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Travelpro luggage is known for its industry-leading durability. Each bag is thoroughly tested for everything from handle strength to wheel sturdiness to ensure it’s ready for anything. From handy underseat luggage to complete Travelpro luggage sets, you’ll find the right travel bags for every kind of journey at Macy’s. Let’s get you ready to jet-set in style.

How to Choose the Right Travel Bag Ready to pack your bags and embark on a new adventure? Travelpro bags come in a variety of sizes and designs that are perfect for any type of trip, whether you’re going on a short weekend getaway or a long vacation. From portable duffel bags to stylish Travelpro suitcases, we'll help you find the perfect travel companion. For shorter trips, we’d recommend Travelpro carry-on luggage that you can bring right on the plane and avoid paying a hefty checked bag fee. Travelpro tote bags come in larger sizes and expandable versions that are perfect for longer trips when you need to bring at least a week’s worth of clothing. Check out Travelpro sale & clearance for discounts on complete luggage collections including multiple-size spinner bags, duffel bags, and backpacks.

Travelpro Platinum Elite Frequent fliers turn to Travelpro’s Platinum Elite collection , which combines sophistication and innovation. These handsomely crafted bags are available in softside or hardside luggage that stack together and coordinate with each other effortlessly. If you want to upgrade your travel experience, Platinum Elite bags from Travelpro offer strategically designed travel organizers, smooth-gliding spinners, and luxe materials like genuine leather trim.

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The 8 Best Travelpro Luggage Items of 2024

Quality pieces that are built to last

We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. Learn more .

TripSavvy / Chloe Jeong

In 1987, Northwest Airlines pilot Bob Plath invented The Original Rollaboard, one of the world's first wheeled suitcases. The case gained massive popularity among airline pilots and crew, and eventually, Plath founded Travelpro to provide revolutionary luggage items for the general public. Today, Travelpro remains synonymous with quality and innovation—arguably one of the best luggage brands on the market. Need help deciding which of the brand's luggage items will best suit your needs? Below, we've rounded up our favorites, from checkpoint-friendly backpacks to lightweight spinner suitcases. We looked for options based on their size, organization, and travel-friendly features.

Final Verdict

• What to Look For

Why Trust TripSavvy

Best overall, travelpro maxlite 5 25" check-in expandable.

Extremely lightweight

Limited lifetime warranty

Great value

Feels flimsy

Compartments are difficult to organize

The Travelpro Maxlite 5 25-Inch Expandable Spinner is one of Travelpro’s most popular checked cases—and for good reason. It combines excellent quality and durability with an affordable price tag, and (like all of the Maxlite collection suitcases) it is incredibly light. The 100 percent polyester material is strengthened by a water-repellent coating, which held up beautifully during our waterproof testing. The expandable 25 x 18 x 11-inch dimensions are abundantly spacious. Pack your neatly folded shirts into the full-size lid compartment and keep track of your smaller items in the zippered side mesh pocket.

Despite the case’s large size, it is easy to maneuver, thanks to four 360-degree spinner wheels. The wheels are protected by crash-guard housings and rolled easily over gravel, hardwood, and cement. Choose one of two height settings for the telescoping handle with a comfortable patented contour grip. A lifetime warranty also affords you additional peace of mind, while available colors include azure blue, black, dusty rose, mocha, and slate green.

Our testers noted that the internal organization left a bit to be desired in that it was too simple.

Size: 27 x 18.5 x 11.5 inches | Weight: 7.3 pounds | Expandable: Yes

 Tripsavvy/Angelica Leicht

Best Carry-on

Travelpro maxlite 5 international carry-on rollaboard.

Lightweight

Complies with most carry-on regulations

Plenty of packing space

Lifetime warranty

Not entirely stain-resistant

Difficult to access front pocket

Limited color selection 

Fly anywhere with the Travelpro Maxlite 5 Carry-on Expandable Rollaboard, which meets carry-on size restrictions for most international airlines. The 20 x 15 x 7.7-inch case can expand to 2 inches, so you can still carry most of your belongings. Our testers reported that packing for a five-day trip was a breeze. At 5.4 pounds, it also weighs up to a half-pound less than its previous Maxlite 4 version, making the suitcase part of Travelpro's lightest collection. Better yet, its tapered shape prevents the case from tipping if you lose your ultimate carry-on checklist and pack too much.

The suitcase is made of polyester fabric and is designed to withstand water spills and stains (though the lighter hues suffered some cosmetic damage). Its zipper pulls add extra durability. It also features inline skate wheels and a handle system that reduces wobble for smooth, seamless transportation. Our one critique is the front exterior pocket is difficult to get in and out of due to its shallow construction.

Size: 20 x 15 x 7.7 inches | Weight: 5.4 pounds | Expandable: Yes

TripSavvy / Cheyenne Elwell

Best Checked

Travelpro crew versapack 25" expandable spinner.

Optional zip-in organizers for more packing versatility

Tapered, tip-resistant expansion

Grab handles on sides and bottom

Organizers sold separately

Made from ballistic nylon and treated with DuraGuard coating, the Travelpro Crew Versapack 25" Expandable Spinner Suitcase is designed to withstand staining and abrasions. It provides ample packing space at 25.25 x 17.75 x 9.75 inches—with an additional 2 inches if you expand the main compartment. The interior is cleverly designed with a built-in wet pocket and a fold-out suit bag to protect your precious garments.

It has a lifetime warranty, although its many patented parts seem durable. These include the PowerScope extension handle with four different height settings and the four-piece wheelset. The wheels have 360-degree rotation and a unique magnetic technology that helps them self-align for the smoothest possible movement. Available colors include jet black and patriot blue.

Size: 27.25 x 18.5 x 11 inches | Weight: 9.5 pounds | Expandable: Yes

Best for Durability

Bold by travelpro 25" check-in expandable rollaboard.

Lots of pockets and dividers

Great warranty

No middle divider in the main compartment

Wheels only roll one direction

A slightly smaller option is the Bold By Travelpro 25-Inch Expandable Rollaboard, which comes in black with stylish navy blue or purple accents. The 100 percent polyester material is water repellent (standing up to a spilled-water test), while the zippered main compartment is expandable by up to 2 inches. The inside of the top lid includes a zippered mesh pocket and a large zippered wet pocket—excellent for keeping your toiletries or dirty laundry separate.

You can further organize your belongings using the interior hold-down straps (all equipped with anti-break buckles) and zippered mesh pocket in the sidewall of the bag. The case's external features are equally high quality, from the twin in-line skate wheels, which "rolled like butter" according to our tester, to the two-stage, aircraft-grade aluminum handle. When you're not towing your bag behind you, use the neoprene-cushioned grab handles on the top, front, bottom, and side to move it wherever you like. Our tester appreciated this suitcase's strong but flexible body, noting that it squeezed into tight cargo spaces.

Size: 26 x 16.5 x 10.5 inches | Weight: 8.2 pounds | Expandable: Yes

TripSavvy / Angelica Leicht

Best Splurge

Travelpro platinum elite carry-on.

Generous expansion system

Charging capabilities

Business-specific features

Expanded dimensions may exceed airline restrictions

This carry-on spinner is part of Platinum Elite, Travelpro's sophisticated collection of suitcases. Borrowing some features from the brand's carry-ons, this spinner takes it up a notch with a tip-resistant expansion system that offers up to 2 more inches of packing space; a tie-down system; accessory pockets; and a removable, TSA-approved bag for toiletries. There's also a suiter for hanging clothes—a perfect addition for those traveling for work. Even more, a built-in USB port makes sure your devices are always powered. The 21 x 14 x 9-inch Travelpro carry-on is also supported by the brand's PrecisionGlide system and a pull handle for smooth mobility.

Size: 21 x 14 x 9 inches | Weight: 7.8 pounds | Expandable: Yes

Best Hard-Sided

Travelpro platinum elite carry-on spinner.

USB-A and USB-C compatible

Aesthetically pleasing

Pricey—but worth the investment

This top-of-the-line Travelpro suitcase series is ultra-chic and feature-packed—think external ports for charging and FAA-compliant storage for your battery pack in an external-access compartment. It can increase by another 2 inches in size, courtesy of its expansion option, if you do some shopping while traveling. It’s built to last, too, with leather trim, a polycarbonate shell, and aluminum corner armor.

Size: 23 x 14.5 x 9.75 inches | Weight: 8.1 pounds | Expandable: Yes

Best Underseater

Travelpro maxlite 5 underseat bag.

Detachable wet pocket

Super organized

Limited lifetime coverage warranty

Sectioned interior not to everyone's taste

Inline skate wheels (not a spinner)

Travelpro's under-seat carry-on is excellent for people who tend to pack light. Plenty of pockets and compartments inside and out keep everything in its place, and the designers have even thought to include a removable hanging wet pocket—great for cosmetics and toiletries. There's even a padded laptop or tablet sleeve to protect your personal devices. Like the rest of Travelpro's soft-sided suitcases, it's made from a durable, stain-resistant, water-repellent fabric exterior, so it'll hold up for many future trips.

Size: 17.5 x 14.5 x 8.5 inches | Weight: 5.5 pounds | Expandable: No

Travelpro Platinum Elite Medium Check-in Hardside Set

Combo for range of travel

Smooth wheels

Charging ports 

This sky-blue luggage will put you in a traveling state of mind while you’re still packing. The beautifully designed suitcases in this set have taken everything a traveler needs into consideration: There’s a medium-sized checked bag and a carry-on, so you have your bases covered when it comes to trip length. Meanwhile, the self-aligning spinner wheels will glide easily through even the busiest airports .

Size: 23 x 14.5 x 9.5 inches (Carry-on) and 27.25 x 18 x 13 inches (Checked-Medium) | Weight:  8.1 pounds (Carry-on) and 11.1 pounds (Checked-Medium) | Expandable: No

Light, durable, and available in several attractive colorways, the Maxlite 5 25" Expandable Spinner earns our top pick. From the same collection but in a carry-on size, the Maxlite 5 International Carry-On has many of the same qualities plus a tapered design to prevent tipping.

What to Look For in Travelpro Luggage Items

If you plan on using your suitcase as a carry-on, be sure its dimensions adhere to most airlines' luggage size requirements or be prepared to check it at the airport. Those looking for larger space can upgrade to checked models, including soft-sided suitcases, hard-case models, and duffels.

Organization

Organization-driven travelers will want suitcases with loads of pockets, compression straps, and other elements like a removable hanging bag. Active travelers, meanwhile, will benefit from designs that allow them to isolate their gear from their clean clothes. If you tend to shop during your travels, you should consider bags that come with storage expansion.

Travel-Friendly Features

If you like to stay connected when you travel, models that boast USB ports, internal batteries, and padded sleeves for your electronics are essential. International travelers may favor Travelpro models with RFID-blocking pockets to prevent virtual theft of their passport and credit card data. And if you put your bags through the wringer, a lifetime warranty and reinforced corners should indicate that the suitcase will live a long life.

There are two sets of instructions, depending on if you have soft-sided or hard-sided luggage. The nylon exteriors of Travelpro's soft-sided suitcases are treated with water and stain repellent. However, Juan Phillips, Travelpro’s vice president of product design and innovation, says that you can spot-clean any marks with a mixture of 50 percent water and 50 percent alcohol and gently rub the spot until it’s gone. The only important rule? Don’t use soap or other cleaners, or it’ll mess up the water- and stain-repellent coating.

For hard-sided luggage care, Phillips suggests rubbing a solution of mild or gentle soap and water on the affected area with a soft cloth. If your suitcase came with a fabric storage bag, be sure to use it for maximum protection against dings and scratches.

It really comes down to personal preference. Soft-sided suitcases tend to be great for over-packers, as they offer additional give and the exterior pockets allow you to pack last-minute essentials with ease. However, "a hard-sided suitcase can be better at protecting fragile contents, assuming you cushion it well inside,” says Phillips. “On the other hand, that rigid exterior makes hard-shell bags unable to be compressed to squeeze into tight spaces like soft-sided bags are more apt to allow.” 

It’s also important to consider what each format offers interior-wise. “Soft-sided luggage usually opens to one main compartment that may have interior pockets and/or suiters," says Phillips. "Hard-sided luggage is typically made with 'split construction,' meaning the bag zips down the middle and opens into two shallower main compartments, like a clamshell.” 

