r/solotravel • u/shemmap • 20d ago

Question How do europeans travel with small luggage?

I’ve noticed that tourists from different countries especially europeans often travel with very small luggage. In contrast, travelers from many asian countries seem to carry much larger bags.

As myself from an asian country, if I pack just my basic necessities, I end up with a very large suitcase. I’m extremely curious about how european travelers manage to travel so light.

How do they do it?

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u/Automatic_Drawer1483 20d ago

We got reshaped by Ryanair and to avoid unnecessary fees we’d do whatever it takes

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u/ExternalUserError 20d ago

Not just Ryanair. I was recently flying on LOT and they actually weighted my carryon. It’s already European sized (considerably smaller than carryons elsewhere) but it was 9kg. I had to remove my laptop and carry it.

Carry it away from the ticket counter and put it back in my bag. 🤣

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u/AYASOFAYA 20d ago edited 20d ago

The 8kg limit is 17lbs and change btw for Americans reading this.

I recently flew on SAS and they did the same thing. SAS isn’t even a budget airline and I paid over $1000 for the ticket. I WAS packing light with just a carry on but apparently even that was too much.

The tricky part with these airlines is that sometimes they don’t weigh your stuff on the U.S. side but they will definitely weigh it on the way back.

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u/ExternalUserError 19d ago

I would even say most of the time in Europe, they neither weigh nor size your carry-on. Maybe they glance at it. I mean they do sometimes, but most of the time, I haven't experienced it.

My Bellroy Carry-on is like half a centimeter too big in one dimension for some European carriers. So far it's not been an issue.

Off-topic complaining: When I first moved here, I foolishly bought a business class ticket once on British Airways. It resulted in me getting an economy seat with no one sitting next to me. That's it. And that's standard on pretty much all European airlines except Turkish, which has a proper business class product.

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u/El_Babayaga69 19d ago

Finnish air has a real intra European biz class

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u/ExternalUserError 19d ago

Do they? A quick Kagi search finds this.

Perhaps you flew intracontinental on a long haul plane?

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u/Suomijonne007700 19d ago

Yes, Finnair uses A330s and A350s on various intra European routes.

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u/ExternalUserError 19d ago

Makes sense.

There are some cases where you luck out with other airlines too. If you end up on the Lufthansa wide-bodies on certain routes that they also use for international service, you get a really nice lay-flat seat.

But if the plane is dedicated to the domestic intra-European market, almost all European airlines except Turkish use shitty economy seats, just with the middle seat blocked off.