With a little over five weeks left before our month long vacation to the US mainland, my wife and I have been debating on whether to check in luggage or to simply travel light with a single carry on and a small backback.

After reading all the problems the airlines in the continental United States have had the past couple years with baggage claims and lost luggage, we opted for the latter. We just need to find time to sort out our things so we know exactly what we’ll be needing and what we can do without.

Its seems that the biggest problem now is figuring out what carry on we can use to get to all our destinations without having to check-in anything. Each plane we board on our flight route have different specifications for their carry on capacity.

After finalizing the itinerary we ended up on three different carriers. The most accommodating was Continental. They allow the following size. 51 linear in or 130 cm(L+W+H). Northwest however, was a bit more restrictive at 45 linear inches (9 inches by 14 inches by 22 inches)

My biggest problem however is the intercontinental travel on US Airways. Although they allow up to 51 inches/129 cm (11x14x26 inches or 28x35x66 cm) I have this short flight on a smaller aircraft run by US Airway Express which requires a much smaller carry on 45 inches/114 cm (19x15x11 inches or 48x38x28 cm). I think it would be pretty ridiculous if I had to check in my bags just to fly on a plane for about an hour. I’ve been trying to get more information on this because the plane although operated by US Airways Express is called Air Wisconsin so the bag requirements might be different. I have not been able to get any information on this however.

So many problems to take a simple vacation these days. It would really be ideal if they could come up with a standard size for all planes. Or at the very least make it so that if we buy the complete package route on your carrier, we can use the carry on throughout our trip with no complications.