Can Claude make a packing list?+
It can, and the flat list it gives you by default is mostly noise. The useful move is to ask for a triage instead: what could I not replace at the destination at all, what is replaceable but at a penalty such as airport prices or a Sunday closure, and what is trivially replaceable within an hour. The first tier is usually six or seven items and is the entire point of packing carefully. The third tier goes on one line and stops there.
Why does AI always give me a longer list than I need?+
Because it is additive by construction. Ask what am I forgetting and it will always find something, since returning nothing reads as unhelpful. Ask five times and you get five more items, each individually defensible and none of them things you would actually have missed. The correction is to ask the subtractive question separately, in a fresh conversation with no stake in the list: what here will I not touch, and what is here only because generic packing lists have it.
How do I stop overpacking clothes?+
Make the model derive the list from a constraint rather than a category. Give it the days, the activity for each day, and whether you have laundry access and on which day, then ask for a day-by-day wear plan before any garment list exists. The list is then the union of that plan and nothing else, and adding an item means changing the plan out loud with a reason. Seven days with a washing machine on day four is a different arithmetic problem from seven days without one.
Can AI tell me the hand luggage liquid limit?+
No, and it will try. The limits are airport-specific and carrier-specific and they change. The UK is the clearest case: the government's own guidance says most airports cap containers at 100ml, some allow up to 2 litres, and you have to check the airport you fly from and every airport you pass through on the return. One country, no single answer. The instruction that belongs in the prompt is to state no limit at all and instead output a line to verify, with the source named.
Do power banks go in checked or carry-on baggage?+
Carry-on only, never checked, and if your cabin bag is taken at the gate the spare batteries have to come out and stay with you. The FAA limit is 100 watt-hours per lithium-ion battery, and between 101 and 160 watt-hours you need airline approval and may carry at most two. Many airlines are stricter, and several have tightened power-bank rules recently, so the carrier's own page is the one that counts. This is the single most commonly mis-packed item and, unlike liquids, it does not vary by airport.
Can I ask AI whether my medication is allowed in a country?+
Ask, but do not accept the answer. Whether a medicine may be brought into a country is a legal question with real consequences, the rules differ widely, and some medicines that are ordinary at home are controlled or prohibited elsewhere. The answer comes from the destination's embassy or consulate and from your prescriber. What the model is genuinely useful for is reminding you to ask in time, and listing what to carry: original labelled packaging, in hand luggage rather than the hold, with a copy of the prescription or a letter from your doctor.
Is a skill better than a one-off prompt for packing?+
Only if you travel more than once or twice a year. A one-off prompt pack produces a good list for the trip in front of you and remembers nothing. A loaded skill keeps the base list, the things you personally always forget, and what you did not touch on the last three trips, which is the only mechanism by which a packing list gets shorter over time rather than longer. If the next trip is the only trip, the prompt pack is the honest answer.
How do I install the Nina skill?+
The download is a ZIP with SKILL.md at the root of the archive rather than inside a nested folder, which is the usual reason an upload fails. In the Claude desktop app open Customize, then Skills, upload the ZIP and toggle it on. Skills need code execution enabled, under Settings then Capabilities. Anthropic's help centre currently lists Skills on Free, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise, while its Academy tutorial lists Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise, so if you are on the free plan check Settings then Capabilities for your own account rather than trusting either page. In ChatGPT or Gemini there is no upload step, so open SKILL.md, copy the contents and paste them into custom instructions.