If you're basing your decision on durability, you can't go wrong with either. According to Phillips, “Travelpro puts both its hard-sided and soft-sided luggage through the same rigorous testing. [Our] soft-sided bags are made with high-density nylon fabric, and our hard-sided luggage is made with a lightweight polycarbonate shell.” 

Travelpro has many types of warranties to cover the products in its lines, so the best way to find information about your suitcase’s warranty is to look for its specific product family on the website . The Maxlite 5, for example, is under a limited lifetime warranty that covers repairs and replacements for defects in materials and workmanship. The Maxlite 5 line, like other Travelpro product families, is boosted by the brand’s Trusted Companion Promise, which for the first year of limited warranty covers the shipping cost to repair facilities and the cost of repair for damage caused by airlines or other common carriers. Make sure to look up the warranty that’s right for your suitcase family.

Krystin Arneson is a freelance editor and writer based out of Berlin, Germany. If she's not working or on the road, you can find her paying yet another visit to one of Berlin's incredible museums, hitting the dance floor, or exploring the city's wonderfully dynamic restaurant scene. She began writing for TripSavvy in May 2018. To help us choose the best Travelpro luggage items for our readers, we consulted Juan Phillips , Travelpro’ s vice president of product design and innovation.

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The Best Carry-On Luggage

By Kit Dillon

Kit Dillon is a writer focused on bags and travel gear. He has worked for Wirecutter for a decade and lost count of the number of bags he has tested.

Traveling well is not always easy. Keeping your suitcase with you when you fly not only protects your belongings from loss or damage but may help you avoid extra fees as well.

If you decide to do so, you need a good carry-on bag.

Over the past 10 years, we’ve handled, tested, and traveled with 67 bags from more than 35 brands, and we remain convinced that the Travelpro Platinum Elite offers the best balance of value and quality for most travelers.

It packs five days’ worth of clothes into standard US carry-on dimensions 1 and has premium touches you might expect from a $600 bag at about half the price.

It’s a bag that you can rely on for life, even if it’s damaged by airlines —a rarity at any price.

Everything we recommend

Travelpro Platinum Elite 21″ Carry-On Spinner

The best soft-sided carry-on.

This spinner carry-on offers the best balance of size, value, reliability, and durability, plus high-end details. It’s backed by a lifetime warranty.

Buying Options

Travelpro Platinum Elite 22″ Carry-On Rollaboard

A bit more capacity and extra wheel durability.

This two-wheeled carry-on bag isn’t as maneuverable, but it offers slightly more space, a garment folder, and larger, more durable wheels.

Away The Carry-On

The best hard-sided carry-on.

This great-looking and relatively resilient piece of hard-sided luggage has top-of-the-line components—including wheels as smooth-rolling as any we’ve tested.

Away The Bigger Carry-On

Slightly more room, but you might get checked.

With more capacity than Away’s standard carry-on, this suitcase is sized appropriately for most flights. On smaller planes, though, you may get gate-checked.

Budget pick

Travelpro Maxlite 5 21″ Carry-On Spinner

Lightweight and appealingly inexpensive.

Remarkably well priced for a reputable brand, this is an ideal lightweight pick and provides many features of luggage costing nearly twice as much.

Upgrade pick

Briggs & Riley Baseline Essential 22″ Carry-On Expandable Spinner

A soft-sided carry-on that fits more in less.

This carry-on bag offers superlative build quality, plenty of expandable room, and a uniquely effective compression system. It’s a buy-it-for-life suitcase.

Briggs & Riley Baseline Essential 22″ 2-Wheel Expandable Carry-On

More room, bigger wheels, less maneuverability.

If you’re willing to give up maneuverability for more space and bigger wheels, this is also a great option.

Carl Friedrik The Carry-On

A more luxe hard-sided carry-on.

Luxury touches and a strong polycarbonate and aluminum design give this bag a standout look with exceptional feel and performance. It does cost nearly $200 more than the comparably sized Away bag, though.

Yeti Crossroads 22″/35L Wheeled Luggage

A bag built for tough conditions.

A polycarbonate back and rugged wheels make this design suited for rougher travel over difficult surfaces. However, it has a limited warranty, and it’s somewhat unwieldy to handle.

What to consider

Four-wheel bags, aka spinners, are easier to maneuver down tight airplane aisles, but two-wheel bags will always be more durable .

Hard-sided looks better to most people, but soft-sided luggage withstands the bumps and knocks of travel for longer .

Plenty of reputable brands offer lifetime warranties; it’s generally worth paying a little extra for the peace of mind .

Depending on where you travel, you might need to look for specialty luggage sizes .

We’ve also included picks that stood out for their form and individual functionality: an upgrade with best-in-class compression, a pick made of polycarbonate , an upgraded hard-sided case with latch closures and an aluminum frame, a rolling soft-top hybrid , and a budget pick that’s also the best ultra-light suitcase we can find.

Travelpro’s Platinum Elite line of luggage is still our top pick after 10 years of testing. It addresses the concerns of most travelers for an affordable price while offering the best warranty against potential airline damage in the industry (as long as you register the luggage within 120 days of purchase, which you can do in minutes).

The Platinum Elite features smooth-rolling, replaceable wheels, as well as solid and comfortable telescoping handles and a hard-wearing nylon exterior propped up by a solid internal chassis. Travelpro also provides a full catalog of other replaceable parts . Instead of chasing the smart-bag moment, Travelpro added an exterior pocket with a USB pass-through extension that lets you insert your own battery pack for charging your phone. And weighing less than 8 pounds when empty, the Platinum Elite is dead in the center of average weight for bags this size.

In our view, soft-sided luggage lasts longer and shows less wear, but if you prefer the look of a hard-sided bag, Away’s The Carry-On is our choice. Like our other picks, this bag stands out for its high-end components: YKK zippers, smooth-running wheels, and a well-braced handle. Its strong but flexible polycarbonate shell shows scratches—however, after seven years of using the Away Carry-On, our testers have found that it is capable of enduring most of the trials of travel with fewer knocks than other similar models we’ve tested.

Away also makes a slightly larger version of the same model: The Bigger Carry-On . It conforms to carry-on size for most major airliners, but you might be asked to gate-check it on smaller planes.

Similar to our soft-sided picks, this Away bag is backed by a limited lifetime warranty. And though the coverage doesn’t explicitly protect against airline damage, it does apply to any damage that an airline could possibly dish out—specifically, but not limited to, the shell cracking or wheels breaking off.

Some companies have tried to shave off a few pounds from their standard luggage designs to make so-called ultra-light luggage. The Travelpro Maxlite 5 21″ Carry-On Spinner is the best of these bags we’ve seen, and it comes with the pedigree of our top pick but not quite as strong a warranty.

The Maxlite 5 is just over 2 pounds lighter than our top pick—that’s the weight of two or three pairs of jeans. It’s not a huge difference, but if you have trouble lifting luggage over your head and prefer an easier-to-manage suitcase, the Maxlite 5 may be your choice. This bag is also the best one we’ve found under $200, with almost all the benefits of luggage nearly twice the price.

For the more frequent flyer who is willing to invest in a higher-quality bag, we recommend the Briggs & Riley Baseline Essential Carry-On . Every detail of this bag, from the zippers to the wheels to the wrinkle-resistant suit compartment, is made to the highest standards, and it has a higher proportion of usable space than any other spinner bag we tested.

Briggs & Riley boosts this extra capacity with a ratcheting compression system that easily presses an entire extra outfit (if not more) into the same external dimensions as most other carry-ons. It’s simple, impressive, and unmatched by any other brand’s compression system.

The Expandable Spinner version is also the only spinner luggage model we tested with a built-in garment folder, which helps shirts and pants stay wrinkle-free if you pack them well. If things go awry, Briggs & Riley has a catalog of replaceable parts and a global network of repair centers , as well as a reliable lifetime warranty covering repairs for airline damage.

For some people, Carl Friedrik’s The Carry-On may be worth the extra cost. Behind the maturity of Italian leather accents and polish of higher-end Hinomoto wheels, the Carl Friedrik Carry-On bypasses the biggest compromise in most polycarbonate designs: the stitched-in zipper. Incorporating an aluminum frame around the center of the case and two latch locks, it feels comfortingly secure and well structured where other luggage tends to sag or bend away.

There’s a potential catch, however: The flex in a polycarbonate design (and most luggage, incidentally) is its strength. The more robust a piece of luggage becomes—by replacing, for instance, a zipper with an aluminum frame—the greater the chance that if something hits the case hard enough, the frame can bend or break. That said, you need to hit a frame like this with an extreme amount of focused force for that to happen. And Carl Friedrik provides a lifetime warranty that appears to cover airline damage in the event that an airline doesn’t compensate you within 14 days.

The Yeti Crossroads 22”/35L Wheeled Luggage represents the best of a relatively niche type of luggage design. Call it a hybrid model—a blend of a soft-sided luggage on top and hard-sided luggage on the back—that lends itself to fairly specific circumstances. It’s ideal for tough roads, broken streets, and slamming your luggage into uneven curbs with abandon. Do most people need this kind of luggage for their day-to-day travel? Absolutely not, and it can feel heavier than it really is. But if you do, this is the best there is—at least for the moment.

The Yeti Crossroads has everything you might expect from a brand that has built its reputation for over-the-top toughness and durability. The two heavy-duty wheels are among the largest and broadest that we’ve seen. Externally, Yeti blends a polycarbonate shell back with a water-resistant 700-denier nylon front and waterproof zippers. However, Yeti backs its luggage with only a three-year warranty and no mention of airline damage. That’s very limited protection, especially for the conditions this bag was designed for and definitely in comparison with the standards that our other picks set.

The research

Why you should trust us, how we picked and tested, our pick for the best carry-on luggage: travelpro platinum elite, our pick for the best hard-sided carry-on luggage: away the carry-on, budget pick: travelpro maxlite 5 carry-on spinner, upgrade pick for the best carry-on: briggs & riley baseline essential, upgrade pick for the best hard-sided carry-on: carl friedrik the carry-on, also great for tough conditions: yeti crossroads 35l wheeled luggage, other good carry-on luggage, what to look forward to, the competition.

I’ve been covering luggage and travel bag design for Wirecutter for nearly a decade and have personally researched, tested, and compared hundreds of bags in that time. Over the years we’ve also spoken with plenty of experts: flight attendants for major airlines, product designers and creative directors for luggage and gear companies, and travel and gear writers. My conversations with these people have helped shape our coverage, and we owe much to their collective knowledge.

In the 10 years we’ve been covering this category, luggage has evolved, and so has our thinking about what makes the best carry-on for most people. After spending well over 200 hours doing research and interviews and easily twice that time conducting hands-on testing, we’ve seen a few truths become clear. First, at a certain threshold—roughly over $200—most luggage is fine. It will more than likely get you from point A to point B without incident many times a year for many years. What distinguishes great luggage from everything else is mostly an attention to detail—the quality of a bag’s handle, its wheels, the frame, and stitching—and a company’s guarantee that it will stand behind its product.

Every year we try to refine our testing and find new ways to consider what it means to be the best luggage. We’ve weighed and measured suitcases, comparing our results with company claims. We’ve calculated true internal capacity with hundreds of Ping-Pong balls 2 and some decently complex math for a writer to scratch out. We’ve packed and unpacked more bags than I care to remember. We’ve studied and compared wheel bearings, wheel sizes, pocket counts, pocket quality, the curious subtleties of garment bags that will (or more often won’t) keep your clothes wrinkle-free, the strength of warranties, and repairability.

We believe that any maximally sized carry-on should be capable of holding enough clothes to last you five days with room to spare for miscellaneous necessities. Most years we aim to have two testers, one male and one female, pack two bags individually as if headed to the same wedding. 3 What we included isn’t representative of a family traveling or a couple splitting a bag, but we erred on the side of bulky, and we hope it gives you a clear idea of how much of your own stuff these bags will hold.

We looked at how each bag loaded. Was there an easy way to keep smaller items (such as socks and underwear) organized? Did it have compression straps to keep things in place? Were the straps thick enough to avoid creasing the clothes? Just how much would the bag compress? How much room was left over? Once packed, was the bag prone to tipping over?

Over the years I’ve torn bags apart to see how the frames were put together, taken apart wheels, dismantled handles, and more or less treated luggage as poorly as one person could. I’ve wheeled loaded bags around many neighborhoods, looking at how well each bag rolled and how well it handled broken sidewalks, uneven pavement, grass, bricks, dirt, and curbs. I’ve dragged bags up and down two flights of concrete stairs, noting how easy this task was and how much damage the bags sustained. For our finalists, I’ve repeated the torture test along a second, even rougher route because I like the sound that polycarbonate luggage makes when it bounces down cavernous stairwells.

