Smart Guide to Your Carry-On

I once had to sleep in an airport… on the floor.. on Christmas night… in the middle of wht everyone was saying would be a blizzard, but the snow hadn’t started to fall yet.

Okay, let me rewind. It was the first Christmas I was living in California and it was the first time I wasn’t going to be spending the holiday with my family. But my mom and stepdad decided to that after 16 years of living in sin they were going to tie the knot on Christmas Eve. Of coarse I had to be there. But oh wait, I work in retail management. There is a not-so-unspoken rule that you aren’t able to take off from Nov. 1 to Jan. 1.

So I struck a deal with my boss and he allowed me to fly home the day before Christmas Eve on a redeye, spend the 24^th and 25^th with my family and fly back in time to close on the 26^th. 12 hours of fly time round trip with only 36 hours on the ground. Perfect.

I spent an amazing holiday with my family. Late on Christmas night my mom drove me back to JFK. She dropped me off at the terminal that I always fly out of and I was on my way home. I go inside, head to the kiosk to print my ticket and…. Nothing.

I don’t have a ticket.

I headed to the counter and because I had flown with that specific airline on my way to the east coast, they had my flight history on file. The lady confirmed I have a flight in an hour, out of another terminal with another airline.

So I ran to the tram, rode two terminals over and went to the kiosk there. Long story short, (and a three page complaint letter later) my mom was already home in Connecticut and I was stuck at JFK, on Christmas night and had missed flight.

Lucky for me I only had a carry-on so I had all of my clothes and toiletries but since that miserable 10 hours of sitting on chairs, the floor and pacing (I didn’t have a smart phone yet) I have been very specific about what I bring in my carry-on bag. Here is my smart guide to your carry-on.