139. Travel Light: Carry-On Only Packing and Essential Tips

Points Talk®: Your Travel Dreams, Made Possible by Points

Alex, Pam and Jess

Places & Travel, Education, Society & Culture, How To

4.9 • 734 Ratings

🗓️ 29 July 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dragging multiple suitcases through cobblestone streets in Europe while trying to catch a train is the moment many travelers realize they've packed too much. The struggle of navigating airports with excessive luggage, waiting at baggage claim, and worrying about lost bags can turn what should be an exciting journey into a stressful ordeal.

The Squad has mastered the art of traveling with just a carry-on, even on trips lasting two weeks or more. In this episode, they share their tested strategies for making carry-on travel work, including their favorite luggage choices, packing techniques, and the mindset shift required to leave the overpacking habits behind. You'll discover how to handle everything from liquids and toiletries to choosing versatile clothing, plus tips for surviving jet lag and navigating new visa requirements like the UK's ETA system.

You can find links to resources mentioned in this episode plus the transcript here: travelmomsquad.com/139

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Here at TMS, each one of us travels carry on only. We get a lot of questions on how we make that
0:06.8	happen, so tune in to find out. Plus, see how we survive jet lag and more travel tips. Welcome to
0:13.4	Points Talk with the Travel Mom Squad. We are three moms who've discovered how to leverage
0:18.2	credit card welcome offers to get hundreds of thousands of dollars
0:21.7	of travel expenses for nearly free. We've used credit card points of miles to take vacations to places
0:27.3	like Hawaii, Paris, Greece, Maldives, Japan, and so much more. And the best part? We each still have
0:34.4	800 plus credit scores. Imagine being able to take the vacation of your dreams for nearly free.
0:40.1	It's totally possible and we're here to show you how.
0:44.0	Hey, I'm Alex.
0:45.6	And I'm Pam, Alex's mom.
0:48.0	And I'm Jess.
0:49.0	Let's Talk Points.
0:50.4	As many of you know, we pretty much exclusively travel carry on only, and we get a lot of questions
0:56.9	about how we make that work. So today we are sharing some tips that we have for packing carry on
1:03.4	only, as well as some additional sort of random travel tips. And I know this is a little bit
1:08.9	different than our normal episodes because it doesn't
1:11.1	directly tie into credit cards. But if you didn't have points in miles, you wouldn't need to
1:17.1	travel carry on only because you wouldn't be going anywhere. So I feel like it kind of ties in in that way.
1:24.1	So Alex, kick us off with some tips for carrying on only. Okay, well, I'm going to,
1:31.6	I'm going to tie in some points of mile stuff too, Jess, so you're going to be happy. But,
1:35.1	okay. First of all, a lot of times people might think, like, why in the world would you want to
1:39.6	just travel and carry on? Like, that sounds really hard. And honestly, I am shocked by the number of people that ask us how we do this and want an episode on this. So we've been asked so many times, we're like, okay, we just got to do it. There's been, even if it's not directly points of miles related, so many people want to know how in the world we do this. And it's kind of funny because I joke to Jess and I'm like, I don't know what to say on a podcast episode about this.
	...

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