In fall 2023, we asked a panel of paid testers with a wide range of body types, dexterities, and mobilities to examine our picks and share their perspectives. We’ve incorporated their feedback in this review.

The Travelpro Platinum Elite 21″ Carry-On Spinner is our pick for a soft-sided carry-on; if you need a little more room, we also recommend the Travelpro Platinum Elite 22″ Carry-On Rollaboard .

It has a history of great performance. Travelpro’s Platinum Elite line has been our top pick for almost every iteration of this guide because it addresses the concerns of most travelers for an affordable price: In addition to smooth-rolling, replaceable wheels, it features solid and comfortable telescoping handles and a hard-wearing nylon exterior propped up by a solid 7.8-pound internal chassis. Travelpro backs it all with a lifetime warranty that covers airline damage and shipping to the repair facility (as long as you register the luggage within 120 days of purchase). Additionally, Travelpro supplies a full catalog of other replaceable parts .

It moves well across most surfaces and through most situations. The spinner bag’s configuration stands out in particular because of its MagnaTrac wheels, which magnetically snap into a forward position when the bag is moving. The small tracking assistance makes a large difference when you’re navigating the Platinum Elite through a crowded airport or down a busy street. It also has an easy-to-use, removable garment bag. After years of testing, we think the superior maneuverability of spinner luggage, along with improvements in manufacturing processes, makes four-wheel bags a better choice for most people. However, if you prefer slightly more packing capacity (the equivalent of squeezing in two more sweatshirts), larger wheels that run more smoothly over rough terrain, and a more protective built-in garment folder, 4 you may appreciate the two-wheeled 22-inch version of the Platinum Elite. One of our paid testers, who’s 6-foot-6, told us that although he could see the appeal of a spinner, “I would still choose the two-wheeler. It has a little more space, and when you’re my size, packing is just so horrible.”

It’s sized to maximize your space, but you have options. Measuring 23 by 13.5 by 9 inches, the Platinum Elite carry-on bag (in either wheel configuration) hits the upper margins of actual carry-on size limits and could get you gate-checked by an overzealous agent. However, it fits into most standard-size baggage caddies at check-in, including that of American Airlines and United Airlines. I’ve personally traveled with Travelpro carry-ons this size for more than 45,000 miles spread across 50 flights, from regional to long-haul to international routes, and I’ve never had an issue fitting within gate-side luggage sizers. If you’re nervous about getting caught at the gate or often fly in very small regional planes, Travelpro makes a 20-inch Platinum Elite as well as a slimmer international size, but they hold less (naturally) and lack a suiter insert.

It keeps clothes compacted but not creased. Inside, the Platinum Elite has a pair of tie-down straps and two broad panels with pockets that cinch down, similar in design and function to what you’d find in much more expensive Briggs & Riley luggage . Compared with the simple tie-down straps you often find in cheaper luggage, the panels do a great job of keeping things compacted without creasing clothes—a problem we’ve encountered in numerous other bags we’ve tested. Beyond that, the Platinum Elite’s internal organization system is about average. It will be familiar to anyone who has used a suitcase before, which means there’s no learning curve for optimizing the storage capacity. One long mesh pocket sits on one of the bag’s sides, and a smaller removable transparent plastic bag sits on the other side for easy TSA inspection of toiletries.

It’s tough yet flexible. The exterior is made of a hard-wearing nylon fabric, a key feature of all the bags we’ve tested. It hides scuffs and scratches, and it’s much more versatile than hard-sided bags. An expansion zipper lets you increase storage by about 30% in a pinch—although the bag is no longer carry-on compliant at that point. We prefer to use the expansion zipper as something of an ad-hoc compression system: We unzip the expansion zipper while packing the bag and then zip it at the end, tamping everything down tight. The Platinum Elite carry-on also has a variety of convenient exterior pockets, including two in the front, suitable for a sleep mask and other small miscellaneous items, and one on the side for a battery, though it can fit a bit more if necessary. It also has an accordion pocket on the front for magazines and electronic tablets.

It’s well balanced and spacious. This luggage has an 1,856-cubic-inch interior, which we measured using hundreds of Ping-Pong balls . In real-world terms (the needs of Ping-Pong champions notwithstanding), the Platinum Elite swallowed up five days’ worth of clothes with no problem and had a good deal of room to spare—and that’s without our resorting to the expansion zipper.

It has an excellent warranty. Should anything go wrong, you can take advantage of Travelpro’s generous lifetime warranty, which covers airline damage . The sole other company we’ve seen offering this extensive a warranty is Briggs & Riley, whose carry-on suitcases start at about $500. Travelpro bags have owner-serviceable parts and multiple repair centers . To get repair service, you can either drop the bag off at a repair center or ship the bag to Travelpro, the cost of which the company will cover. Keep in mind that the warranty doesn’t cover cosmetic wear.

Travelpro has a history of fixing production errors remarkably quickly. In 2019, we noticed a small uptick in Wirecutter reader complaints about zipper tabs breaking. We reached out to Travelpro, and a representative told us that a production error expanded the capacity of the front pocket of the Platinum Elite; this allowed travelers to overpack the pocket, which put excessive strain on the zipper. Travelpro identified and fixed the issue before it had reached the threshold of more than a few comments online.

Dimensions: 23.5 by 14.5 by 9 inches (HWD) Weight: 7.8 pounds Volume: 46 liters

How the Platinum Elite has held up

After nearly a decade of testing the Platinum Elite line of bags from Travelpro, we have yet to encounter a single serious issue. The fabric exterior brushes off scrapes and is easy enough to clean. Simply, it is a remarkably built bag that continues to travel well, year after year.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

• Though the Platinum Elite rolled well in general, we are still concerned when dragging the bag up stairs. Some of the other bags we tested had long plastic bumper strips running most of the way up the length of the bag; this Travelpro model’s skid plate isn’t as big or as protective. I haven’t had an issue, but if you’re particularly rough on your luggage or uncomfortable lifting the bag over curbs or up stairs, it’s something to be aware of.

• In 2018, Travelpro added a USB-A pass-through cable to the Platinum Elite as a way to compete with so-called smart bags. We like the battery pocket, but the built-in cable itself, which routes from the pocket to a USB port less than 6 inches away, is an unnecessary item, which at best adds a potential point of failure to the bag—USB cables do not last forever. Does it ruin the bag? No. Is it a feature? Not really.

If you prefer the look of hard-sided luggage or the security of knowing that you can’t overpack your suitcase, Away’s The Carry-On is the carry-on we recommend. If you want to maximize your available carry-on space, it also comes in a slightly larger size: The Bigger Carry-On .

It can take wear and tear. Most travelers are still better off with one of our soft-sided picks than a hard-sided carry-on; soft-sided luggage shows less wear and typically lasts longer than hard-sided luggage. But the Away Carry-On’s wheels and zipper are as well made as those of our soft-sided picks, and its polycarbonate showed fewer scratches than that of hard-sided competitors.

We’ve tested the Away Carry-On for six years, traveling with it ourselves across the country and lending several units to testers and frequent travelers to see how they enjoyed using the bag. Its polycarbonate feels similar to that used on more high-end (and significantly pricier) suitcases such as the Rimowa Essential Cabin , which is more than three times as expensive.

You have options if you need extra space. Away makes a similar model of suitcase with an expandable zipper, The Carry-On Flex . The Flex is the same bag as the standard Carry-On except for the expanding center zipper and the price (it’s about $50 more). Personally, I’m not a fan of expanding zippers on suitcases. It feels like just one more thing to break. But some people may prefer having the extra flexibility.

It feels great to use. The bag itself feels good in the hands, and the wheels are noticeably better than those on any of the hard-sided competitors we tried. Away also uses YKK zippers, outclassing our top pick in that regard (Travelpro moved to Supra zippers in 2015). At this point, we’re pretty comfortable saying that years of debate over the best zipper are largely redundant, but YKK still sets the standard.

Imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Away has sparked more imitators and outright duplicates than any other brand in the past decade, in part due to its appeal with younger travelers. I’ve thought about why, and as best as I can guess, a simple polycarbonate cube dripped in limited-edition soft hues does exude a certain calm; the fact that some of those same colors also coat the exteriors of pills ending in suffixes -ax and -il is not, one assumes, accidental.

It has a great warranty. The Away Carry-On is backed by a limited lifetime warranty that protects against defects and parts breaking. Though the warranty doesn’t specifically mention airline damage, the damages it does list—cracks or breaks in the shell, wheels or handles becoming unusable, zippers that don’t work, fabric tears that render any pocket unusable—basically outline anything an airline could possibly dish out.

Dimensions (for The Carry-On): 21.7 by 14.4 by 9 inches (HWD) Weight: 7.5 pounds Volume: 40 liters

• The Carry-On’s sleek style comes at a cost: Its polycarbonate shell is ultimately more likely to break than the nylon fabric of our other picks.
• It lacks certain amenities, such as external pockets and a suiter, that our top picks have.
• The clamshell design, which splits down the middle and opens into two parts, can make the bag frustrating to pack and unpack. Packing cubes help, but after years of packing and unpacking soft-sided luggage with a single lid, I personally find a clamshell design to be more finicky when packing.

The Travelpro Maxlite 5 21″ Carry-On Spinner is one of the lightest pieces of luggage we’ve tested, at a great price.

It’s lightweight. We have a hard time imagining how anyone could make a suitcase much lighter than this without breaking certain laws of physics. A few years ago, I took apart a Maxlite suitcase to see how the internal frame was built. What I found beneath the fabric was a clever lattice of plastic supporting the frame, which offered the best balance between weight-saving and structure.

For some people, especially those with limited upper-body strength, a lighter bag—even by just a few pounds—may be easier to lift or manage. That said, most people don’t need extremely light luggage, but just to pack less. For all the innovative design, the Maxlite 5 shaves only 2.4 pounds off the weight of our top pick. That’s the equivalent of a couple of pairs of jeans.

It’s inexpensive. My general advice to friends is to spend more than $200 but less than $500 to get good, if not great, luggage. The Maxlite 5 is the one piece of luggage I’ve found that breaks that rule. You can usually find it for about $150 or less, which is a remarkable price considering the bag’s quality.

Simple is good. This model doesn’t have any real bells or whistles—no battery pass-throughs or magnetically tracked wheels, as with our other Travelpro picks. Instead you’ll find two simple front pockets, a few well-placed handles, and a cavernous main compartment with a couple of pockets and two light straps to hold your stuff in place.

It comes from a trusted brand. We haven’t covered, examined, and interrogated a single luggage brand at Wirecutter for as long as we have Travelpro. For a decade, Travelpro has done a premier job of maintaining trust with its customers and with us—we’ve watched the company make small changes in design, catch flaws quickly, and address warranty concerns promptly. This is not something we say lightly: Travelpro is a name you can trust.

Dimensions: 23 by 14.5 by 9 inches (HWD) Weight: 5.4 pounds Volume: 46 liters

• The Maxlite 5’s warranty isn’t as robust as that of our top pick: Manufacturing defects in the wheels, zippers, and handles are covered for as long as you own the bag, but airline damage and shipping to a Travelpro repair center are covered only for the first year. (And you do need to register the bag.) Considering that this bag costs half the price of the Platinum Elite, this makes sense, but it’s something to be aware of.

If you’re a frequent flyer and willing to invest in higher-quality gear, we recommend the Briggs & Riley Baseline Essential 22″ Carry-On Expandable Spinner (also available in a two-wheeled version with more capacity).

It’s the best of the best. Every detail of this top-rated bag, from the zippers to the wheels to the wrinkle-resistant suit compartment, is made to the highest standards, and we found that it had a higher proportion of usable space than any other spinner bag we tested. Briggs & Riley keeps its design consistent, adding, at most, small improvements such as this year’s upgraded lifting handle. Our 6-foot-6 paid tester pointed out that the Baseline Essential’s handle extended an inch and a half farther than that of the Travelpro Platinum Elite, which made it less likely to hit his heels as he pulled it.

Although the wheels don’t snap into alignment, they are exceptionally smooth-rolling and easy to maneuver. If you fly more than 25,000 miles per year, it’s worthwhile to invest in luggage that goes beyond merely being sturdy and actually improves your overall travel experience. That’s why we’ve been recommending it since we first covered this topic in 2014. The Baseline Essential is one of the best carry-on luggage options available today.

