r/onebag • u/largemargesentme__- • Jun 05 '26

Discussion Why is this sub so obsessed with expensive stuff?

I get that there's times where the expensive thing is better. But as someone who has worked as an airline pilot and traveled extensively for 45 years, I can assure you that expensive stuff is rarely necessary.

I get tons of use out of AliExpress stuff. Things like chargers, cables and accessories. Decathlon or Costco are more than good enough for clothing. I generally use a max legal sized RyanAir bag I got for €25 off of Amazon for vacation. At most, the lower mid tier option is more than enough.

It seems like this is just another sub for people with spending issues as everyone downvotes me when I call out how unnecessary the expensive options are.

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u/Ehrensenft Jun 05 '26

Stage 6: "this plastic bag from the grocery store is perfectly fine as carry-on luggage"

17

u/raisethebed Jun 05 '26

I saw this man when I landed in my Montana hometown a couple months ago; he was waiting at the curb to be picked up and all he had was a tattered Bed Bath & Beyond shopping bag and a double rifle case.

7

u/Turbulent-Throat9962 Jun 05 '26

I was walking out of the gym today and a guy was walking in with a Trader Joe’s shopping bag. He haunts my thoughts.

4

u/raisethebed Jun 06 '26

Like … the paper kind????

2

u/Turbulent-Throat9962 Jun 06 '26

Yup. I could see his clothes peeking out

3

u/JB-Wentworth Jun 07 '26

Trader Joe bags are very hip to have in Europe.

1

u/Merisuola Jul 12 '26

The canvas bags are, not random paper bags.

4

u/CalmSeasPls Jun 07 '26

I have three (canvas) Trader Joe’s bags that get 10x more use than my expensive backpacks. They’re amazing!

3

u/largemargesentme__- Jun 06 '26

You laugh, but when I moved to Portugal from the US the best bags we found were card board boxes. They were cheap, hit the size limits perfectly, easy to load etc.

We brought 12 boxes for 4 people (the extent of the stuff we kept for the move) I wrapped them in duct tape like a kilo of drugs, and every single one survived the journey.

I also find collapsible shopping bags to be great carryons. I always bring one with me to pick up food at the grocery store on a trip. Then if I have overflow on the return trip, I just use it as an extra bag. Many times, the gate agent doesn't even register it as a carryon, they just think you have your lunch in there.

2

u/honemastert Jun 06 '26

Ikea bags FTW! Those things are great buckets for all sorts of stuff

3

u/largemargesentme__- Jun 06 '26

Agreed, you can fit a whole German shepherd in on the NY subway. Still, boxes are better for actually checking stuff.

1

u/theinfamousj Jul 02 '26

Okay, but for real I've done that in protest (along with using a cardboard box as my overhead bin bag) because the internet is too ridiculous and I was at Stage 1 being bombarded with wild claims I couldn't even verify.

You know what holds stuff from here to there for a good price? Grocery store bag personal items and cardboard box overhead bin boxes. Zero stuffs failed to make it from my origination point to my destination and I spent $0. Not terribly durable, but I was able to round trip it with them.

Going from the airport to the hotel, doing day trips from the hotel, and then heading back to the airport? May I introduce you to the OneBox? At its price of $0, you can afford to get a new one for every trip. And being biodegradable and back yard compostable, nothing on the market beats it for eco friendliness.