This site is about backpacking in terms of wilderness trekking. You want a budget travel website. Lonely Planet seems to be dying, but Let's Go and Rough Guide are good sources. Rick Steves has excellent info on packing light, although I've found a lot of his other travel info to be inaccurate.

A pack that will hold up to airline baggage handlers (ever see them at work? It's horrifying!) is going to have to be a bomber style pack, not lightweight. If you want to travel light, take a pack that is small enough to use as a carry-on. Take lightweight clothing of synthetic fabrics that can easily be washed in sink or shower and dries rapidly. That way you need only one change of clothing and don't need a big pack. I've traveled for three months at a time that way.