Just deciding on an Aeronaut (Bundle vs. other packing methods)

[dsmking]

I love my Aeronaut and TriStar. I have an older Aeronaut without compression straps, and have been tempted to "trade up." I've tried bundling, and if you have time at your destination to unpack, it's okay. The roll (or fold and roll) method seems to work much better for me, and in general, I have fewer wrinkles in clothing. Sometimes I'll use packing cubes to segregate clothing on longer trips (underwear, socks, dress clothes), and again, will use a combination of fold and roll, depending on the garments.

I know the temptation - probably the only reason I have not traded up is that I prefer the color of my Indigo Aeronaut to the current colors.

[lauragayle]

I love my Aeronaut and TriStar. I have an older Aeronaut without compression straps, and have been tempted to "trade up." I've tried bundling, and if you have time at your destination to unpack, it's okay. The roll (or fold and roll) method seems to work much better for me, and in general, I have fewer wrinkles in clothing. Sometimes I'll use packing cubes to segregate clothing on longer trips (underwear, socks, dress clothes), and again, will use a combination of fold and roll, depending on the garments.

[marbenais]

Hmm, I'm not that practiced at day-long refrigeration. I'd suggest insulating in multiple containers with ice packs in each layer -- for example, in an insulated lunch box, then in a grocery freezer bag, then in a cooler.

[falconea]

-- if anyone ever needs advice on how to pack the contents of a fridge, we have it!)

I have to ask - how? Your method could be useful when I need to transport frozen marine worms in a car for a day without allowing them to defrost....

Audrey

[Lani]

Jodi from Legal Nomads recommends compression-strap stuff sacks for packing clothes. You really don't want to pack easy-to-wrinkle stuff in there, but boy, does it compress down!

[marbenais]

I usually roll my clothes into Stuff Sacks (medium for underwear & socks, large for shirts, pants, pyjamas, etc) with each item rolled individually. (We have LOTS of experience packing -- we spent two years splitting time between our two houses, switching by bus or car once or twice a week -- if anyone ever needs advice on how to pack the contents of a fridge, we have it!)
Since we've been traveling by car with Rosalind for the past year, our packing methods haven't been as minimizing. We still use the Stuff Sacks, but also roll pants and put them in the Western Flyer / Tristar Packing Cube Backpack along with shirts loosely wrapped around the hangers.

I used to fold my clothes very loosely in the suitcase on the departure trip and roll them tightly to leave room for souvenirs on the return trip . . . but that was before bag restrictions.

[moriond]

If you do decide that you want to stick with the bundle packing method, take a look at the Tri-Star instead of the Aeronaut. The Tri-Star is actually closer size-wise to the other two bags you mentioned and has more "flat space" than the Aeronaut does.

I'd still recommend using packing cubes with the Tri-Star. If you want to see how this works, check conejo23's review of his new Tri-Star, including pictures, posted last month. (This still uses a combination of rolling with the packing cubes.)

moriond

[JoyR]

Bundling is too complicated for me. Rolling and using packing cubes is easier and faster.

[backpack]

Like most of the other posters, I use Packing Cubes and rolled or carefully folded clothes.

Most of my trips have at least one dress up event. One trip was precisely timed to get us from the airport, to the hotel, our room to freshen up and dress up then drive to the venue without a minute to spare.

Under those condition, un-bundle packing the dress clothes and accessory would have been very unwise as it is very time consuming, time, we didn't have.

The Packing Cubes performed flawlessly, the dress clothes, some ironed at the departure point, unfurled with no need for ironing touch up.

To speed up the dressing up process, I only took out the Packing Cubes, unzipped them, laid out my husband outfit and proceeded to get into mine, add accessories and makeup, grab my dress bag along with the direction to the venue for the event which was scheduled to start very shortly.

Car GPS, phone map, and the bride very detailed written direction to the rescue and we made it.

I could not have pulled off many fast and necessary wardrobe changes from comfortable traveling outfit to good looking dress-up without my Packing Cubes, as a result of their flawless function, I bought more in different colors and shapes.

I know that I am not alone.


I did try bundling versus Cube packing while doing practice packing, un-bundling in a hurry always resulted in a messy pile from which each wardrobe piece needed to be extracted from, inspected and more often than not. needed extra ironing.

I don't appreciate doing the same chore twice (ironing), it delays the setting up of each outfit in the room dresser and steals away jet lag adjusting rest as well as primping, socializing and new horizons enjoyment time.

[Orcatex]

I had 122 take offs on American last year and travel wrinkle free with the Aeronaut! I also have a TriStar for shorter hauls and an Air Boss in a closet somewhere. Red Oxx makes good stuff, but ultimately I found the bag heavy on its own.

