Now, of course, budget airlines are all around us, and have succeeded in tempting us to spread our wings - even if it is only as far as Spain for two weeks in August.
In order for us to be able to have this freedom to take off and explore, however, there have had to be sacrifices, and the main one has come in the form of aircraft being required to make every last square metre of their space pay.
Of course, if everyone on board a plane is paying less for their ticket than it costs for the fuel to get that plane to its destination, and to employ the crew to fly it there, then that journey has to be made viable somehow.
And as luggage allowances come under ever more pressure, it's only logical that enterprising new companies should step in to replace the carrying capacity that the airlines have cut back on, in the name of competition and offering better deals for us passengers.
This has resulted in the arrival of a number of far-sighted companies which spotted the potential for this market, which now offer baggage handling and forwarding services to destinations all around the world.
Students, émigrés, business people and even people who spend extended holidays at their properties overseas are all among the regular users of these services, proving that, as the world becomes more mobile, so new ways have had to be found to keep up with all our movements.
Headlines in India are currently being made by the continent's new breed of budget airlines' efforts to expand their revenue bases by, for example, charging for in-flight meals and expanding the range of products sold on board their planes.
So budget airlines' desire to devise new ways of earning revenue from a finite number of passengers seems set to remain as strong as ever, so long as we, as travellers, keep our hunger for travelling as far as possible, for as little as possible.
This rise of these budget airlines will make excess baggage carriers be more popular and bring them to forefront of everybody's mind when needing such a service.