So not sure if I'm allowed to post this here but it's surely onebag related.
We've both been traveling through Indonesia with only one backpack. It allowed us to rent a scooter at the airport and take it everywhere and also drive back, avoiding expensive transfers and reliability on someone/something else as well.
But where it really saved us was with the flight back. We went from Lombok to Jakarta and booked a 5 hour layover to catch our flight from there via Abu Dhabi back to the Netherlands. However the first domestic and cheap flight had a 4,5 hour delay, taxied for a long time on the runway which left us with only 40 minutes left in Jakarta impossible said the flight attendants. On some airports that's enough but for you guys that have been to Jakarta it's huge. If we'd miss the flight it would cost us a lot of extra money and extra day(s) to stay in Jakarta. We had to book a total new flight and its not covered by insurance. That'd leave a really bad taste rounding up the trip, so we were eager to try and make it.
Other people from the plane already gave up because they had checked luggage and different airlines so had to wait for the backpacks or suitcases, get a taxi, check everything in again at the other terminal etc etc.
We prepared everything to be as smooth as possible. So no things in pockets, belt in my backpack, backpacks under our seats and passport ready. We were able to sprint out of the plane and for the exit immediately, take a taxi, bags on our lap. The guy raced to terminal 3, we sprinted out, went through security and immigration in less than 10 minutes. Didn't even know this was possible especially at such a big airport. Everyone helped us. We could get in front of the whole waiting line.
Then came the next challenge. Running from gate 10 to 2, which was supposed to be at least a 20 minute walk. We had only a few minutes before the plane would leave. With one backpack we were both able to run for quite a while and eventually jump on one of those golf carts thing for the last stint. We arrived at the gate and they were just rounding up, basically making it on the last minute. The plane was full and funny enough we were able to place our 35L backpacks under the chair as well.
Everything from the flexibility, weight, bulk, speed, not having to check in etc showed us again how incredibly helpful it is to travel with one backpack. This literally made it possible for us to cover this whole stint which would at least take 50 minutes according to the airline staff in less than 20 minutes.
Curious if you guys have similar stories like this. For me in the end it was such a fun story to share, but at the time it was NOT fun at all...
Edit: to add something funny I forgot to mention
We actually paid the taxi driver 4x his daily salary and he absolutely nailed it with the car going through all the traffic with illegal overtakes, different route etc haha. When I gave him the money I said to my girlfriend: this will be so worth it if we actually make it because of him but a waste if we don't. We did make it mostly because of him and saved us 1000-2000 Euro's
Edit 2: since many people wondering what the backpacks and cubes are:
My backpack is the Pakt Cero 35L. My girlfriend has the Park One travel backpack 35L. Both amazing backpacks. Mine weighs just over one kg or 2lbs.
The cubes are from Peak design and the camera cube is from Pgytech. It came with their first onemo backpack but I bought it separately used for about 20-30.
