Cross Packing - Because Your Bag Will Eventually Miss a Connection

If you travel a lot, you might as well accept it. At some point your bags will get delayed, and possibly lost altogether. Now that you have come to peace with this fact, you can focus on lessening the sinking feeling of standing by an empty luggage carousel. Before you leave, put some of your essential stuff in the bags of your traveling companions. The stuff you put in friend’s bags will help you last until the airlines find your bag.

Creative Commons picture by mel e mo.

If your bag gets on that airport conveyor belt enough, it will eventually not return on time. It is one of those unavoidable risks of air travel. However, airlines rarely simultaneously lose two people’s bags, and they are even less likely to lose four people’s bags at once. If you have a set of underwear in all four bags, the chances are pretty good that you will not have to immediately go shopping.

If you are traveling with some buddies, cross-packing is one of the best way to avoid those embarrassing “I have no clothes” situations. Before you head to the airport just swap some of your essential stuff with your friends. As an addend benefit, it will probably make them more sympathetic when your suitcase doesn’t show up in the baggage claim.

This system is pretty simple, but there are still some guidelines you probably want to follow. First don’t exchange stuff with your traveling companions in the airport, and certainly don’t exchange stuff with people you don’t know. Breaking these two rules can get you arrested. Having a drug sniffing dog who is trained to show no mercy chase you down terminal A tends to suck more than losing a bag.

Second, you probably want to focus on spreading your essentials across multiple bags. Ending up in Barcelona with the three socks your girlfriend carried for you is roughly equivalent to ending up in Barcelona with no bag. It is hard to get bus fare out of a delicately positioned sock fast enough to avoid holding up the line.

It is almost never fun to have your stuff lost for you. However, when your bag is misplaced cross-packing can really make your life easier. For all those times when your bag isn’t lost, at least you will be able to strut around the airport slightly more confident that you will have clothes to wear tomorrow.