the approach

• Pack for the exact amount of outfits according to number of days and number of nights
• Allow room for purchases
• Avoid paying for overweight baggage

With packing cubes on our side, we decided to first try to pack both him and her in one check bag. While everything fit on one side of the suitcase, allowing the other side for purchases, we nearly hit the weight capacity for one bag aka all of that extra space didn't matter for all of our goals. Again, the packing cubes were on our side and in 2 minutes we were re-packed into two carry on bags, doubling our weight allowance for travel.

the breakdown

Her yeses

Her noes

Her pack

Space for purchases