We Finally Checked Bags After Years of Carry-On Only

Welcome back to another video and if we haven't met yet, I'm Allie Smalls. This is my husband Chris. I call him Tals and we hope you'll join us today on our travel day from Canada to Japan. So we thought it would be fun to bring you along on what a typical travel day is like for us and just take the opportunity to talk about and show you some of the logistics of traveling and flying. And along the way I'll share as many travel tips as I can. Okay you guys, we are doing something totally off brand. We are checking bags. Yes, we usually only fly with carry-ons but for this trip we chose to go with 24 inch checked luggage. And this is because Japan is a place where we actually want to buy souvenirs to bring home. And I think we get a pass because last Japan trip we did carry-on only. And while it was fine, we realized we could have gotten away just fine with slightly bigger luggage both on trains and taxis and in the hotel rooms. These are a great size and personally I don't think I would go larger than 26 inch for ease of navigation. After dropping our bags at the check-in counter, we headed to the lounge. So this is airport number one. We are here in YEG. We have one connection to make so only two flights today. So it should be a pretty good travel day. All good travel days start with a cup of coffee. And even though this came from a machine with a button, I didn't have to stand in line and pay eight dollars for it. So no complaints there. And Chris had to show me that his coffee looks like when they pour it in the commercials. It had just that perfect quintessential cup of coffee look. It's the simple things, right? On this day, our total travel time is a little over 16 hours from our 8 a.m arrival at the airport to touching down in Tokyo at 5 15 p.m the following day. So as I mentioned, we checked bags and Chris is now enthralled with the idea that he can track his bag through the app, which is what he's working on right now. Travel fail. I definitely forgot to put my air tags in this morning. Oh well. Disappointment. I still make rookie mistakes. Before we head to the gate to board flight number one, I just want to show you the personal item bags we're using for this trip. I'm using the bento bag, which I use to hold my laptop, compression socks, some flight slippers, electronics, and some of my in-flight comfort items. I also carried my crossbody bag from Low and Sons, which I'll be using as my daily purse for sightseeing. Chris is using a duffel bag from Carry X and that holds his camera bag, some in-flight items, and a few toiletries. I've also linked these bags plus our Czech luggage, which we just got on Amazon, in the video description and in the very first comment. Now it's time to board our first flight of the day. And one of the first things we do once we're seated is make sure we zip our passports away in a secure pocket. Each of these bags have great pockets for that. Chris then checked his AirTag app to confirm that his luggage made it onto the plane. And now it's time to leave snowy, flat Alberta. Time for coffee number two. I know there's a lot of talk about how you shouldn't drink the coffee on a plane, but it's something I enjoy and the pilots drink it, so I'm gonna live my life. We also get asked about camera gear when we travel, so here's Chris demonstrating how he changes camera lenses on the fly. For this trip in particular, we'll be using the Sony a6700 with two lenses, the Sony 11mm f1.8 and the Sony 85mm f1.8. Now that we've got some altitude, we've got a bit nicer of a view. And here's my favorite part about traveling west across Canada, flying over the Rocky Mountains. It's so mesmerizing with the blue sky and the jagged peaks. I've seen this so many times and every time and it's just so beautiful and so cool to look at. And after about an hour and a half, we are approaching Vancouver. Thus, we do hope you've enjoyed your flight. Hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. Also, I want to say if you've never checked bags before or if your flight has an international connection, on most routes your luggage will be checked through to your final destination, meaning you don't have to pick it up between flights. But sometimes that's not always the case, so if you're not sure, just head to the check-in counter and they will let you know. On this travel day, our layover ended up being a little over two hours. To the lounge. Also, when booking a connecting flight, I would recommend giving yourself at least one hour to connect. Anything shorter than that can be a little tight and stressful. Okay, so this is a special trip. I forgot to mention we are going to Japan because it's Chris's birthday. He's turning 21, so we thought we might make it special. And of course, we went straight to the plane spotting section. So we got a new lens for this trip. We're testing it out and so far so good. How good does that look? So we are going to top up our eSIMs. This is something, this is our little like airport routine that we do. So before we leave our home country, we get to the airport, we hang out in the lounge or at a restaurant or something and we have a drink and we buy data for our eSIM. The eSIM we personally use and love is Saily and thank you to Saily for sponsoring this video. If you've never used an eSIM before, it just means you can download a data plan directly to your phone. No need for a physical SIM card and no paying those expensive roaming fees when you're abroad. All you do is download the Saily app, choose your country or region, you pick a data plan and that's it. When you land, you turn it on and your eSIM is activated and so you'll have a data and access to the internet the moment you land. It works in over 200 destinations and I've their plans are usually cheaper than other eSIM options. And you'll also get a notification when you've used about 80% of your data so you can top up when needed and you'll never be without it. What's great is you just download it once and you can switch across regions easily just by buying a new plan which will then activate instantly. This year we'll be using it for not only Japan but on our trips to Ireland, Portugal and Greece as well. If you want a stress-free way to stay and if you use my link you'll get 15% off your plan. And use code ALISMALLS if you already have the app for 15% off the plan you choose. So this is a thing that we also really like doing and I would recommend anyone do this. If you're waiting to board your flight, especially if there's any kind of delay or even if there's no delay, you can actually check where your physical aircraft is. Right this very moment there's two websites flightaware.com and you just type in your flight number and then it'll show you a screen like this. Chris is going to explain it better. Okay I'm doing this live. So our flight's AC3. I'm going to go to yeah the AI gives you the data but if you want more information I'm going to go to flightaware. It's going to say all the information when it's leaving, what gate, time on route, all