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A short article about a mistake that is easy to avoid and surprisingly common to make

This does not need to be a long article. The advice here is practical, specific, and learned the hard way by enough people that it is worth putting in writing before it happens to you.

What Goes in Your Carry On

When you board your first flight toward the ship, treat your carry on as the bag that needs to get you through your first week of work in case everything else disappears. Because occasionally, it does.

At a minimum, your carry on should contain:

Enough clothing for several days, including whatever you need for your first shift: uniform pieces, a shirt and tie, or whatever your department requires. If you need to look presentable from your first night onboard, the clothes that make that possible should be on your body or in the bag under the seat in front of you.

All documents and valuables. Passport, contract, any medical certificates or visas, your phone and charger, any medication you take regularly. None of these go in checked luggage. Ever.

A basic toiletry kit. Checked bags are occasionally delayed for days, and arriving at a ship in a foreign port without a toothbrush is an avoidable inconvenience.

Airlines generally allow crew members additional luggage allowances. It is worth mentioning at check in that you are joining a ship as crew, as ground staff will often accommodate the extra bag or weight without the standard fees. Ask. The worst outcome is that you pay anyway.

What Goes in Your Checked Bags

Everything else. The bulk of your clothing, your personal items, the things you will need across the contract but do not need immediately. Checked bags exist for the things that can afford to be delayed or lost without derailing your first days at work.

There is also a practical case for traveling light at the start of a contract rather than the end. Most crew who complete a contract return home with more luggage than they arrived with: purchases from ports, gifts, equipment accumulated over months. Joining the ship with two large suitcases means leaving with four, and either shipping the excess home at real cost or paying overweight fees at the airport. Starting with one manageable checked bag and your carry on is the smarter approach, and you can always have things sent out from home if you find you need them.

What Happens When It Goes Wrong

Munich to Heathrow. Heathrow to Puerto Rico. An empty Boeing 747, friendly crew, plenty of snacks, a pleasant journey right up until the moment the luggage carousel in San Juan stopped moving and the checked bag was nowhere on it.

In the carry on: one pair of socks, one pair of underwear, one pair of sneakers.

The ship was joining that night. The uniform was in the checked bag.

The manager was understanding enough to raid the uniform store for a replacement set. The trousers were two sizes too large. The shirt was not much better. None of it was comfortable, none of it fit properly, and all of it was avoidable.

The bag arrived eventually. The lesson arrived immediately.

Lost luggage is not rare. Long haul connections with tight layovers, overbooked flights, labeling errors: bags get separated from their owners on a regular basis, and international travel to remote joining ports adds complexity that domestic flights do not. You cannot control whether an airline loses your bag. You can control what is in the bag you keep with you.

Pack accordingly. Do not be the person in the oversized uniform on their first night.

The bag that gets lost is always the one with the uniform in it. Pack like you already know this.