How carry-on vs checked calculator Works
The full cost stack
Checked bags cost fees + 20–40 minutes at claim + ~0.6%/leg mishandling risk. Carry-ons cost packing discipline (and fees on budget carriers). The honest comparison includes all three — and under a week, carry-on-only typically wins all of them simultaneously.
The one-bag discipline
Carry-on-only is a skill: 3 outfits rotated with a sink wash, toiletries under 100 ml, one pair of shoes worn one packed. The reward compounds across a travel life: no claim waits, no lost bags, no fee decisions, and deplaning straight to the taxi. The learning curve is one deliberately light trip.
When checking genuinely wins
Trips past 10 days, ski/golf/dive gear, family travel (four carry-ons of kid logistics is a fantasy), and souvenirs-heavy returns. The checked bag's fee buys capacity that carry-on physics cannot conjure — the strategy is matching the tool to the trip, not dogma.