Luggage Weight Planner
The night before a flight, somebody stands on the bathroom scales holding a suitcase and does subtraction, then moves the boots into the other bag and does it again. It is a packing problem with an exact answer, and two facts settle whether it is possible at all: the total against the total allowance, and the heaviest single item against the biggest bag.
What this generator does
Sorts everything heaviest first and puts each thing into whichever bag has the most room left, then checks that nothing is over and everything is somewhere.
How to use this tool
- List what you are taking, weight first, one thing a line.
- Add each bag with its allowance in kilograms.
- Read which bag each thing goes in, and how much spare is left.
- Anything that cannot fit anywhere is listed separately, with the reason.
Understanding the controls
- What you are packing
- One thing a line with its weight, written either way round — “12 kg suitcase contents” or “Books, 3.1”. Lines without a weight are ignored, so notes can stay in the list.
- Bags and allowances
- Each bag with what it is allowed to weigh. Add one for every allowance you have, including other people's, up to twelve.
Common use cases
- Splitting a family's luggage across several allowances
- Deciding what has to come out before you get to the airport
- Balancing a hold bag against a cabin bag
- Checking whether an extra bag would actually solve it
- Distributing kit across a group going to the same place
How this generator works
Items are placed heaviest first into whichever bag has the most room left, which is the standard approach and gets the awkward items in while there is still room for them. What matters more is that the result is checked rather than assumed: every item must appear exactly once across the bags and the leftovers, each bag's weight must be the sum of what is in it, and no bag may exceed its allowance. Two facts decide whether any arrangement could work at all — the total weight against the total allowance, and the heaviest single item against the largest bag — and both are reported so a failure comes with a reason rather than a shrug.
Randomness and fairness
Nothing is random. The same list and the same bags always pack the same way.
For how randomness is produced across the whole site, see how Generate Random works.
Limitations and good to know
- Weight is the only constraint here; size, shape and what is allowed in a cabin bag are not modelled.
- Heaviest-first packing is very good but not provably optimal — a perfect split sometimes exists where this leaves a kilogram spare.
- Airlines weigh the bag, not the contents, so allow for the bag itself.
- Allowances differ between airlines on the same trip; put each leg's allowance in separately.
Privacy and your data
The packing list is worked out in your browser. Nothing you type is transmitted or stored.
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