Carry-on bags or checked luggage? How to choose what's best for you as travellers adjust to airline policy changes, restrictions

Nora Dunn, a Canadian travel blogger who’s been criss-crossing the globe full-time since 2006, still remembers the time she accidentally ended up in a security line with liquids over the legal limit.

“I always travel with a collapsible, reusable bottle. I had it in my little personal item backpack, and I reached back and realized it was full — it was almost a litre of water. I was already standing in the security lineup, and I had been standing in the lineup for some time. I wasn’t about to step out of line to empty out my bottle,” she recalls with a laugh via phone call from Toronto. “So, I stood there and chugged the entire bottle of water. People caught on to what I was doing after a while — they started cheering me on.”

She drained it in time — and learned the hard-yet-hydrated way to double check her bottle in the future. While it’s hard to imagine a seasoned voyager like Dunn making a small mistake like that, on this particular day, she had to face a common dilemma that strikes experienced and newbie travellers alike: The ever-changing rules and regulations surrounding baggage and flights.

While in Dunn’s view, airlines have spent recent years dividing the traditional cost of a flight into a series of fees, carrier Air Transat is the latest Canadian airline to make headlines for no longer offering free carry-on luggage for its cheapest fares. “Although it may seem like we’re paying extra ... I think that it was just a different way of breaking down the fares,” Dunn notes.

Travellers using the airline's Eco Budget option to destinations in Canada, the U.S. and South America can only bring a personal item for free. Extra baggage is subject to fees and must be checked, costing anywhere from $35 to $83 per bag, CBC News reports. WestJet and Air Canada rolled out similar policies in 2024.

Should you travel without paying for extra luggage?

People choosing to fly with certain low fares, then, face a choice: Pay extra for a packed bag or bring only a personal item onboard. However, the latter choice might mean going without something or having to track down items to purchase upon arrival, which could possibly equal the cost of the checked bag in the first place.

To Dunn, who chronicles her travels on YouTube and her blog, The Professional Hobo, it’s an easy decision: “I personally am a big fan of carry-on travel. In fact, actually, I managed to do a carry-on-only trip that lasted two years. So for me, it would be a no-brainer to just travel with a carry on to a sun destination,” she says. “Generally speaking, there’s an adage in the travel [community] when you’re making your packing list.”

That includes laying out everything you think you'll need on your trip and then taking away half of everything. Then, look at what's left and, once again, take away half. “What’s left is still probably more than what you’ll actually need,” she explains, adding she abides by her rule “‘just in case’ has no place.”

Dunn, who has travelled to sunshine destinations like Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago and even lived for two years in Grenada, mentions she travels with solid versions of common toiletries. Packing items like bar shampoo and rock crystal deodorant makes it easier to adhere to the liquid limit airlines require for carry-on luggage.

She also says planning to dress in layers isn’t just for cold destinations: Thin linen tops, for example, take up little room in a personal item and can take a look from day to night, or simply help on cooler evenings. After all, everything you pack, “you’ve got to schlep around,” Dunn reminds.

The benefits, ‘freedom’ of checked luggage

Meanwhile, representing team checked luggage is Solmaz Khosrowshahian. The Toronto-based travel and lifestyle blogger has been documenting her wanderlust for 12 years on her website, The Curious Creature.

“There’s a lot of advantages, I think, of doing a checked bag. It just gives you a full sense of knowledge of what’s in your bag. Also, that helps you prioritize the adventures and the experiences over finding the products [that wouldn’t fit in a carry-on],” Khosrowshahian says, amid packing for an upcoming 12-day trip to St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

“It’s a long trip, so we’re definitely doing a check-in bag. There are a lot of sun destinations, and oftentimes when it’s more than a few days, you also need more quantity of things like sunscreen. So, it really pays off to just put it in the bag.”

Khosrowshahian’s style of travel often revolves around “multi-generation trips” with family to destinations like Belize and the Dominican Republic. For her, the sometimes-remote location of resorts — or a potential language barrier — makes a checked bag worth the cost: “In a nutshell, I always check a bag and it’s something that I have learned to do over the years because of all the things I need to put in it for my trips, whether it’s sunscreen, bug spray, hair products.”

But, Khosrowshahian adds, one option Canadians heading to warmer climates should keep in mind is the checked bag perk offered by many credit cards that are co-branded with airlines. She mentioned her card offers a free checked bag for herself and each of her travelling companions.

“It’s always interesting. I’ve had this conversation with my friends all the time where you choose that that spend is OK,” she adds. “Oftentimes, when we’re in the city, we’re having a cocktail for 35 dollars — and we are totally OK with that.

“Then when you’re looking at that luggage fee, you’re like, ‘35 dollars? No way.’ But really, that's gonna save you a lot of hassle and time running around. “It’s all very interesting how the human brain works on those decisions. Because I find, especially for travel, just that little bit more gives you that freedom and lowers anxiety and just makes it more of a pleasure, of an experience.”

Packing anxiety? Focus on your mindset

One aspect Dunn and Khosrowshahian agree on? No matter if you fork over for checked luggage or opt for carry-on bags only, it’s all about the mindset you bring to your packing.

“For your packing mentality, focus on packing items that would be difficult to find in a destination first — like specific medications — and reduce packing anxiety by reassuring yourself that if you forget something you can find it in destination,” Khosrowshahian says in a follow-up email.

Dunn echos that sentiment: “The next contingent question to ask yourself is, ‘Would I be able to deal with it at the destination? Can I buy whatever it is I need there, or borrow it, or whatever the case may be? Can I creatively find a way around needing to bring it from home when I’m at the destination?’”

While choosing between paying for an extra piece of baggage and planning to travel light might be a personal decision, it's important to think about what could lead you to either decision. Consider the following when you're planning to pack for your next getaway.

Quick tips:

• Double-check your baggage allowance: Canadian airlines have varying inclusions depending on the ticket you purchased, and companies like Air Canada and WestJet even have different tiers for Economy Class seats.

• Cut down on what you’re packing: Use Dunn's packing tip by laying out everything you plan to bring and halving your haul — twice.

• Add in essentials, remove replaceable items: Make sure you pack necessary items like medications and other things you won't be able to buy abroad, but consider leaving behind items you might be able to pick up at a local store for a low cost such as toiletries.

• Ask yourself important questions: From wondering if a $35 fee for checked luggage is worth the cost to fitting in time to pick up forgotten items at a local store, only you can answer certain questions that will determine the experience of your vacation.

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