Its compression system is truly a marvel. The most ingenious part of the Baseline Essential bag is its CX expansion and compression system. Pull upward on two plastic handles inside the bag, and you can extend its depth a full 2.5 inches. Load the bag as full as you need to, and zip it closed. Then you push down on the bag, which compresses it as a clip mechanism secures it in place. Unlike other expansion systems, which are either open or closed, this one locks into incremental positions. It’s a unique design and very satisfying to use.

It’s the easiest to pack. Briggs & Riley placed the tracks for the Baseline Essential handles on the outside of the bag, which allows for a flat surface in the interior of the bag, with no small crevices to work around for simple packing. And in our tests, after packing 10 bags and trying to figure out strategies for each nook and cranny, packing on a broad flat surface felt like a luxury. According to our measurements, the bag, unexpanded, offers 1,905 cubic inches of storage room (and that accounts for the space occupied by the wheel wells and such). Expanded, it can stow 2,110 cubic inches. That’s remarkably efficient for a bag that does so much. All of these features add up to a carry-on that is easier to pack than any other bag we tested.

The Baseline Essential spinner is also the only spinner luggage model we tested with a built-in garment folder. It’s similar to the folder in Travelpro’s two-wheeled Platinum Elite bag, and that’s a good thing. It’s easy to pack and has an anchor point for hangers. Each of the three folds has a bit of padding that helps to keep a suit from pinching onto itself and creasing, though much of that depends on how well you pack. You can fit a week’s worth of clothes in the Baseline Essential, including some puffy gear for colder weather. A wide, wrinkle-free tie-down system completes the package.

It’s understated. On the outside, the Baseline Essential is pretty unremarkable. There’s nothing eye-grabbing about the bag, which is good if you’re trying to avoid being gate-checked (or having it stolen). Its outer, nylon fabric seems to be of a tighter weave than that used on the other bags we’ve tested. We also noticed a robust feel to the zippers, which are a self-repairing type made by YKK.

Similar to our top pick, the Baseline Essential includes a charging pocket. However, Briggs & Riley skipped the internal USB wiring, instead opting for a simple pocket arrangement (video) on the back of the bag for discreetly storing a charge pack and your phone. It’s an elegant solution.

It comes with an excellent warranty. All Briggs & Riley bags come with a lifetime warranty that covers any damage to the “functional aspects” of the bag, even if caused by an airline (like Travelpro, Briggs & Riley does not cover cosmetic wear or cleaning). Although Briggs & Riley handles warranty-covered repairs at no extra cost, you do have to pay to ship the bag to the company to carry out any repairs; it will ship your bag back to you for free. Or you can drop off the bag at one of the many repair centers . Briggs & Riley emphasizes that returning your bag to you in its original condition, even after repairs, is not always possible. The bags are easy to service and repair, so you can also order the parts you need and replace them yourself at home.

We’ve put in the miles, and the Baseline Essential is in a separate league. Over a five-year period before the pandemic, Wirecutter founder Brian Lam carried a two-wheeled Baseline Essential carry-on while traveling 150,000 miles and farther. After considering all the bags in our test and logging an additional 40,000 miles with a similarly priced bag by Tumi, he was convinced that this model is the best for anyone who’s always on the move. “I love this bag. It carries so much,” Brian said. “Sometimes I check it. Sometimes I carry it. It always fits.”

Dimensions: 22 by 14 by 9 (expands to 11.5) inches (HWD) Weight: 10 pounds Volume: 37 liters (expands to 48 liters)

• Despite the plastic shielding, the exposed rails on the exterior could use more protection. While dragging the bag up stairs (which we don’t advise doing), we felt more scraping than we’d like.
• At first glance, the handle feels too loose for a roughly $700 bag. We spoke to Briggs & Riley representatives, and they explained that this is a deliberate choice: The looser tolerances allow for the handle to retract by itself when you click its button, without your having to force it down. In practice, this is very helpful for scaling stairs and could save you some hassle in tight quarters, such as in the aisle of an airplane.
• At 10 pounds, the Baseline Essential is the heaviest bag we recommend. In this price range, weight often equals durability, which equals quality. But if you’re uncomfortable with a heavier bag, this isn’t the best pick for you.

Carl Friedrik’s The Carry-On is an impressive polycarbonate case that improves in areas where most other companies tend to cut corners.

It’s robust and durable. It improves the usual hard-case design primarily by replacing the zipper with an aluminum frame sealed with two metal latches incorporating TSA locks. This trim makes the case feel far more robust, which is a very satisfying feeling when you’re wheeling luggage around an airport.

Clasping shut an aluminum frame with a metal lock is pleasing—it feels like closing a safe and locking it tight. The polycarbonate shell has an equally rigid feeling but exhibits plenty of flexibility under strain. Although it’s difficult to compare polycarbonates between brands, higher-end polycarbonate feels dense to the touch even as the material flexes; in this piece of luggage, Carl Friedrik offers impressive quality.

Additionally, the Carl Friedrik Carry-On has YKK zippers internally and Hinomoto spinner wheels from Japan—both considered the top of their class.

It’s thoughtfully styled. The soft leather accents and bolted frame all have a certain maturity that’s often lacking in other, competing cases. This look carries to the inside of the luggage as well. A simple gray polyester lining accompanies two sets of compression straps and a removable compression pad, which has a zippered pocket.

It has an excellent warranty. As you might expect for the price, Carl Friedrik backs up its luggage with a lifetime warranty that protects against airline damage (assuming the airline hasn’t responded to your request for compensation within 14 days).

Dimensions: 21.6 by 14.5 by 9 inches (HWD) Weight: 8.6 pounds Volume: 40 liters

• This is a brand-new pick—so far we haven’t found any flaws, but we’re keeping an eye on the latches. Luggage latches are small, complicated mechanical devices that have a myriad of ways to fail.
• The handle feels just a touch loose, which, as with our upgrade pick from Briggs & Riley , can be a benefit. It can also sometimes be a hazard. Again, we’ll continue testing it.

Hybrid designs like the Yeti Crossroads 22″/35L Wheeled Luggage aren’t for everyone, but if you like the flexibility of a soft-sided luggage with the hard-hitting ruggedness of a polycarbonate back and two large fixed wheels, then this bag is just right.

It’s made from tough materials and easy-to-repair parts. Yeti has a reputation for using tough, sometimes cutting-edge, materials in all its gear. The Crossroads is no exception. The 700-denier nylon is one of the better nylons we’ve tested—tightly woven and exceptionally durable. (Denier is a measure of the fiber thickness in a fabric.)

The Crossroads comes in only a two-wheeled design, which is usually able to withstand more damage than a four-wheeled design. The wheels are also easier to service on the road and often replaceable. 5

It’s well organized. It includes a front panel organizer, similar to that of modern laptop backpacks, with two slots for your laptop and tablet plus a mesh pocket for spare gear. Fully packed, it still has room for a few magazines as well, if you like. Internally, the soft top has a zippered main compartment with a decent amount of packing space, as well as two mesh organizing pockets.

It’s a pleasure to pack. As the Crossroads is built around a molded polycarbonate base, the entire suitcase becomes, in essence, a large tray to pack and then zip shut. It’s a very satisfying design—easier to manage than many of the clamshell designs that are currently popular. Yeti’s packing cubes are designed to fit snugly in the Crossroads’s main compartment, and the bag does come with one small cube. But if you choose these, you’re spending a premium for additional packing cubes when almost any packing cube will work.

Dimensions: 22 by 14 by 9 inches (HWD) Weight: 8 pounds Volume: 40 liters

• We’d love to see a better warranty. Three years is very limited when compared with other luggage brands selling similarly priced suitcases—especially for a bag that claims to be as tough as the brand’s reputation.
• Occasionally, Yeti’s tough-gear reputation veers almost into absurdity, as with the inclusion here of self-sealing zippers on a bag that isn’t actually waterproof—merely weather resistant. They’re top-of-the-line zippers. But self-sealing zippers can be hard to operate and require regular lubrication, which most people aren’t used to providing.
• The front-facing laptop organizer is woefully unshielded. If you’re traveling with a laptop, place it deep within the bag if you want it properly protected.
• The bag feels heavy—by our measurements, it weighs about a half pound more than Yeti’s 7.5-pound estimation. It’s not the heaviest of our picks, but something about the weight distribution and shape of the bag makes it feel heavier when you’re swinging it around.

If you need a hard-sided budget bag: Look at the Gregory Quadro Hardcase 22″ , an unexpectedly high-quality suitcase from an outdoor-gear company. Gregory offers a lifetime warranty with service and repair. Although the warranty doesn’t explicitly mention airline damage, Gregory’s good reputation speaks for itself in this matter. However, the Quadro Hardcase is a pound heavier (at 6.5 pounds) and about $60 more than our budget pick.

If the Away Carry-On is sold out: Consider the Monos Carry-On Plus . Picking between these two models came down to splitting some very fine hairs. Both use YKK zippers. Both have lifetime warranties. The handles and interiors are almost identical. Monos even hides the stitching that attaches the zipper to the polycarbonate frame, which is a nice aesthetic touch. The difference came down to the Away Carry-On’s wheels, which spun just that much more freely in our testing, and the underside handle, which made it easier to pull out of overhead bins. And we’ve tested the Away Carry-On for longer. However, if it’s unavailable, the Monos model is a good, nearly identical substitute.

If you want a bag made of recycled materials: We suggest the Paravel Aviator Carry-On . Paravel is attempting to design luggage with recycled materials and some environmentally minded transparency to the company’s production methods. However, you pay a premium for the effort. Quality-wise, the bag is similar to our other hard-sided picks, for about a hundred more dollars. And much of the Paravel branding is built on carbon offsets, which we are deeply skeptical of (though we wish they worked).

If you’re an infrequent adventurer: Try the Topo Designs Global Travel Bag Roller , which could almost be an also-great pick under our hybrid pick . It’s cheaper, has a better warranty (but no explicit coverage for airline damage), and is made from recycled materials. However, the overall build quality is wanting. For example, the polycarbonate shell doesn’t fully cover the tubes for the extendable handle as it does with our hybrid pick. It seems an oversight for bags that are built to knock around.

If the best possible suit-packing experience is all you want, and money is no object: The Vocier C38 Carry-On Luggage is worth a look, despite a few flaws and an $800 price tag. The C38 takes a unique, fold-free approach to packing clothes. Rather than folding garments in on themselves to fit in the bag, it bends the suit around the outside of the luggage frame in a U shape. This packing method creates no creases and therefore no wrinkles. The case is protected by a limited lifetime warranty that doesn’t cover airline damage.

We hope to take a look at the European brand Floyd , which is currently popular on Instagram. At first glance, it’s another piece of luggage looking to appeal to a younger mass audience. But the easy-to-replace polyurethane wheels and bearings—similar to skateboard wheels—do have “user-serviceable parts inside” curb appeal.

We’re currently testing Level8’s Voyageur series of luggage, which features an extra-wide handle. It’s a design trend we’re starting to track with a few lesser-known brands (and, incidentally, a Louis Vuitton case costing several thousand dollars). A wide handle should do two things: It should free up a little more space inside the luggage, and it should improve handling.

Lastly, we’re considering expanding our coverage to include equipment cases like those made by Pelican . Though their appropriate use is very specific, when you need to travel with high-end gear or fragile valuables, Pelican cases more or less set the standard.

Soft-sided carry-on luggage

Cotopaxi Allpa 38L Roller Bag : We’re generally fans of Cotopaxi’s Allpa line, but this two-wheeled bag falls short. Specifically, the bottom of the bag is split by the zipper, which gives the bag an unstable feeling when it’s standing upright.

Eagle Creek Tarmac XE 4-Wheel 22″ Carry On Luggage : If this bag were about $150 cheaper, it would be a good price for the quality. We like the recycled materials, but the bag lacks framing.

Solo Re:Treat Carry-On Spinner : I appreciate any bag made entirely out of recycled materials, but this model (from a brand owned by the same company that manages Briggs & Riley) felt awfully flimsy. Even with its five-year warranty, I just don’t trust that this bag can go the distance.

Thule Subterra : The clamshell design—similar to the ones you find on hard-sided bags—makes this bag difficult to close if you’re trying to fill it to its full capacity. It just isn’t as easy to use as our soft-sided picks.