that stuff. Where's my plane now? So that's coming from Toronto to Vancouver. It's 44 minutes late. 11 minutes remaining and then you look at the map. Look at that. You can see it. It's in the pattern. It'll be here soon. There you go. So you can see exactly where your plane is, when it's going to show up. I'll shoot a video of it literally pulling into the gate so you know when it's going to show up. Maybe it's time to leave the lounge and go and make sure the gate exists. For all the dads out there, make sure the gate exists. Make sure the plane exists. It's all good. Here's another site flightradar24. I like this one a little bit better because you get the ground radar. So there's our aircraft actually taxiing off the runway and coming in and soon we'll be able to see it out there on the ramp. I'll get a shot of that when it shows up. Stand by. There's the ridge. Charlie Foxtrot India Victor Romeo. C-Fiber. Let's go. And there she is. C-Fiber sporting that classic AC livery. Beautiful. See you on board. Now it's finally time to board the most exciting flight of the day. Last year after finding a flight deal, we were able to afford to fly business class for the very first time ever. So naturally ever since then, we've been trying to find deals to do it again, which is part of the reason we went back to Japan so soon. This time we found a deal through Thrifty Traveler, which notified us of a good points deal. I've mentioned before that I also use Daily Drop Pro, which I still use, but I recently also signed up for Thrifty Traveler and I've been really impressed with some of the deals they've sent, especially with availability from Vancouver and Toronto airports. Of course, they've got deals departing from cities all over North America. So I think if you have flexibility, it's definitely worth it to pay for a service to find you flight deals. And I know that at Thrifty Traveler, there's an actual team of real people who are finding and vetting these deals and then putting together really clear instructions on how to redeem them. It's not just an algorithm that sends out automated emails. There's a link in the video description to save yourself $20 off your membership, or you can use code Allie Smalls. With Chris being 6'9", we often get asked about tall guy travel tips. And so if you have some flexibility with your dates, this is always his answer. On this flight, we're boarding a Boeing 777 with Air Canada. This is my second time ever flying business class, and I still can't believe we were able to get these seats. Here's a quick view of my plane pouches. These of course have been pulled out of my bento bag. So don't worry, I'm not bringing four bags on board. This is just my organization. I've got my noise cancelling earbuds, which I can watch movies with, and then to sleep they're flat so they don't poke my ears. And also the Bluetooth adapter so I can connect my earbuds to the in-flight entertainment. And I also put on my compression socks for the flight. Our meals were absolutely delicious. We each chose the traditional Japanese meal, which included miso simmered eggplant, a chicken meatball and quail egg, edamame, we had soba noodles with wasabi, and sesame tofu, and minced beef with konnyaku jelly, there was pickles and green tea. And that was just the appetizer. The main course was a sable fish with simmered egg yolk and a mushroom sauce served with rice and miso soup, and cheesecake and a bit of red wine for dessert. Also props to Air Canada because their slippers actually fit a size 13 men's foot. So he was very happy about that. After dinner it was time to clean up before getting a little sleep. So I grabbed my little pre-packed pouch with my toiletries. Here's a little view of the bathroom. I thought it was so cool that there was a window. I don't think I've ever had a window in one of the airplane bathrooms I've been in. Because they keep the cabin so dark, I actually had no idea that it was daylight out at this time. Anyway, I didn't really do a good job of filming in the but basically I just got ready for bed and took my contacts out and brushed my teeth. And while I was in the bathroom, Chris had this to say. Okay so Unbound Merino finally came out with tall size clothes. So I'm currently wearing a large tall v-neck 100% merino t-shirt. And now you've heard Allie talk about this stuff. It's moisture wicking and temperature regulating and you can wear it for a week and it doesn't stink. Well I'm gonna test that because me being a tall dude, it's hard to find clothes when I find shirts that I like. I buy 10 of the same color and I wear them over and over and over again until they just like disintegrate into threads blowing into the wind. Because like I need to hang on to these articles of clothing that actually work for me. So I've been a bit of a doubter about this whole merino thing. Because I'm just like yeah whatever whatever right. But so I am currently we're currently on our way to Tokyo. I put this on this morning and I'm going to wear this t-shirt until Allie says that I stink and should change to test how good the whole not stinking in merino wool actually works. So if I can make it this entire trip wearing one t-shirt I will. Stay tuned. And after a little under 10 hours in the air we finally made it to Tokyo. I highly recommend filling out the visit Japan customs and immigrations form before you arrive. Then you get a QR code to go through a line for faster arrivals procedures. And I'm happy to report even though I forgot my air tag my bag made it safe and sound. There are two main airports in the Tokyo area and we landed at Narita which is a little further out but it's really not too bad. We took the Keisei Skyliner train to the city which is pretty seamless. If you're unsure about tickets or where to go there are information offices with staff who speak English and are very helpful. Make sure to buy a fun vending machine drink for your train ride. And since we were staying in Asuka we took the train to Ueno station. So I think it took about 45 to 50 minutes and when we arrived it was actually pouring rain so we just took a taxi from there to our hotel which was about 15 dollars and well worth not having to walk a few blocks in the rain with our luggage. Okay it's currently 7 30 Tokyo time which means we are on hour 21 and a half of the travel day that I've been in this shirt. And we just arrived in the hotel room and like tatami mats, lemon sour, highball, acai to prove that we're here in Tokyo. This shirt is as fresh as it was when I put it on. Day one 100% let's see how far we can go with this. It's been a pretty smooth travel day to be honest. Everything went pretty well so we're really excited to start our two weeks here in Tokyo and area. Both of us. I need an onsen. Yeah so the power play here is the first hotel that you book in Tokyo try to find one that has an onsen because there is nothing better than after a long travel day hitting that hot spring. So that's what we're gonna go do. Thank you so much for joining us on our travel day and we'll see you in the next video.