drug of choice is the TravelPro Crew 7 20". I use Eagle Creek packing cubes and a packing folder, so that suitcase can go for four days. (In spite of this I paid something like $500 in luggage fees in 2009. But I had a lot of really long trips with a lot of luggage.) I take with me either my handy Booq Boa Case or Tumi Slim Laptop Brief.

Type C travelers like my girlfriend, C., are totally incapable of traveling without bringing the kitchen sink along with them. They can jam-pack a 27" expanding suitcase (like my Briggs and Riley Baseline) for a three-day conference without breaking a sweat. (I've seen it!) They take a giant duffel bag for two days at the beach. The airlines love passengers like them.

I don't know how the Type A passengers pack. And if I tried to even pretend to know what Type C travelers put in their suitcases, my head would explode. (I caught C. packing a hair dryer on an overnight trip to the beach where we were staying at a Hilton. Seriously.)

But I can tell you what I bring. This example is from a recent five-day business trip to Washington. I have a relatively casual job — dark jeans, dress shirt, blazer — so take with the usual salt. Also, it was unseasonably warm, in the 40s. If it had been more typical Washington-in-January weather, in the 15-30F range, I might have checked a bag, as I did for Chicago in December.

• Dress shirts, 4
• Light-weight sweater, 1
• Jeans, 1 pair
• Underwear, 5 pairs
• Casual shoes
• Socks, 5 pairs
• Athletic shirts, 2
• Athletic shorts, 2
• Athletic socks, 2
• Athletic shoes

I also planned to wear on the plane:

• Wrinkle-free blazer
• Dress shoes
• Light-weight overcoat

This is how it all comes together:

Left: Athletic shoes
Right: Pack-It folder with shirts, jeans, sweater

Middle: Eagle Creek packing cubes with underwear, socks, athletic wear

Right: Toiletries and airplane comfort gear (inflatable pillow, earplugs, eyeshades, slippers) inside black pillow

Add 3-1-1 bag. I use a standard Ziploc quart bag... not interested in rolling the dice on what the TSA might not accept.


You're done!


Note that this approach is a little light on, in particular, shirts, underwear and socks. I always plan to wear some variation on whatever I wore to work when I go out to dinner on a business trip, and the company will reimburse laundering expenses on trips over 4 days in length. For a leisure trip, I might have needed an extra sweater instead of a blazer, and I would've packed only casual shoes.

25,000 miles or bust: An introduction

All my life, I've flown a lot. My family and friends are spread from New York to Los Angeles, Portland, Ore., to Atlanta, and everywhere in between. Every time we wanted to go to a wedding, bar mitzvah or spring break, we had to fly.

As a result I know my primary routes and alternates, how to avoid stopping, what hubs to avoid and where I can kill an hour or a day, and how to pack a bag for overnight or for two weeks. I can spot-check the tags on a checked bag to make sure they're going to the right place by IATA code, and I can even get around some of the European hubs (Barajas, Heathrow, Frankfurt) with familiarity.

But over the years the mileage was so spread over multiple airlines that I never got anything out of it. Even in college, when I was a regular on the AA and HP ORD-PHX routes, I never made elite status. (Why? Splitting my time between AA and HP!)

So here we are. I realized that in 2010 I would probably fly 17K-20K miles. And then I realized, that's only 5,000 miles from elite status! I got pretty close -- 19,000 miles on AA -- in 2009, so it seems like I ought to be able to do that in 2010.


My goal for 2010 is to make 25,000 miles on Delta: Silver Medallion status. I live in Orlando, which is a minor DL hub (nonstops to LAX!), and Delta has the same perk as HP: automatic upgrades based on availability. They also waive baggage fees, which is great when you're flying to Argentina with two checked bags. (!) I've also done the math: the program is worth about $500 in waived baggage fees in a typical year for me. I will spend up to an additional $250 for the other benefits, like better seats. Believe it or not, I paid $80 in US Airways "choice seats" fees in 2009!

(An aside: I know the AA/UA program is better on paper, where flying 10,000 miles earns you four 500-mile upgrades. But that takes all the fun out of upgrades.)

The bottom line: my regular flights to see family and friends plus mileage runs, as you frequent fliers probably know. I'll get a tour of America's great airports!


So I'll be blogging here -- at least once a week! -- about that quest, plus the tools, the gear, and the lifestyle of flying regularly.