We Found the Optimal Way to Pack for a 3-Day Trip With Just a ‘Personal Item’

Travel Backpacks We Found the Optimal Way to Pack for a 3-Day Trip With Just a ‘Personal Item’ Updated May 29, 2026 Photo: Connie Park By Gabriella DePinho Gabriella DePinho is a writer covering trending products. She has written about cheap(ish) things for medicine cabinets, meal prep, and dorm rooms. As a budget traveler, I’m no stranger to sacrificing little luxuries in order to secure cheaper airline tickets. To save a few bucks, I’ve given up legroom, sacrificed picking my seats ahead of time, and flown at less-desirable hours. But the hardest thing to swallow as a frugal flier was not being able to bring a carry-on suitcase with me. Airlines like Frontier (in the United States) and Ryanair (in Europe) are known for their fees for extra bags. But other airlines, including United and JetBlue, have also started to introduce carry-on fees for basic economy tickets on certain flights — in other words, anything that’s not a personal item. (A personal item is the bag that airlines let you shove under the seat in front of you. All airline tickets include this free bag with your ticket, no matter which class you fly, at least for now.) It’s already hard enough to pack for a whole weekend in a standard carry-on, so squeezing everything into a personal-item bag is even trickier — especially since not all personal items (and standards set by airlines) are created equal. But, in general, the average size of a personal-item bag (or a piece of under-seat luggage) is roughly 18 by 14 by 8 inches. And if you want to make the most of those limited dimensions, Kit Dillon, staff writer and Wirecutter travel expert, recommends using a bag that is as rectangular as possible, so it’s easier to slide under the seat. After your bag is packed, however, you still have to make sure that it fits the dimensions outlined by the airline you’re traveling with. At Wirecutter, we’ve been putting all kinds of luggage, backpacks, and packing solutions to the test in real-world travel environments