Did your checked bags make it with you to Europe?

What is your flight situation? Flying out of Birmingham or driving to Atlanta? To me, the more connections you have, the more likely it is that a bag will go astray. I fly from an end-of-the-line airport and for my next trip have to transit thru 2 big airports - Seattle and Paris. I’m carrying on.

I traveled in April/May but it was Before things got really bad so my experience is “old news”, lol.

I haven’t done this yet, but have been thinking about taking (almost) everything out of our checked bags and putting it into cheap lightweight nylon bags and carrying it on. Then checking the almost empty suitcases. When we arrive, repacking it into our suitcases. I figure if we lose the suitcase in transit it’s relatively easy to replace it, not so much the clothes. We want to take larger than carry on sized suitcases for various reasons.

How much bigger? We flew BA in May to Rome in business class with carry-ones. We were flying on a separate ticket the next day, so it wasn’t safe to check luggage. I still use the old RS carry-on which is bigger by a couple of inches (22x14x9) and my husband uses the TravelPro Bold which right on the borderline. We didn’t have anyone question us about size, but I will say that getting my bag (I’m short) in the overhead bin was an ordeal. We had the 2 middle seats and I had to stand on the seat to get my bag in.

The overhead bins in business on BA flights that we’ve been on across the pond are quite spacious. We’ve always had plenty of room for our carryons.

I flew Washington-Dulles / Brussels / Oslo in mid-June. My checked bag arrived with me but minus the luggage tag and ripped.

We just flew to Edinburgh about 5 days ago. The overhead bins in economy were really packed so be aware that you might have to gate check your baggage if you are doing carry on. The overhead bins in economy plus had more room for carry on. Our flight from Frankfurt to Edinburgh was delayed for half an hour because it was taking time for the Frankfurt baggage handlers to get all of the baggage aboard. I read somewhere that 99% of baggage arrives with the passengers. On arrival in Frankfurt, we did not land at a jetway and had to deplane on steps to the tarmac, board a bus and navigate lots of stair steps to get to the terminal so if you are not packing light and have to carry stuff it’s a pain in the neck.

Because we had hiking poles we checked luggage from Boston to Frankfurt to Salzburg on June 18, and from Geneva to Munich to Boston on July 1. We also had hiking poles and so checked our luggage from Boston to Heathrow on July 24 and on our return Heathrow to Boston on August 4. All the luggage arrived.

We only used carryons going to London this year, but I think Ethel6666 has an interesting idea. As long as you didn't pack anything irreplaceable in your checked luggage, it would be less of an issue if it gets lost on your way home. I agree they are less likely to question the size of your carry-on in business class(as long as it's not obviously too large), at least on Delta(don't know about British) and since you are in business, you don't have to worry about the overhead bins already being full.

DFW to LHR to EDI July 3 and yes.
EDI to LHR to IAH to DFW (goofy late purchased miles routing) to my small home airport on Aug. 8: yes until DFW. My suitcase spent the night at DFW and came on home the next morning.
It was nice to watch my air tag for each flight. :)

I flew DLH to MSP to CVG to BER and checked my bag because one leg was with Air France and I was worried about getting dinged with my Travelpro carryon. I had no problems (in fact, it was nice that I didn't have my bag during my long layover at CDG) and my bag made it through both coming and going.

If you do check, one thing you might want to do is buy an AirTag for each bag. I did that and it was a real comfort to be able to know where my bag was at all times. Technically Delta has a bag-tracker on their app, but because one of the legs was with AF, it wasn't working very well. AirTags are small and very reasonably priced - the only caveat is that one of you must have an iPhone.

Yes, in May. Direct flight from ORD to LHR and I always check a bag.

I’ll certainly never bring a laptop unless I am positive I’ll NEED it, that thing got heavy in my backpack and I cursed that decision every day. And I’m not a virgin traveler, my own dumb decision.

Thank you all for taking the time to reply. I think what we may do is check our Travelpro carryon-sized bags but pack a couple of days provisions in a smaller carry-on we keep with us on the plane. That way we would be okay if our bags were a couple of days late in reaching us. And we will definitely get AirTags.

@Mardee "I flew DLH to MSP to CVG to BER and checked my bag because one leg was with Air France and I was worried about getting dinged with my Travelpro carryon."

.... THIS is what I am worried about on my upcoming transit thru CDG (and I'm assuming that is what you meant instead of Cincinnati!). May I ask if you noticed anyone having to gate check their bags in Paris because they did not meet the AF size/weight limit?

Pam, oops, yes, I meant CDG. :)

I did not notice anyone but it was so congested and confusing that I was not really paying attention. I do have a friend whose daughter lives in Switzerland near the French border and my friend usually flies Air France to Paris twice a year. She told me that AF usually does not check that closely (unless it's obviously too big) and if they do have concerns, they just gate check it. I opted to check my bag anyway, mostly because I wanted to be sure, but also in part because I had a 7 1/2 hour layover at CDG and didn't want to have to deal with the bag.

Thanks so much for the extra information. Yes, dragging a suitcase around for 7+ hours is a PIA and I think that is what pushed me to check the rollaboard years ago when I had a 9hr layover in SLC. Ugh.

Not Spain but France (CDG and Marseilles) in May and Ireland (Shannon and DUB) end of June and first of July. 3 of us checked bags both coming and going for each trip and none of us had any issues at all. In fact, flying home to Denver from Dublin was one of the best airport experiences I’ve ever had! We had Air Tags in our suitcases so we could track the bags throughout. Unnecessary but kinda fun!

Andi, congratulations on having a great airport experience. It sounds like you're one of the few people in the country who can say that this summer!

My trip from Heathrow to ATL on Virgin in early June was flawless, but I wasn't checking a bag.