We remembered seeing exactly that while waiting to board our recent San Francisco to Hawaii flight. One family after another arrived with young children pulling little rolling suitcases that were almost as big as they were.
We had not given it much thought until a reader pointed it out in the comments on our recent article about why boarding Hawaii flights is taking longer. The observation was simple. Years ago, younger children’s belongings were often packed into their parents’ luggage. Today, many families seem to give every child their own suitcase for whatever reason.
Why family packing to Hawaii changed.
There are good reasons this shift happened, and they have little to do with parents trying to make life harder on themselves.
For one thing, checked baggage became more expensive. Families looking to avoid baggage fees increasingly tried to fit everything into carry-on luggage. Giving each traveler a suitcase can also make packing easier, especially when you want to keep everyone’s clothing, shoes, and vacation gear together from home to Hawaii and then back again.
Children’s luggage has also become its own category. Small rolling suitcases, colorful designs, and travel gear marketed specifically to young travelers encourage kids to take responsibility for their own belongings. Many family travel guides recommend exactly that, saying it teaches independence while making packing less stressful. For families with older children, it can also reduce the obvious constant question of whose swimsuit, sandals, or favorite shirt ended up in someone else’s bag.
How Hawaii flights make this debate different.
Hawaii flights add another dimension because almost everyone is carrying vacation luggage. Unlike many mainland trips where travelers might check larger bags or travel for only a weekend, Hawaii visitors often bring enough for a week or longer. Overhead bins fill quickly, boarding aisles become crowded, and every additional roller has to find its way down the aircraft before takeoff. That does not mean children should not have their own bags. Many families make it work without any difficulty.
On the other hand, anyone who has watched a parent lifting multiple suitcases into overhead bins while also helping younger children knows that the smallest roller often ends up being carried by an adult anyway. What began as independence at the curb can quickly become one more thing for parents to manage once boarding begins.
This is not about what goes inside your carry-on luggage.
We have written before about how packing for a Hawaii vacation has changed, which items Hawaii visitors should leave at home, and even the unusual things experienced travelers still bring to Hawaii. This is a different question. It is not about whether you packed the right things. It is about how many bags it now takes to carry them.
For some families, fewer shared suitcases still make perfect sense. For others, giving everyone their own luggage makes the entire trip easier from beginning to end. Neither approach is obviously right or wrong. Like so many travel habits, it often comes down to what works for your family. The point is that the comment hit home after watching the slow crawl of carry-ons on flights to Hawaii.
Has family luggage reached a turning point here?
Checked bag fees, carry-on habits, and an entire market for children’s luggage have changed what a family trip through the airport looks like. Shared suitcases can still keep each person’s belongings separate by using compression bags that remove the air before going inside a larger suitcase.
BOH editor Rob uses them, with a small battery-operated deflator kept in his carry-on, and it creates far more room without adding another roller. Individual bags can give children more independence and keep their things organized, while shared luggage means fewer bags to track, fewer rollers in the aisle, and less competition for overhead space.
We are curious where Beat of Hawaii readers land on this one.
If you travel with children or grandchildren, does everyone get their own suitcase, or do you still share bags? Has your approach changed over the years, and do you think today’s way of packing actually makes Hawaii travel easier for you and everyone else?
Lead Photo Credit: © Beat of Hawaii at Diamond Head Beach Hotel.
By Rob and Jeff, Beat of Hawaii.
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The cost for a kid’s ticket is the same as an adult’s; therefore they are owed a carry-on and personal item just like everyone else. If it wasn’t a child’s roller bag “clogging” the aisles and overhead bins, it would be an adult’s — same number of passengers, likely same number of roller bags. If you want to be upset at someone, choose the airlines for steep charges for checked bags. On the other hand, plenty of people are just very keen about keeping their bag with them, and pack lightly to make it happen. Frankly, I’m in awe of people who can just do a carry-on!
maybe we pack and take too much stuff….
Howdy from Colorado! I guess I just must be old school, I just can’t get on board with the idea of refusing to check luggage. Even when I travel with kids we check everything. I have a coworker who justifies her choice to do so as cost savings and not having to wait at the luggage carousel. As a passenger who only uses an underseat bag and checks everything else, personally I watch in amazement as people delay the entire plane to retrieve huge bags from the overhead bins. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve been whacked by one of those bags. To each his own, I’m good with my underseater and not having to drag bags for miles.
Airports and airplanes already feel crowded enough. Four people, four suitcases, four backpacks, the water bottles and neck pillows. It’s become amazing anyone gets in and out of the plane anymore with what it’s become.
I’m replaying our Hawaii trip from last month in my head. Every family around us really did seem to have a roller for every single person including the kids. Just clogs the overhead bins even more.
We still use two large suitcases with compression bags inside for everyone’s clothes. Each person gets a packing cube, so everything stays separate. We have airline credit cards so are getting the bags checked without extra cost. We’ve never understood why we would want to switch to a bunch of unmanageable rolling bags instead.
I think airline baggage fees changed everything and thus they brought it on themselves. We used to just check large bags without thinking about it. Now everyone tries to carry everything onboard, with little or nothing checked and while the airport experience feels completely different it is what it is.
We do exactly this with our three kids and honestly it works great for us. Everyone knows where their stuff is, nobody blames a sibling for missing something, and they each pull their own bag.
We always packed one big suitcase for the kids and one for us adults. Somehow kids survived childhood without their own roller. Now I watch parents juggling four carry-on bags plus backpacks and wonder who this is actually helping.
its airlines charging crazy amounts for checked bags, causing everyone to take a (usually) included carry-on, chances are those kids bags are full of adults clothing mostly, we’ve done that before,. basically we pack all at once, and just make it all fit it into 4 carryons, regardless of who’s pulling it.
This isn’t a change for us. Our fist trip to Hawaii was 2003. Our 3 y/o had her own bag, and she was quite proud of hauling it herself. My parents were frequent travelers, and they had always had the habit of taking essentials in a carry on bag to last for a few days in case your luggage was lost. It just stuck with me and has served me well, as I’ve had my luggage lost 3 times going and 2 times coming home. Not a big deal coming home, but a Huge deal while away.
It would appear that the topic listed underneath the suitcases on the main page does not match the article itself about luggage.