One plus for the Aeronaut in the wrinkle free department is the ability to get shoes and other asymmetrical items out of the main compartment and into the side compartments. Plus, the open slash pocket on one end is perfect for a quick draw of your liquids and gels in security...packed in a TB 3D organizer cube, of course.

[Scattered]

Bundling with the Aeronaut works best for me when I'm taking mostly casual clothes - jeans, shorts, polos, t-shirts - and have something I can use as "stuffing" for the middle of the bundle to prevent the innermost layers of clothing from getting too wrinkled (as noted by Lani). I've used a pair of shoes in a plastic bag or a dopp kit as my "filler". When traveling with less casual clothes, I typically use an Eagle Creek Pack-It folder for my dress shirts and nicer polos. I was given one of the large Aeronaut packing cubes for Christmas, so lately I've been packing folded heavier garments like sweaters and pants into the packing cube with socks and undergarments to round out the corners and even out the top. The packing cube goes on the bottom with the EC folder on top of it and there's still room to add more in the main compartment. This type of flexibility in packing is one of the features I really like about this bag. It's also one of the bigger challenges, as it can take some time to develop the packing style(s) that works best for you and your gear. I've even packed my 15.4" MacBook Pro in its Horizontal Cache in the bag for a few short car trips; it was heavy, and I had to remember to be careful not to toss the bag around, but it fit.

[dsmking]

I use a combination of fold and roll to pack my bag and all my clothes arrive wrinkle free. My first aeronaut did not have the tie down straps and I found that two large cubes are the way to go...

Did you use packing cubes with the fold and roll? I have tended to fold the items in my large packing cube and roll/stuff the items in my smaller cubes. I did test the bundle method once when packing for a 13-day drip moving between 5-6 places but did not use it because it seemed better suited for trips where you did not live out of the Aeronaut.

It sounds like you have had Aeronauts both with and without the tie down straps. How important would you say they were in how you pack the Aeronaut?

I have the old Aeronaut without the straps (but in beautiful Indigo which they no longer make) and keep wondering if I should "switch" up. The Aeronaut works well for most of my trips but I worry about two things:

1) Packing too light and having things shift. This has not happened yet but I have not yet used it for a 2-3 day trip. Since I pack in cubes I have not gotten wrinkles but the straps would be nice to keep the cubes from shifting.

2) Packing so that the Aeronaut can fit in an extemely small sizer by not filling one of the endpockets. When I was not needing to be that small I might shift one of my cubes into the empty end pocket. Every so often this issue tempts me to order the Tri-Star or Western Flyer (and I would have done so if I could get it in Indigo).

[Darcy]

If you do decide that you want to stick with the bundle packing method, take a look at the Tri-Star instead of the Aeronaut. The Tri-Star is actually closer size-wise to the other two bags you mentioned and has more "flat space" than the Aeronaut does.

[Lani]

(Remember, gurus believe in one way only and that's their way.

We all believe there is only one way to travel: Lightly!

[I think that makes us all gurus! hehe]

[Lani]

I'm with Frank and Moriond on this one, kjm3579 (and I also maintain a FAQ on traveling light).

The bundle method (or call it the pearl-in-the-oyster or big hug methods) are good if most of the clothes you're packing are the same size or same type of garment. It gets a little tricky to try to get them to hug into each other when the garments are different.

There are two big disadvantages to the bundle method (and I've read the book, which for the most part is pretty good):

#1: It prevents wrinkles... BUT ONLY FOR THE OUTER GARMENTS IN THE HUG/BUNDLE!! If you aren't careful, the inside garments can easily fold into each other and get just as wrinkled as always.

#2: You wind up with one huge lump. You can't get to an inner garment without unfurling the entire bundle. What this means is that when you get to your hotel/destination, you HAVE to unpack everything. Put them in dresser drawers or hang them, but they cannot stay in your carry-on.

Over the years, I've slowly switched over to advocating organizers. Eagle Creek has a pretty cool garment holder that looks like an envelope; that will keep the garments from wrinkling.

Better yet, the key is to take travel-friendly clothes that don't wrinkle easily. AND take a little travel-sized bottle of Downy wrinkle releaser with you and it'll smooth things out.

We have an Aeronaut we periodically use. I find it a tad too big for my frame (I'm not quite 5'3") so I typically use a Western Flyer, but the compartmentalization of the Aeronaut is really excellent for carryon-only travel.

Don't let the bundler lead you astray. Go with organizers. The bundle method is so 1990s.