Timbuk2 Copilot Luggage Roller : The balance on this bag was decent, and it stood up well unloaded or loaded. Its wheels had a cheap ball-bearing rhythmic chatter, though, and the abundance of zippers and internal compartments made it tedious to pack.

Tumi Aerotour International Expandable 4 Wheeled Carry-On : At about half the price, this would be a great bag. But paying nearly $700 for a five-year warranty and a bag that doesn’t do nearly as much as a Briggs & Riley suitcase seems a bit silly.

Hard-sided carry-on luggage

Amazon Basics 24-Inch Hardside Spinner : This bag is a surprisingly good carry-on for about $90. However, its ABS plastic shell is not as tough as a polycarbonate shell. It’s worth investing more in your luggage—the bag you choose will last longer and work better.

Arlo Skye The Frame Carry-On : The Arlo Skye carry-on is a decent piece of luggage, but it’s hard to square the bag with its cost: $200 more than our pick from Away .

Away The Carry-On: Aluminum Edition : 10 pounds! At this weight, you’ve lost a quarter of your allowable luggage weight to the suitcase alone, unpacked. And it’s nearly as expensive as our upgrade pick, with a much less satisfying compression system.

Briggs & Riley Torq and Sympatico : Though these collections seek to solve a different problem, neither is as impressive as the Baseline series.

Calpak Ambeur Carry-On Luggage : We preferred sturdier polycarbonate shells over Calpak’s blended ABS polycarbonate shell. Also, the bag’s handling felt jittery against normal airport floor surfaces.

Delsey Rempart Expandable Spinner Carry-On : At just around $200, the Rempart is a decent budget option. However, the external styling (like layers of pressed sheet pans) is an odd choice. It has some practicality, but only if you’re stacking identical Delsey cases one on top of another, which might happen, I suppose, at some point … maybe.

July Carry On : In the lineup between July, Monos, and Away, July falls just short. We appreciate the lifetime warranty, YKK zippers, and flexible but dense-feeling polycarbonate. But the overall design doesn’t do much to improve on the category (as the Monos bag subtly does).

Level8 Road Runner Pro Carry-On 20″ : This is potentially a decent budget pick at just around $200. But the one-year warranty and the somewhat fiddly TSA lock and front latching panel give us pause.

Lojel Cubo Medium : Although we liked the uncommon top-loading design, the internal organization of the lid made packing this carry-on difficult. We also weren’t impressed by the zippered expansion system, which made the suitcase feel bulkier than our picks.

Lojel Voja Medium : An odd suitcase, this would be a great children’s suitcase or a budget pick—especially if it were under $200. But its current price is steep for a polypropylene blend with a couple of latches.

This article was edited by Ria Misra and Chris Ryan.

Airline policies vary, but a general rule is that the bag must be under 45 linear inches—the total sum of the bag’s length, width, and depth. Here’s the current sizing breakdown among the major US airlines:

• Alaska Airlines: 22 by 14 by 9 inches
• Allegiant Air: 22 by 14 by 9 inches
• American Airlines: 22 by 14 by 9 inches (the dimensions of soft-sided garment bags are allowed to add up to 51 inches)
• Delta Air Lines: 22 by 14 by 9 inches
• Frontier Airlines: 24 by 16 by 10 inches (and less than 35 pounds)
• Hawaiian Airlines: 22 by 14 by 9 inches
• JetBlue Airways: 22 by 14 by 9 inches
• Southwest Airlines: 24 by 16 by 10 inches
• Spirit Airlines: 22 by 18 by 10 inches
• Sun Country Airlines: 24 by 16 by 11 inches
• United Airlines: 22 by 14 by 9 inches

We double-checked the measurable packable space of our top picks against the manufacturers’ listed volumes by filling each piece of luggage with hundreds of Ping-Pong balls: 144 Ping-Pong balls weigh exactly 0.5 pound, and each Ping-Pong ball represents approximately 2 cubic inches (PDF) . After weighing each piece of luggage three times to establish an average empty weight, we filled the bags as full as we could with Ping-Pong balls and measured the change in weight. For every half-pound increase in weight we estimated 288 cubic inches of packable space.

His five-day travel kit included the following:

• 1 two-piece linen suit on a hanger
• 1 dress shirt on a hanger
• 1 pair of jeans
• 1 pair of khakis
• 5 medium-weight to lightweight shirts
• 1 heavy sweater
• 2 flannel shirts
• 5 pairs of boxer briefs
• 5 pairs of sport socks

Her five-day travel kit included the following:

• 1 dress on a hanger
• 1 blazer on a hanger
• 1 blouse on a hanger
• 1 pair of heels
• 2 pairs of jeans
• 1 pair of light sneakers
• 5 pairs of underwear and 3 bras
• 1 pair of yoga pants
• 1 flannel shirt
• 1 hair dryer
• 1 curling iron
• 1 jewelry/makeup kit
• 3 pairs of sport socks
• 4 lightweight shirts

You use a garment folder by laying a suit or dress across the panels, folding them into themselves, and zipping up the inner compartment. A folder should be wide enough that a suit isn’t cramped, and it should include hanger straps (which should fit around everything, even larger plastic hangers) to keep things from shifting around too much. Some folding boards have 0.75-inch-diameter foam rolls in them to help prevent creases along the packed clothes’ fold lines. When you aren’t traveling with fancy clothes, you can take the whole apparatus apart and use it as luggage dividers in the main bag itself, or leave it at home, converting the suit/dress compartment into an extra packing cube.

Yeti doesn’t seem to have an easy way to order replaceable wheels. But the 3.5-by-1-inch wheels are fairly common, and we’re looking at the best possible alternatives.

Meet your guide

Kit Dillon is a senior staff writer at Wirecutter. He was previously an app developer, oil derrick inspector, public-radio archivist, and sandwich shop owner. He has written for Popular Science, The Awl, and the New York Observer, among others. When called on, he can still make a mean sandwich.

Further reading

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by Geoffrey Morrison

We chose five luggage tags that will help you identify your belongings in a sea of similar suitcases.

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These 100 useful things were the most-purchased Wirecutter picks in September 2022.

The Best Carry-On Travel Backpacks

by Kit Dillon

The Cotopaxi Allpa 35L is our backpack pick for most travelers. We also have picks for other travelers, including those who want to carry a bit more.

We’ve Loved Luggage From Travelpro’s Platinum Elite Line for Nearly a Decade. Here’s Why.

Travelpro Platinum Elite is our most loyal travel companion.

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Travelpro Platinum Elite Hardside Expandable Carry on Luggage, 8 Wheel Spinner, TSA Lock, Hard Shell Polycarbonate Suitcase, Shadow Black, Compact Carry on 20-Inch

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Compact Carry-On 20-Inch

Compact Carry-on with Laptop Pocket 20-Inch

Carry-on with Laptop Pocket 21-Inch

Carry-on 21-Inch

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Checked- Large 28-Inch

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About this item.

• Carry on bag complies with published carry-on size restrictions for nearly all major domestic airlines. PrecisionGlide System delivers precise control and effortless roll with a Contour Grip, PowerScope Lite Handle and MagnaTrac self-aligning magnetic Spinner Wheels.
• Carry on suitcase has External USB A & C ports with fast-charge capabilities that let you power your electronics on the go and the external battery pocket (Patent Pending) is hidden inside the expansion feature for easy access and FAA compliance (Power bank not included). Hardshell luggage has built-in lock that allows TSA authorities to unlock and lock safely and securely when needed. Default lock code is set to 0-0-0.
• This carry on luggage has ultra-strong 100% polycarbonate hard shell with aluminum corner guards protects contents and has a stylish, textured finish which helps reduce the visibility of scuffs or scratching. Genuine leather trim detail on the front of the hard suitcase adds sophisticated style.
• Carry-on luggage has interior zippered divider panels to keep contents organized, separated and secured in place. Interior water-resistant pocket provides packing versatility for damp items or toiletries.
• Carry on luggage with spinner wheels Overall Dimensions (includes wheels & handles): H: 22 in. W: 14 in. D: 9 in. Case Dimensions: H: 19.25 in. W: 13.5 in. D: 8.5 in. Weight: 7.9 lbs. Limited Lifetime Coverage plus trusted companion promise, which covers the cost of repair for damage from airline or other common carrier for the first five years of the lifetime warranty. Applicable when purchased as new and after registration.

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Product details.

• Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9 x 14 x 22 inches; 7.28 Pounds
• Item model number ‏ : ‎ 409209001
• Department ‏ : ‎ unisex-adult
• Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ Travelpro
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0937NC229
• Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ China
• #79 in Carry-On Luggage

Product Description

Sleek and sophisticated styling in a compact hard case carry-on that upgrades your travel experience–the Platinum® Elite Compact Carry-on Expandable Hardside Spinner pairs great looks and ultra-durability with effortless mobility in an innovative carryon suitcase packed with modern conveniences. Carry on luggage 22x14x9 airline approved powers your electronics on the go using external USB A & C ports with fast-charge capabilities and a dedicated external-access battery pocket (patent pending) that provides FAA-compliant storage for your power bank. This carry on bag with wheels also offers a zippered 2” expansion option that gives you increased packing capacity when needed and complies with published carry-on size restrictions for nearly all major domestic airlines. As hard-working as it is good looking, this carryon luggage hardside spinner is durably constructed with an ultra-strong, easy-to-clean, 100% polycarbonate hard shell that flexes upon impact to prevent cracking and keep contents protected, while its attractive textured finish helps reduce the visibility of scuffs or scratching. This hard case carry on luggage has genuine leather trim that adds sophistication, and distinctive aluminum corner armor protects high-impact areas in style. The built-in TSA-approved lock allows authorities secure access for inspection when required. Pack this hard shell carry on luggage with ease inside the clamshell design with two zippered divider panels that keep contents separated and stored securely in place. Multiple accessory pockets provide built-in organization, and a convenient, water-resistant pocket stows damp items or toiletries for this carry on hard shell luggage. On the move, this compact beauty flies with precise control and effortless roll, thanks to the Travelpro® exclusive PrecisionGlide™ System–eight MagnaTrac® self-aligning spinner wheels led by a sturdy, four-stop adjustable PowerScope Lite handle with comfortable Contour Grip. This carryon luggage with spinner wheels is backed by our Built For a Lifetime Limited Warranty with the Trusted Companion Promise that even covers damage caused by airlines or other common carriers for the first five years of the lifetime warranty.

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Customer reviews.

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Customers say

Customers like the pockets, weight and appearance of the suitcase. For example, they mention it has lots of space, is very light and easy to pack. Some appreciate the sleek design and masculine color. That said, opinions are mixed on quality, value, and size.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers are satisfied with the appearance of the suitcase. They mention that it's well-designed, masculine, and clean. Some appreciate the matte finish and the 4 wheels. Overall, most are happy with the quality and functionality of the product.

"...When it was delivered I was super excited. The color was amazing ...." Read more

"...Water-proof pouch inside is a nice touch. And it's a good looking bag , unique enough to set it off from all the generic "black square" carry-ons...." Read more

" Looks beautiful but not worth the money.The first trip I took it on - one of the wheels split...." Read more

"...It is holding up great and continues to roll well and it looks good , too. Very happy with the purchase, another Travelpro winner." Read more

Customers like the maneuverability of the suitcase. They say it glides easily, rolls smoothly, and has excellent four wheel maneuverability. Some mention that the handle adjusts to a comfortable height.

"...It so easily rolled alongside me and even rolled without me even touching it ...." Read more

"...really do like the luggage, it seems well thought out and the wheels do roll very well as according to the reviews but..." Read more

"...It's easy to glide along on all but the roughest carpets with just finger touch. Good zippers, and solid lock that's easy to set...." Read more

"...It worked fantastic, rolling smoothly with the extra weight . It made the 6hr roaming the airport a little easier. Thank you Travelpro...." Read more

Customers like the weight of the suitcase. They say it is easy to handle, very light, and appears to be durable. They also mention that it is very easy to pack, with its zippered flat covers on each side.

"...It is very lightweight but accommodates more items than I initially thought it would. I remember opening it and thinking "uh oh...." Read more

"This is really lightweight , which is excellent. The rollers work magnificently in all directions whether pulling or walking along side...." Read more

" Lightweight , for sure. Easy to maneuver. I bought my wife the carry on and the larger, checked bag...." Read more

"I was amazed at the lightweight-ness and large size of this elegant suitcase, the only reason i returned it, as actually just a bit too big, as a..." Read more

Customers like the pockets in the suitcase. For example, they say it has lots of space, can pack a ton in it, and has good dividers. Some appreciate the well-designed interior that offers ample space for organized packing. That said, some complain about the laptop pocket being a little tight to get your fingers in to pull out.

