The personal item packing shuffle is real. Not everyone can afford the growing monopoly of flying in the US where a round trip ticket from Philly to Orlando usually starts at around $300. Whether you’re traveling between campus and home, or just want to get away for the weekend without breaking the bank, budget airlines like Spirit and Frontier have figured out a way to cut that trip cost in half by offering you fewer amenities, like leg room, complimentary snacks, and even baggage. This is also known as the “bare fare,” which literally pays for your butt on the plane, plus a personal item that fits into the confines of an 18″x14″x8″ spot under the seat in front of you.
For some, this is more than enough. Personally, I don’t spend nearly enough time traveling so I do like things like free soda and outlets, but some trips require the lower price point. Example: I went to volunteer (and attend!) an international figure skating competition called Four Continents Championship (read: it’s a big deal!) in sunny-ish Anaheim, California. What’s the likelihood of breaking the bank to literally volunteer for a total of 12-16 hours (okay, I got some free tickets to the events too)? Very slim! Okay, if I was employed before this trip, it would have been a different story, but I legit got these tickets on savings from a work-study job.
Anyway, I took the dive and bought round trip tickets on Spirit. Surprisingly the actual flight times weren’t godawful, and typically I don’t actually eat the on-flight stuff anyway, so I was hopeful for the best. I’ll save my review for a future post!
This trip was a 5-day, 4-night trip, meaning I had to pack for not only LA winter but the very real coldness of an arena surrounding ice. So how did I stuff all that stuff onto a small backpack? Let’s start with the packing list.
Packing List
- Jeans
- Long sleeve t-shirt
- Comfy shoes
- Hoodie
- Phone
- Phone Charger
- Laptop
- Charger
- Wireless headphones
- Power bank
- Charger (can charge headphones too)
- 4 pairs of undies + 1 extra
- 3 bras
- 4 pairs of socks
- 1 pair of jeans
- 2 pair leggings
- 3 heat tech shirts
- Short sleeve t-shirt (for the plane back)
- 1 pair of gloves
- Toothpaste
- Toothbrush
- Shower gel
- Travel sized face stuff
- Deodorant
- Meds
The Bag
Dakine Detail
Originally I was going to go with a smaller bag (my Jansport Right Pack), but I kept looking at it and wondering how I’d fit 4 nights worth of stuff in it, so I did some quick researching and figured out that the Dakine bag from my sophomore year of college was a little too deep, but I could just not fill it up all the way and we’d be good. Later I figured out that Spirit flight personnel really don’t bother you with any sized backpack provided it’s smaller than a heavy-duty hiking bag, so keeping to the limits that they tell you to on the website is really to save your foot room space.
This bag has been my weekender for local bus trips and carry-on for longer trips, so I know very well how much it can hold and the challenge of stuffing it under the seat if I get too overzealous. It’s spacious with a good amount of organizing space, making it the perfect test ride for a personal item on Spirit.
The Insides
This was probably the hardest part. I bought a pack of packing cubes from eBay because I somehow misplaced most of the ones I got for Korea (Amazon equivalent). I toyed around with a lot of different formats before I decided on this one. Yes, I fit all of my clothes from the packing list in there (except for the ones I wore to the airport!).
The trick with packing cubes is that you want to pack them as flat as possible for them to do the job you want them to do. If you just want them to stack neatly, sure, you can throw a bunch of stuff in and make it uneven, but it’s even better if you just take the extra few minutes to lay stuff flat. I fit all of my clothes into the largest cube (14″x10.5″x4.7) which made it easy to stick the rest of my things on top to easily remove them at the security checkpoint.
Key Takeaways
You need to plan out what you actually need and will use.
Sometimes if we just start throwing stuff in a bag the night before, we forget stuff or throw in things we don’t need. Laying out a packing list, even if you end up changing stuff around (I was moving things around up until the moment I left the house!), is good practice to being able to pull off these trips with low stress. Think about the things you will need for each day and activity, think about the weather changes at your destination, and also consider what kind of things you can layer or make multiple uses of, like t-shirts and pajamas, or charging cords.
Start with the right bag so you don’t find yourself shelling out cash at the gate.
A common misconception is that you need a big carry-on bag to go on a trip. The trick is that you need to know how to pack the things you want to bring. I know Marie Kondo is floating around after the Netflix show, but almost any YouTube search about smart packing produces thousands of handy results about using packing cubes, rolling clothes into day packs, and choosing the best bag for the journey.
I have a whopping 4 different posts about Spirit and Frontier-compliant backpacks that can save you from that god-awful carry-on fee, or you can do your own research on what works for you.
If there’s any other information you think you need about packing a Spirit Airlines personal item, be sure to drop a comment below or contact me elsewhere!
Mindful Banter Travel 