Carry-On Only for a Year: What 12 Flights Actually Changed

There wasn't a big decision moment. It was May 2025, Palma airport, and I stood at the belt for 41 minutes. I actually timed it, because I had nothing better to do.

Afterwards I did the maths on what that costs me over a year. Not in euros. In hours. Twelve flights, a good half hour at the carousel per arrival on average, plus the check-in queue I skip entirely with hand luggage only.

Then there's the risk side. According to the SITA Baggage IT Insights Report 2026, the rate of lost or delayed bags fell 23 percent in 2025, and still cost airlines 6.3 billion dollars. Sounds like progress, and it probably is.

Until you look at where the failures actually happen, because 39 percent of them trace back to connecting flights. And I almost never fly direct.

The second reason was less noble. Money. Fees with Wizz Air vary a lot by route, but a checked 10 kg bag typically runs somewhere around 30 to 40 euros per flight depending on when you book, and 20 kg heads closer to 50 to 70 (as of July 2026, ballpark figures, and these fares move constantly). Across twelve flights that stops being a rounding error.

I bought the Samsonite Base Boost Handgepäck Upright 55/20 Länge 40 cm for this. Softshell, 55 x 40 x 20 cm, 41 litres, about 76 euros at the time. Softshell on purpose, because the front pockets squeeze down a bit when you need them to. Which later became my problem, but I'll get to that.

How did it hold up? Honestly, better than I expected.

Both wheels run rougher after twelve flights, mostly thanks to the cobblestones in Porto. The main zip catches at one spot when the bag is stuffed full. And there's a scuff on the lower right corner that I picked up somewhere between Krakow and Vienna. No hole, no tear, nothing structural. You probably know the type. The one mark you never quite get rid of, even though the bag is otherwise fine.

What genuinely surprised me is that the trolley never once got gate-checked for a full overhead bin. I do tend to sit near the front, but still. Curious how luggage holds up over longer stretches? We also ran an 18-month long-term test on a full suitcase set, and that verdict was a lot more mixed.

Here's the part most experience reports skip: what the whole thing actually cost, not just what it saved.

Saved: Twelve flights without checked baggage. At an average of 30 euros per flight that's roughly 360 euros. Plus about five hours at baggage carousels I didn't spend.

Spent: 45 euros in gate fees for one stupid mistake (more on that in a second). Around 55 euros on laundrettes and detergent on the road. And roughly 120 euros on two merino shirts and a quick-dry pair of trousers I didn't own before.

That leaves me around 140 euros ahead in year one. From year two onwards the numbers look a lot better, because the clothes are already there.

Is that a lot? Depends how you count. Personally I'd take the five hours back over the 140 euros.

Flight number eight. Ryanair, Alicante to Nuremberg, early November.

I'd bought a winter jacket the day before because frost was forecast back home, and I shoved it into the front pocket of the trolley. Along with a bag of turrón for my sister. The sizer was waiting right at the gate. My bag would not go in. Not even when I shoved it.

45 euros. Paid at the gate, in front of a queue of maybe forty people who all watched. With Ryanair gate fees for oversized hand luggage can run well past 60 euros, and that day I learned exactly why that number exists.

The annoying part is that the mistake was entirely mine. I honestly didn't think it through: jacket plus turrón in the front pocket was never going to fit. Softshell bag, plus a spontaneous purchase, plus assuming it would somehow fit. Since then a small MYCARBON Digitale Kofferwaage lives in the side pocket, and before every return flight I check the front compartment by hand instead of hoping. If you want to avoid the same mistake, our guide to dodging Ryanair gate fees has the practical details.

And yes, I was furious. At myself.

Laundry becomes routine, not a crisis

This was my biggest worry going in and it's my smallest issue now. Every three or four days I wash things in the sink or at a launderette down the road. Merino dries overnight, cotton doesn't. That's more or less the whole trick.

I'm not alone in that either. The two travellers behind 58 Weeks in 35 Liters took over 40 flights in 58 weeks with one bag each and describe exactly the same pattern, where anything packed for looks was the first thing to go home.

Organisation inside the bag mattered more to me than raw space in the end. With a TRAVEL DUDE Packwürfel Set mit Kompression aus recycelten Plastikflaschen, Leichte Packing Cubes, Packtaschen Set für Rucksack und als Koffer Organizer (Wald Grün, 7-teiliges Set) I can find the clean stuff at a hotel stopover without tipping half the case onto the bed. Sounds like a small thing. Across twelve flights it really isn't. We compared how different packing cube sets hold up in daily use in our packing cubes test 2026.

Liquids are still annoying in 2026

I had a 200 ml sunscreen taken off me at Stansted because I assumed the new scanners were everywhere. They're not.

The 100 ml liquids rule still applies as the default in 2026. A growing number of airports with new CT scanners now allow containers up to 2 litres, Nuremberg and Cologne/Bonn among them, but it's a patchwork. Sometimes it varies between lanes in the same terminal. So I still pack stubbornly to the old standard in a Lermende Transparent Toiletry Bag, Liquid Bag, Hand Luggage, TSA Approved Cosmetic Bag and treat it as a bonus when nobody asks me to take it out.

Free hand luggage across the EU is not law yet

This is where I run into the most confident misinformation, and honestly it's kind of annoying. A single EU-wide free hand luggage rule does not exist in 2026. Parliament voted for one in January 2026, but the Council rejected it, and the conciliation committee failed to agree by mid-June. Realistically we're talking 2027 at the earliest (as of July 2026).

So the airline-by-airline patchwork still applies. Check before every booking rather than trusting the headline from January.

What clearly got better:

• Out of the terminal in under ten minutes, every single time

• Connections feel relaxed, because nothing can fail to follow me

• Packing takes twenty minutes instead of two hours

• Spontaneous weekend trips suddenly feel doable

What genuinely bothers me:

• Souvenirs and spontaneous purchases are a real problem, see Alicante above

• Winter is tight, thick jackets eat half the bag

• Visiting family with presents simply doesn't work with this setup

• And if you need sports gear, forget the whole idea

Business travel works surprisingly well though, suit included. We put that through its own five-day carry-on business trip test.

For longer trips I now add a Handgepäck Rucksack 40x20x25 für Ryanair Klein Reiserucksack für Flugzeug Unter Sitzplatz Tasche Laptop Rucksack 14 Zoll mit USB Ladeanschluss für Herren Damen, Schwarz as an underseat bag. That gives me a bit of buffer on Ryanair and Wizz Air without paying for a trolley fare.

Yes. Not out of conviction though. Out of laziness.

I'll be honest, the whole "minimalism changed my life" narrative some people build around this isn't really me. The year didn't teach me to be happy with less. It taught me that most of what used to sit in my suitcase never got used. The two things I genuinely missed were decent shoes and room for gifts. Everything else was ballast.

If you're wondering whether this works for you, don't start with a year. Take one flight. Just one. When you walk straight out of the terminal while everyone else is still watching the belt, you'll know pretty quickly whether you want to keep going.

For me, that one flight was enough, and I haven't checked a bag since.