"...Well, this thing has a huge amount of space and it is amusing how far it rolls with barely a push...." Read more

"I was amazed at the lightweight-ness and large size of this elegant suitcase , the only reason i returned it, as actually just a bit too big, as a..." Read more

"...It is indeed well made, and it holds a lot of stuff . That's key here...holds a LOT of stuff. Suitcase weight 37 lbs at check in...." Read more

Customers are mixed about the quality of the suitcase. Some mention it's very well constructed while still being lightweight, and holds up great. They also appreciate the solid-feeling handle that locks firmly. However, others say that it feels less durable, the pulls will eventually break, and the suitcase is not immune to scuffing.

"... This luggage is amazing . The price may seem steep but it is well worth it!" Read more

"...hardware (zippers, buttons, locks, etc) operates well, the handle is sturdier than most . I think it could be beefier, but it works...." Read more

"...The first trip I took it on - one of the wheels split ...." Read more

"...We want your experience with us to be like the first trip you take, exceptional , welcoming, and relaxing as we aim to put you first and strive to..." Read more

Customers are mixed about the size of the suitcase. Some mention it's the perfect size, fits all their clothes and shoes easily, and is regulation size. Others say it'll fit between the facing seats on the New York LIRR if the expansion is full. They also say the hand straps are very tight and difficult to get hold of.

"...I'm please with this suitcase, it's the perfect size for me , as a flight attendant, it serves me well - zipping through airports, the wheels and the..." Read more

"...I now mostly travel with this. Fits just about everything for a 3-4 day trip. Expands for those as adhoc shopping trips and the wheels - wow...." Read more

"...than you'd think, and a couple of poor design choices make it feel even smaller ...." Read more

"Compact and durable. Very special design and size " Read more

Customers are mixed about the value of the suitcase. Some mention it's worth the price, while others say the material is cheap as cheap can be. Some say the wheels are good, but the product is not a premium product.

"I've had this now for almost a year and I can tell you it's worth every penny ...." Read more

"...This luggage is amazing. The price may seem steep but it is well worth it!" Read more

"First let me say that the luggage is absolutely beautiful! It seems very premium and sturdy. It rolls very smoothy...." Read more

"Looks beautiful but not worth the money .The first trip I took it on - one of the wheels split...." Read more

Customers are dissatisfied with the zipper of the suitcase. They mention that it breaks easily, the pulls come off, and the outside zipper for the compartment catches badly at the corners. The zipper lock is ripping off after 2 uses. The front zippered pouch seems useless and there are no small zipper pockets on the inside.

"...The front zippered pouch really seemed a little useless but was okay for a portable battery. There's no padding for a notebook...." Read more

"...sliding the zipper that controls expandability and the pull broke off the zipper assembly ...." Read more

"... Good zippers , and solid lock that's easy to set. Water-proof pouch inside is a nice touch...." Read more

"...There are no small zipper pockets on the inside of the of the main casing." Read more

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American Tourister

Briggs & riley, bric's, luggage faqs, the 11 best luggage brands of 2024, tested by experts.

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The best suitcases let you roll through the airport quickly and confidently, with assurance that your items are well-protected and sturdily organized within.

We selected our picks for the best luggage brands based on years of hands-on testing by several travel editors who regularly take up to 50 flights a year. Since the size of luggage you'll need will depend on your specific travel plans, we focused on the best brands rather than specific pieces. Our top picks are known for making sturdy and reliable luggage, with smart extras to make packing and traveling a breeze. 

Read on for our top choices for the best luggage brands at various price points to consider. If you're specifically looking for hand-luggage, check out our guide to the best carry-on bags . 

Our top picks for the best luggage brands

Shop all luggage at Samsonite

When it comes to value, Samsonite makes excellent luggage at some of the best prices, which is why we named it our top overall pick for the best carry-on . Samsonite offers numerous options for roller bags, including both hard-side and soft-side carry-ons and checked luggage, as well as wheeled underseat bags and even roller duffels. 

Samsonite also sells several two- and three-piece sets if you want to pair small, medium, and large roller bags together. In addition to traditional roller luggage, Samsonite also offers classic backpacks, wheeled backpacks, duffels, briefcases, wallets, dop kits, and more. There are even some cool wheeled garment bags that can fit under your seat and will fit far more than your typical folding or hanging garment bag. I've owned a Samsonite bag for over three years now and it's held up incredibly well.

You can read our full Samsonite Centric Carry-On review for more info.

Worth a look:

Shop all luggage at Away

Away has multiple options for roller luggage, including hard-sided, expandable, and aluminum. Bags are available in both neutral hues and bright, eye-catching colors.

Away's stand-out feature used to be the removable battery pack for charging your electronics on the go, which was previously available as an add-on to its carry-on bags. While the brand retired that feature, we still think its bags have thoughtful extras like in-bag compression, built-in TSA-approved locks, and a removable washable lining. 

In addition to roller bags, the brand also a range of other bags and travel accessories, including backpacks, duffels, pet carriers, totes, packing cubes, and more. I've personally owned Away luggage for years and can attest to its durability and practicality. 

Read our full Away luggage review and Away Carry-On review for more.

Shop all luggage at Travelpro

Travelpro mostly makes soft-side luggage and rightfully earned its spot as our top pick for the best soft-sided carry-on . I personally love the clear attention to detail that comes with a Travelpro bag, from the whisper-quiet spinner wheels to the tear-resistant material and sturdy buckles.

In addition to rolling luggage, Travelpro has options for underseat bags (rolling and not), toiletry bags, backpacks, foldable duffels, garment bags (which often come included with a carry-on), luggage tags, laptop bags, and more.

Read our full Travelpro Platinum Elite Carry-On review for more.

Shop all luggage at Monos

Monos is a newer start-up that doesn't have as many suitcase options as the other luggage brands on our list, but it's worth mentioning since it's one of the best suitcases on the market with a hard front pocket that gives you an easy place to safely store laptops and extras. Monos suitcases are durable, come in an array of colors, and are well-priced. Plus, all of the luggage comes with a 100-day trial period and a limited lifetime warranty. The same brand also makes some of our favorite durable packing cubes .

Currently, Monos has two sizes of carry-on that either come with a front pocket or not depending on your preferences, plus a medium-sized roller bag and a checked luggage option. Monos also make a backpack, duffel, and folio kit.

You can read our full Monos luggage review for more.

Shop all luggage at American Tourister

Many of American Tourister's carry-ons start under $100, and while they may not last you a lifetime, they certainly won't break down anytime soon either. The hard-sided bags are made from a sturdy ABS material, and the spinner wheels aren't quite as high-end as premium options but still easily roll on most surfaces. While these suitcases don't come with tons of extras (be aware that some don't come with built-in TSA locks), the interiors are still thoughtfully designed for easy packing. 

American Tourister has numerous roller bag options in varying sizes, including both hard-sided and soft-sided suitcases. There is also a line of Disney luggage that kids especially might love. While there are also some nice wheeled underseat bags, American Tourister hasn't branched out much from classic roller bags, so you'll want to look elsewhere if a duffel or weekender bag is more your aim.

Shop all luggage at Rimowa

When it comes to high-end luggage, Rimowa is a consistent standout that uses premium materials to create long-lasting and recognizable pieces. Its ribbed aluminum luggage, which comes in every color from simple silver to a cherry red, is particularly popular — though it will cost you upwards of $1,000. However, thanks to heavy-duty construction that still manages to be lightweight, the rollers might be worth it if budget isn't an issue for you.

For a slightly more cost-effective (though still pricey) option, I particularly love the Essential Lite collection, which I named the best high-end hard-side carry-on thanks to the fact that it's incredibly durable but weighs less than five pounds. Unfortunately, if you're a fan of soft-sided suitcases, Rimowa is not the brand for you, and there aren't as many accessories available as some other brands. 

Read our full Rimowa Essential Lite carry-on review .

Shop all luggage at Briggs & Riley

We named Briggs & Riley our top pick for the best high-end soft-side carry-on. I particularly like the super-smart interior features that truly elevate these suitcases, from a special CX compression-expansion system that increases packing capacity by 25%, to making sure the adjustable handle is entirely on the outside of the bag so no packing room is lost to the poles. These suitcases are certainly investment pieces, but they're built to last and also come with a lifetime warranty.

While I find the soft-sided bags to be some of Briggs & Riley's best options, there are also some nice hard-sided carry-ons and checked bags for those who prefer to go that route. In addition to roller bags, Briggs & Riley also makes backpacks, duffels, weekends, laptop bags, and travel accessories of all types, including packing cubes, bag ID tags, laundry bags, and more.

Shop all luggage at Bric's

Bric's is probably best known for its high-end Bellagio collection of luggage, both recognizable and revered for its durable, but ultra-light polycarbonate exterior with leather trim that gives it a nostalgic trunk feel. It's the little details that set this Italian brand apart, including Hinomoto wheels, matching interior linings, and premium zippers. That's why you've likely seen a luxury travel guru wheeling this bag through the airport, or, if you're an eagle-eyed "Schitt's Creek" fan, may have caught Alexis Rose using this collection to pack up her belongings. 

However, for those not ready to spend $600 on a carry-on, Bric's also has several more affordable suitcases in both hard-sided and soft-sided options. The Capri collection features striking exterior detailing in a wide range of colors at a mid-tier price point, while B/Y Zeus will appear to soft-sided fans.

The brand also has a sale section where you can sometimes score premium collections that typically start at $650 or more for under $200. 

Read our full Bric's Capri luggage review .     

Shop all luggage at Tumi

Like Rimowa, Tumi luggage pieces are an investment. But they're a worthy one since these suitcases will likely last you years, if not decades. With numerous options of all sizes for both hard-sided and soft-sided suitcases, Tumi has bags to suit just about all tastes. 

Its well-thought-out suitcases include premium spinner wheels, heavy-duty zippers, scratch- and tear-resistant exteriors, and well-designed interiors that help travelers maximize every last inch of space. In addition to roller luggage, Tumi is also well known for its premium totes and briefcases, and also makes travel wallets, backpacks, duffels, care kits, travel umbrellas, and more. 

Shop all luggage at Victorinox

Victorinox luggage falls in the mid- to high-tier of pricing but its durability makes it a good value choice. The brand also frequently has luggage on sale during big shopping holidays when you can score suitcases for less. As you might expect from a Swiss Army company, the interiors of most suitcases are also thoughtfully designed to maximize packing space. 

Victorinox offers both hard-sided and soft-sided roller bags of numerous sizes including classic carry-ons, checked bags, medium-sized suitcases, and smaller wheeled underseat bags that can fit laptops and accessories. Beyond roller bags, Victorinox also offers briefcases, duffels, backpacks, totes, toiletry kits, garment bags, and more.

Shop all luggage at Delsey

If you like the look of Bric's cream suitcases with leather trim, you may also want to consider Delsey's Chatelet line of hard-sided luggage. While these suitcases start around the same price as Bric's, they can be found on sale more frequently, often for half the price. Delsey's Titanium suitcases are also a fan-favorite option since they are ultra-lightweight but incredibly durable. 

Delsey has numerous options for roller bags for domestic and international travel in both hard-sided and soft-sided variations (though more hard-sided), as well as several luggage sets. It even has an eco-friendly line of laptop bags and duffels using recycled materials.  

Is hard-sided or soft-sided luggage better?

There are pros and cons to each. In general, hard-sided luggage offers more protection for your belongings than soft-sided luggage.

For checked bags, you're best bet is hard-sided luggage, since it can withstand tough handling and having other items stacked on top. Soft-sided luggage may be a good option if you want more flexibility, since fabric-made suitcases have a lot more give. Soft-sided pieces are a good option for carry-ons because they can flex and compress to fit into tight overhead bins.  

What size luggage should I buy?

We think it's best to start with a carry-on size, since it offers the most flexibility, whether you want to keep it in the cabin or check it. Most US airlines cap carry-on size at 22 inches long, 14 inches wide and 9 inches high, including handles and wheels.

