A flight attendant shares the 7 biggest mistakes she sees passengers make when packing carry-on suitcases
CiCi has been a flight attendant at a major airline for over six years.
She shared the biggest mistakes passengers make when packing a carry-on suitcase.
From overpacking to forgetting a reusable water bottle, here are the common errors she sees.
After years of working as a flight attendant, CiCi has a newfound love for both the sky and packing suitcases.
CiCi told Business Insider that over six years ago, she left her career in real estate and became a flight attendant. Today, she works for a major airline. For privacy reasons, CiCi asked BI to omit her full name and the airline she works for. BI was able to verify CiCi's employment.
"I have loved it," CiCi, who posts about her job under the username @cici_inthesky, said. "It's a completely different lifestyle than what I have lived for the past 20-some years."
One of the biggest lifestyle changes has been how she packs, and she said she's not the only one who makes mistakes when organizing a suitcase for a flight.
Nearly every day, she witnesses passengers making mistakes with their carry-on bags. Here are the common — and avoidable — mistakes CiCi sees.
CiCi said she commonly sees passengers bring more than two bags on the plane.
CiCi said she passengers will often walk up to their gate with a roller suitcase, a backpack, and a purse — that's one too many carry-on bags, according to airline rules.
This can result in gate agents asking passengers to consolidate their belongings into two bags, which adds time to the boarding process. Plus, this can cost a traveler money if they can't fit everything into two bags and need to pay for an extra carry-on.
Passengers whose essentials aren't easily accessible can cause boarding delays.
CiCi said passengers who need to access their carry-on suitcases can sometimes cause delays in boarding. She recommends packing everything they need for a flight in their personal item.
"People put things that they need on the plane — like their book and their earbuds or whatever they're going to need — inside their suitcase," she said. "It's not easy to access."
Passengers who must get in their suitcases and sift through their belongings during boarding can block other passengers from their seats and cause delays.
Waiting until they're in midair to get items from their suitcase is risky, too — turbulence could've shifted the bags in the overhead bin, which might cause them to fall and injure someone.
CiCi said her advice is to ensure all your flight essentials are in your personal item, which will be within reach during the flight.
Many passengers don't pack liquids correctly.
The changing altitudes an airplane experiences cause gases to expand during a flight, which can, in turn, cause toiletries or water bottles to leak in your carry-on.
CiCi said she sees this frequently, but she has a few tips.
First, squeeze as much air out of the bottle as possible. She said this would help prevent expansion.
Perhaps most importantly, she said, choose travel-sized containers wisely. CiCi said that she's tried dozens of travel-sized containers designed to prevent leaks and that the ones she's had the most success with have screw-on caps instead of snap tops since these create a tighter seal.
Passengers make the mistake of not packing a reusable water bottle.
CiCi said it's important to stay hydrated on a flight.
The Aerospace Medical Association recommends that travelers drink 8 ounces of water each hour on a plane.
While you can't bring more than 3 ounces of liquids on the plane, you can bring a frozen water bottle or an empty bottle you can refill once you're inside the airport terminal.
This will help travelers save money and stay hydrated.
She said some travelers forget to pack their own snacks.
CiCi said turbulence during the summer can get intense since high heat causes more convective turbulence in the sky. When there's a lot of turbulence, flight attendants are sometimes required to remain seated.
If flight attendants can't get up, passengers don't get snacks or beverages. Some airlines, like Frontier Airlines and Allegiant Air, have ditched the complimentary snack service and offer drinks and snacks for sale.
CiCi suggests passengers bring their own snacks. She said that in addition to fruits like apples and oranges, she always has a few bags of nuts in her luggage.
Finally, CiCi said she sometimes sees passengers packing heavy items instead of wearing them on the plane.
CiCi said that if you're flying with just a carry-on, wear your heavy items on the plane instead of packing them.
She said she's sometimes shocked to speak to passengers who are traveling far with just a carry-on and wearing light airplane attire.
That's not what CiCi does. She said that on a recent flight to Italy, she wore her bulky rain boots, a sweater, and a jacket — even though she was flying out of hot, humid Florida. She added that this saved her a significant amount of space in her carry-on and allowed her to pack more outfits for her trip.
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