I have an A45, Tri-star and pilot... and a 5-day/4-night conference coming up. I want to just take the Tri-star. I bought it last year so I could just do one-bag travel... not even carry a 'personal item' on the plane. So I'm really trying to use the tri-star by itself. The issue really is my 15 inch MBP with cache. No matter what I do, it seems like the tri-star is bulging out and not sure I want to put my electronics in that.
I have the packing cube backpack for the tri-star, and perfectly willing to use that to transport the MBP to the conference from the hotel room. But getting to the hotel, I'm trying to only have the tri-star to deal with in the airport. The MBP in the middle section with some socks pack in the side. The backpack is in the back, with underwear, night clothes, and shirts... extra pair of jeans. Front big compartment has a couple more shirts (3 shirts, 3 undershirts total in front/back... I can easily do a week with those shirts and a packet of woolite.), small section has cables, battery, dopp kit. I want to put some items in the front zippered section, but there just isn't room. The bag is just... really full. (I somewhat blame the jeans, but kinda out of options.) With the A45, I would roll my clothes in packing cubes to pack, but the tri-star seems to like being pack 'thinly'... so I flat-pack in the cubes instead. Though doesn't seem to help much.
If I was going to take two bags, I'd forget the tri-star and buy a A30 for clothes and dopp kit and use a synapses for electronics and gear. I usually don't need the room in the A45 these days... though I did consider using it just for this trip instead of the tri-star. (Wish it had a secure spot for the laptop... not sure how I feel dumping the laptop in with just the cache but I suppose its fine.)
I figured that if I couldn't one-bag it this trip with the tri-star, I'd sell it and get the A30 instead. Pilot works with the 15"MBP, surprisingly enough... (The pilot is an awesome bag)
Any advice on one-bagging with the tri-star?