When it comes to buying a checked bag, you'll want something between 25 and 29 inches long. Airlines typically charge a fixed fee for checked bags up to a certain weight, so it may be tempting to think a bigger suitcase is always better. However, bigger pieces of luggage come with more weight of their own, don't protect your items well when they're underpacked, and encourage overpacking, which can lead to higher baggage fees (or the dreaded airport floor repacking). 

You can purchase logo and accolade licensing to this story here . Disclosure: Written and researched by the Insider Reviews team. We highlight products and services you might find interesting. If you buy them, we may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our partners. We may receive products free of charge from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. We operate independently from our advertising team. We welcome your feedback. Email us at [email protected] .

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NEW ARRIVALS: BAGS

With innovation at the heart of what we do, we are always looking for ways to improve the travel experience. Our latest arrivals include travel bags, backpacks, and totes that do more than carry your belongings. They keep you organized, connected, and on the move, hassle-free with features like USB, A & C charging ports, removable and built-in organizing compartments, padded laptop/tablet protection, and more. For ultimate convenience, choose all-in-one travel bags, like our Roadtrip drop-bottom rolling duffel that comes complete with removable packing cubes. For everyday work and travel use, we have a variety of ultra-durable yet lightweight backpacks and totes that pack plenty and are guaranteed to hold up through use after use.

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I'm a Frequent-flying Airline Cardholder, and These Are the 8 Items I Never Travel Without

Score editor-approved finds from Lululemon, Sony, and Travelpro, starting at $6.

Travel + Leisure

Anyone who considers themselves a seasoned traveler knows just what to pack for a long flight. While I wouldn’t say I’m a full-blown jet-setter, I do travel multiple times a year — enough to benefit from an airline's credit card. And trip after trip, there are several nifty items I always find myself toting along, all of which are available at Amazon with prices starting as low as $6. 

As Travel + Leisure ’s Amazon shopping expert, you can trust that I discover some of the best finds at affordable prices. In fact, I do it for a living. And when you marry that skill with my knack for traveling, you’ll get a list filled with top-rated finds from some of the biggest brands around. That includes editor-loved Amazon travel picks from Lululemon, Scout, Sony, and Travelpro, just to name a few. I’ve tested each of these products during flights, on vacations, and throughout everyday life, so you know that I’ve put ‘em through the ringer (and they’ve all passed).

Editor-Loved Amazon Travel Essentials

• CamelBak Chute Mag 25-Ounce Bottle , from $14 (originally $16) 
• Lululemon All Night Festival Bag 5L , from $102 
• Sony WH-1000XM4 Wireless Premium Noise Canceling Headphones , $278 (originally $348)
• Covergirl Clean Fresh Tinted Lip Balm , $6 (originally $8)
• Cadence Travel Body Set Capsule Containers , $66
• Etekcity Digital Luggage Scale , from $11
• Travelpro Maxlite Air Medium Check-In Hardside Spinner , $186 (originally $220)
• Scout Little Big Mouth Makeup Bag , $33
• Ouai Melrose Place Eau de Parfum Travel , $26

CamelBak Chute Mag 25-Ounce Bottle

I’ve used CamelBak water bottles for over 10 years, primarily because they were trendy when I was in college, but they’ve stuck with me ever since. While I loved the classic Eddy+ straw water bottle in my 20s, I’ve since upgraded to the Chute Mag bottle , which has a leak-proof, screw-top lid, preventing dirt and grime from contaminating the mouth. Designed with a slim build, the water bottle fits nicely in my backpack or carry-on, too. Plus, I love that it’s made with plastic, making it lightweight enough to carry in-hand. 

Lululemon All Night Festival Bag 5L

Tote bags are great, but when you want to carry just the essentials and roam hands-free, this is the Lululemon belt bag you’ll reach for instead. I love the All Night Festival Bag , which has a clever zipper design that makes me feel secure despite the rise in pickpocketing scares . It has a zipper around the top to stash important items like your passport, phone, and earbuds. However, that portion actually folds over to create a flap that’s fastened by a magnetic button. The bag also has an external zipper for small knick knacks like a subway card or ID. Shop it in black or white. 

Sony WH-1000XM4 Wireless Premium Noise Canceling Headphones

Airplane engines, baby cries, and chatty passengers are all things these headphones can block out. I’ve had the older version of these for years and I’m due for this upgraded one. However, I can honestly say the Sony headphones deliver superior sound quality and a noise-canceling ability beyond any other pair I’ve tried. I love that I can listen in noise-canceling mode when jamming out and then switch to ambient sound control to hear the world around me. How else will I know we’ve landed? 

Covergirl Clean Fresh Tinted Lip Balm

My toiletry bag is as minimalist as they come, complete with dual-purpose makeup like this Covergirl tinted lip balm . I discovered it after searching for the viral Clinique Black Honey Lipstick and found this $6 gem in the process. The pigmented wine-stained hue looks so good on and the hydrating formula is unparalleled. So instead of bringing a lip balm and lipstick, I just throw this one in my bag and call it a day. Psst , it looks so similar to the Clinique classic, too.  

Cadence Travel Body Set Capsule Containers

Travel-sized bottles have nothing on these Cadence capsule containers that have instantly become a favorite. Unlike drugstore bottles that have a small opening and end up leaking in your bag, these Cadence ones are quite the opposite. They have a wide mouth perfect for carrying lotions, thick creams, and body washes. They have a secure twist-top lid that comes complete with labeled tiles, so you know what’s in what. Plus, they have a magnetic design that keeps the capsules together. I’ve carried these with me on trips to Las Vegas, Miami, and even internationally to Mexico and Italy—and they’ve never failed. 

Etekcity Digital Luggage Scale

There are light packers, and then there’s me. I am not said light packer, which is why I need to carry a luggage scale with me on every trip. This digital luggage scale is ideal for solo travelers or single-person households because it allows you to lift luggage and check the weight right on the “handle” in lieu of using the outdated standing-on-the-scale method. And because it’s compact, I can stick it in my backpack or carry-on without worrying about it adding extra weight.

Travelpro Maxlite Air Medium Check-In Hardside Spinner

Week-long trips require more than a carry-on and less than a large suitcase, which is where this Goldilocks of checked luggage comes in. I wanted a lightweight piece for my Italy trip and opted for the Travelpro Maxlite Air suitcase ; it has a durable hard shell, a medium-sized construction, and a 9-pound build. Yes, it was a godsend while trekking up and down stairs in Venice. It’s available in several fun styles, including blue, pink, and red. However, I particularly like the green, which gives it a colorful touch without showing dirt, bumps, or bruises. 

Scout Little Big Mouth Makeup Bag

There are makeup bags, and then there are makeup bags . I use this Scout toiletry bag everyday, but it travels so nicely, I bring it on all my trips. It has a compact appearance, yet fits all of my skincare and makeup items thanks to its 6-inch capacity and three internal pockets. My favorite thing about the bag is its wire frame that expands out and keeps the top open, making it easy to grab my belongings without fishing for it. And because it’s made with a coated cotton material, the bag is a breeze to wipe down.   

Ouai Melrose Place Eau de Parfum Travel

I like putting on perfume when I’m out and about, but no one has the capacity to lug around a full-sized bottle on a trip. Small, travel-sized options, like this on-the-go Ouai eau de parfum , are the solution — especially when they smell as good as this one does! The .34-ounce perfume delivers fresh notes of rose, lychee, and white musk for a spa-like smell you’ll want to bathe in. The scent lasts a long time, even with just a few spritzes. The best part? While this is TSA-friendly, there’s no reason why you can’t throw it in your purse on your way to work, a date, or brunch, too.

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• Published: May. 13, 2024, 3:05 p.m.

With 40% of travelers planning on traveling even more in 2024 than they did the previous year, there’s a good chance you have a trip planned for the summer.

You may be eyeing a tropical locale for some rest and relaxation or have your heart set on an adventurous vacation with plenty of outdoor activities planned.

No matter where you’re headed, you’re going to need to pack some essentials for your trip. This means you’ll need some durable luggage , a backpack or weekender bag to hold your belongings and those must-have travel accessories you’ll need before boarding your next flight .

But finding the right travel bag can be a hassle with endless options brands and styles to sort through. To help you decide which travel bag to buy for your upcoming trip, this comprehensive roundup has some of the best, including checked luggage , carry-on bags , weekender bags , backpacks and more.

Here’s a look at some of the most recommended travel bags and accessories to make all your travels even easier in 2024.

Related: JetBlue Personal Item Policy: 7 bags you can fit under seat with no problems

Best Checked Luggage

These are some of the top-rated checked luggage you can buy for all your summer adventures, including these popular suitcase styles from Samsonite and Travelpro. Amazon

These are some of the best checked luggage you can buy for those summer vacations that require air travel to get there.

• Samsonite Winfield 2 Hardside Luggage: “It’s exceptionally durable and breezed through our strenuous testing with hardly a scratch — the polycarbonate is designed to flex slightly to absorb impacts before popping back to its original form. While the bag sustained no major damage like dents or gashes when we dropped it off tables and hit it with a baseball bat,” Travel + Leisure says.
• Travelpro Platinum Elite Expandable Spinner Luggage: “This bag provides a luxury feel at a reasonable price, with a capacity, warranty, and reliability that should suit most travelers. The 25-inch model should offer plenty of room for most travelers, without going over airline weight limits,” Wirecutter says.
• Away The Medium Luggage: “It’s solid and durable — with only a few scuffs from its trip down the stairs — has an incredible interior compression system, is easily maneuverable and is even comfortable to carry for when you need to lift it in and out of the car,” CNN says.

Best Carry-On Luggage

These are some of the best carry-on luggage you can buy today, including these popular styles from Samsonite and CALPAK. Amazon, CALPAK

You can take these carry-on luggage on the plane to keep your belongings close as you travel.

• Beis The Carry-On Roller: “This brand from actress Shay Mitchell has gone viral on TikTok thanks to its stunning monochromatic designs and its unique features, including a built-in weight indicator that lets you know if your luggage is over 50 pounds. It also has an extendable strap in the front that lets you attach a smaller bag, helping to free up your hands while traveling,” Good Housekeeping says.
• CALPAK Ambeur Mini Carry-On: “They’re slim, sleek, sport a rock-solid polycarbonate shell, feature an assortment of pockets and plenty of storage space, but its low price point makes it an especially attractive option for thrifty travelers,” Time says.
• Samsonite Freeform Carry-On Spinner: “Even after six months of regularly traveling with this bag, it shows no signs of wear and tear, and any scuffs it has accumulated have been easily buffed out. Considering the reasonable price, durable construction, and spacious capacity, we think it’s a great choice for frequent fliers and anyone in need of a high-quality carry-on,” Travel + Leisure says.

Best Weekender Bags

Here are some of the top weekender bags available to buy today, including these popular styles from Beis and lululemon. Beis, lululemon

If you’re planning a short trip, these weekender bags are some of the best you can buy.

• Beis The Commuter Duffle: “On the outside, it keeps things simple with a single zippered pocket and simple slip pockets on the remaining sides, while the inside has a total of five pockets (one zippered, two mesh, and two elastic), a velcro padded laptop pocket that can fit up to a 15-inch laptop on top of its capacious main compartment, and a luggage handle sleeve longer,” InStyle says.
• Lo And Sons Catalina Deluxe: “It features a messenger strap with removable padding so that your shoulder never gets sore if your bag is packed full, plus double-sided zippers and a bottom compartment where you can store shoes away from your clothing. As an added bonus, the bag is made from malleable canvas, which makes it easy to roll back up into your closet when you’re done using it,” Forbes says.
• Calpak Luka Duffel: “It has a thoughtful design with a large exterior pocket, a separate shoe compartment and internal organizational features. The shoulder strap was comfortable to carry and there is a removable crossbody strap as well,” Good Housekeeping says.

The Best Travel Bags of 2024

• JetBlue Personal Item Policy: 7 bags you can fit under seat with no problems
• The best backpacks to buy in 2024, according to reviews
• The best carry-on luggage to buy for all your trips in 2024, according to reviews
• The best travel duffel bags to buy in 2024, according to reviews
• The best weekender bags to buy for travel in 2024, according to reviews

Best Backpacks

These are some of the best backpacks you can buy today, including these popular designs from Away and The North Face. Away, The North Face

Pack all your necessities in these top backpacks on everywhere you go this summer.

• Osprey Farpoint 55 Travel Backpack: “Virtually indestructible, it safely holds a 16-inch laptop and your worldly goods. The harness, back panel, and hip belts can be stowed away when unused. No need to carry a small bag for daytime excursions as it comes with a detachable daypack with a lockable laptop/tablet sleeve. It can be used as a domestic flight carry-on item,” Time says.
• Patagonia Atom 20L Tote Pack: “Our pick for the best small travel backpack is the Patagonia Atom 20L Tote Pack, a versatile, lightweight bag that stows under airplane seats. This backpack has a large main compartment, which houses a thickly padded removable 13-inch laptop sleeve and a hydration bladder pass-through for hikers,” National Geographic says.
• The North Face Borealis Backpack: “Its 28-liter capacity is big enough to fit the extras you pick up during errands on your way home. It has a separate laptop compartment and just enough easy-access pockets to stay organized. This bag can go out on the trails after work or on the weekends as well. It’s super durable and water-resistant, which only adds to its versatility,” GearLab says.

Best Travel Duffel Bags

Here are some of the top travel duffel bags you can buy today, including this Patagonia Black Hole style. REI

These top-rated travel duffel bags can hold all your gear as you explore uncharted territories.

• Patagonia Black Hole Duffel: “This bag is the most versatile gear duffle we’ve found. It’s tough, water-resistant, and great for toting clothes and equipment in almost any travel or outdoor scenario,” Wirecutter says.
• Beis Commuter Duffel: “The bag is bursting with compartments and pockets for organizing small, medium, and large items so you can pack efficiently before a weekend getaway. After we packed the bag full of clothing, shoes, and a toiletry bag, it was fairly heavy, but the shoulder and tote straps were shockingly comfortable and helped balance out the weight,” Travel + Leisure says.
• REI Co-op Roadtripper: “The REI Roadtripper offers excellent storage and utility at over half the price of other bags, making it an exceptional value for a duffel bag on a budget,” GearLab says.

Best Portable Chargers

Here are some of the top-rated portable chargers on the market today, including this popular Anker PowerCore model. Amazon

Keep your tech devices charged with these portable chargers and you’ll never worry about dead batteries on your vacation.

• Anker PowerCore 10,000 PD Redux Power Bank: “This power bank is small enough to be popped into a pocket or bag, and big enough to give your devices a decent boost,” ZDNet says.
• Belkin BoostCharge Plus Portable Charger: “This power bank is small and light, and its rounded edges make it easy to slip into a pocket. It comes in only one color, but it has two built-in cables and enough capacity to charge most smartphones up to three times,” Wirecutter says.
• Nimble Champ 5K Portable Charger: “At 6.2 ounces, it’s one of the lightest on the market. It’s smaller than a deck of cards and can deliver 20 watts to charge two devices at once via a USB-C port on either end,” Wired says.

Best Water Bottles

Here are some of the top water bottles you can buy to keep your beverages cold and flowing all summer long, including this Owala FreeSip style. Owala

Stay hydrated with these popular water bottles that keep your beverage cold during all your summer trips.

• Yeti Rambler Water Bottle (26 oz): “It keeps your water cold enough, but what makes it stand out is its amazing durability and drinkability. Plus, the Rambler is customizable, available in 14 colors and five sizes (12 ounce, 18 ounce, 26 ounce, 36 ounce and 46 ounce), and it’s even dishwasher-safe,” CNN says.
• Stanley IceFlow Fast Flow Bottle (24 oz): “The bottle’s handle is extremely sturdy. Though it’s close to the spout, it rotates down so it’s not in the way while drinking. It also features a hook that holds the bottle’s cap,” Good Housekeeping says.
• Hydro Flask Wide Mouth with Flex Straw Cap (32 oz): “The open mouth and simple construction make the Hydro Flask easy to clean. We love the easy breezy flip-up straw cap. And with a comfortable finger carry loop, you barely need to lift a finger to tote it around,” GearLab says.

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Best TSA-approved locking luggage in 2024

I f you've been using the same bag for years, investing in a great piece (or set) of luggage can upgrade your travel experience. Like the selection of bags we'll show you below, many of the best luggage in 2024 comes equipped with TSA-approved locks. 

Why select a piece of luggage with a TSA-approved lock? As the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) explains , if its officers need to inspect your locked, carry-on or  checked luggage , a TSA-approved lock may save you from having your lock cut off. That's because a TSA-approved lock can be opened by TSA officers with a universal master key.

While TSA-approved locks can be purchased and placed on luggage you already own, many newer luggage pieces incorporate them into their design. We've rounded up some of the best luggage pieces with TSA-approved locks. Some of these easy-to-transport bags also offer useful tech features, such as USB outlets and charging ports. 

The best TSA-approved locking luggage

Take a look at our picks for the best TSA-approved locking luggage in 2024. 

Best soft-sided luggage with a TSA-approved lock: Travelpro Platinum Elite spinner 

Best customizable luggage with tsa-approved locks: roam luggage.

• Best TSA-approved luggage with locking pockets : Victorinox Spectra 3.0 luggage 

Best eco-friendly luggage with TSA-approved locks: Paravel Aviator 

• Best budget luggage with TSA-approved locks : Samsonite Omni luggage
• Best TSA-approved locking luggage for international travel: Delsey Paris Chatelet

Best aluminum luggage with TSA-approved locks: Rimowa Original wheeled luggage

Best large carry-on with tsa-approved locks: away the bigger carry-on luggage.

Learn more about each of our selections below.

Available in three carry-on and two checked sizes, and a variety of colors, the Travelpro Platinum Elite spinner offers a great value at a moderate price point. 

The stain-resistant-fabric bag (with leather accents) features a TSA-approved lock, an internal tie-down system, integrated accessory products and a removable, TSA-compliant wet pocket for toiletries. It's rated 4.7 stars (out of 5) on Amazon. 

Why we like the Travelpro Platinum Elite:

• Travelpro offers a lifetime warranty.
• The TSA-approved lock keeps your belongings secure.
• Reviewers praise the bag's durability.

Roam allows you to customize your own bespoke suitcase. Start by choosing from one of eight sizes, ranging from a 37-liter capacity carry-on ($450) to a 121-liter large expandable check-in ($675). Then select your colors.

Not feeling creative? You can choose from pre-designed bags, too.

Each Roam luggage piece comes with a TSA-approved lock, so you can keep your belongings secure while traveling with your customized bag.

Why we like Roam luggage: 

• You can heavily customize the suitcase and choose your favorite colors.
• Roam suitcases come with a lifetime warranty.
• Roam luggage comes with a 100-day trial period and a lifetime guarantee.

Best TSA-approved luggage with locking pockets: Victorinox Spectra 3.0 luggage carry-on

The sleek Victorinox Spectra 3.0 is constructed out of Sorplas, a recycled polycarbonate sourced from plastic bottles. The carry-on is a great option for frequent fliers. You can also get the Spectra 3.0 in a medium checked bag or large checked bag.

It offers a lockable section (to secure belongings in case your bag gets left behind), and also an expansion system. The bag boasts ample space for your belongings and TSA-approved locks. 

Why we like the Victorinox Spectra 3.0:

• It expands by up to 20% for extra storage space,
• It offers a lockable quick-access front pocket.
• The carry-on has a dual-tube telescopic handle for easy maneuvering.

It's all in the details with this chic, carbon-neutral carry-on. Paravel makes its Aviator bag in three sizes: two carry-on options, and a larger check-in. Frictionless, carbon-steel-bearing wheels offer 360-degree movement, while a telescopic handle makes walking (or running) through the airport a breeze.

To customize your travel look, don't forget to order a monogrammed cabana tote or cabana bundle. The latter features a monogrammed luggage tag, card case and passport case. 

Why we like the Paravel Aviator carry-on:

• The carry-on is carbon neutral and made with recycled materials.
• Reviewers state that it is easy to maneuver.
• It features a scuff-hiding textured finish.

Best budget luggage with TSA-approved locks: Samsonite Omni luggage

The Samsonite Omni, another polycarbonate suitcase option, offers high quality at a reasonable price point. Features include TSA-approved, side-mounted locks, multidirectional spinner wheels, an interior mesh divider and cross straps. You also have the option of purchasing the bag as part of a two- or three-piece set. 

Why we like the Samsonite Omni:

• This is one of the best-selling and well-reviewed suitcases on Amazon.
• It's a premium luggage option available for a more affordable price.
• Comes in a wide range of color options to fit your tastes.

Best TSA-approved locking luggage for international travel: Delsey Paris Chatelet 

With faux-leather accents and rounded edges, the Delsey Paris Chatelet makes for an aesthetic international travel companion. The lightweight polycarbonate model is durable, and features multidirectional double-spinner wheels, a USB charging port and an ergonomic handle. 

The suitcase also comes equipped with laundry and shoe bags, as well as mesh-zippered pockets. Its TSA-approved lock is recessed.

Why we like the Delsey Paris Chatelet:

• The carry-on's polycarbonate shell is lightweight and resistant to cracking.
• An odor-resistant lining helps keep the suitcase from absorbing smells when traveling home with dirty clothes.
• Reviewers praise the carry-on's smooth wheels and easy maneuverability. 

Rimowa's aluminum suitcases have been in the hands of international jet-setters for nearly 100 years. The Rimowa Original Cabin features 360-degree spinner wheels, TSA-approved locks and a telescopic handle that easily glides up and down. Available in black, silver and titanium colors.

You can find Rimowa Original luggage in a carry-on (price shown below), a medium checked bag ($1,650),  a large checked bag ($1,800), a trunk ($1,975) and more.

Why we like the Rimowa Original Cabin carry-on:

• Its aluminum construction protects your belongings much better than soft-sided or polycarbonate luggage.
• This suitcase comes with a lifetime warranty,
• Its sleek metallic material gives this carry-on a trendy, high-end look.
• Available in four colors.

The Away Bigger Carry-On polycarbonate bag features a removable, rechargeable battery (for on-the-go phone charging), an easy-to-set, TSA-approved lock and smooth-rolling spinner wheels. 

 If you don't like your Away bag, return it within 100 days for a full refund. It also comes with a lifetime guarantee for defects.

Why we like the Away The Bigger carry-on:

• The included, removable charger ensures you'll be able to recharge your phone on the go, even when you can't find an outlet.
• The compression panel can help you fit more clothing into this suitcase when packing.
• It comes with a lifetime warranty.

Away also offers upgraded aluminum editions that are stylistically on par with the James Bond-worthy suitcases sold by Rimowa. The aluminum edition luggage also includes TSA-approved locks.

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July Luggage Review 2024: Does it Live Up to The Hype?

Spoiler: I think I've finally found my new favorite hardside luggage brand.

We've been independently researching and testing products for over 120 years. If you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Learn more about our review process.

What I thought of July Luggage

The bottom line: should you buy july luggage, why trust good housekeeping.

If you're anything like me, finding the right luggage is easier said than done, especially if you're looking for a stylish, non-basic option.

At the Good Housekeeping Institute Textiles Lab, we've tested over 100 suitcases in recent years t o find the best carry-on and checked luggage available both in our Lab and on hundreds of trips. As a textiles product reviews analyst, I've personally packed dozens of suitcases, assessed damage from our drop tester, evaluated scratch resistance and traveled with several of our top-tested luggage brands .

I recently took July's Classic Family Luggage Set (which includes a carry-on and two checked suitcases) on four international flights, traveling between three countries for multiple weeks. Several of our consumer testers also tried the brand's Carry-On Light , which the brand calls the lightest luggage you'll find, on a variety of domestic trips.

What is July luggage?

Named after the most popular month for traveling, July's suitcases were designed to bridge the gap between budget bags and luxury luggage, offering thoughtfully designed luggage at a more accessible price point. Since its start in 2018, the brand has expanded to three luggage collections (Classic, Light and Trunk) plus various bags , like weekenders and totes , and travel accessories .

July Carry On

The Classic Carry-On is July's most popular product. It's made with polycarbonate, a popular material in hardside luggage , and each corner is capped with an anodized aluminum bumper for added protection.

July Carry-On Light

The Carry-On Light is another popular product, and the brand calls it, "the lightest double-wheel suitcase in the world" at 3.9 pounds. Hardside luggage is known for its lightweight nature, but as certain airlines lower their weight limits (even for carry-ons), every ounce counts. Still, it has a 32L capacity, making it less spacious compared to other popular options.

July Classic Family Luggage Set

On my most recent trips, I traveled with July's Classic Family Set , which includes the Classic Carry-On, Checked and Checked Plus . While some luggage sets may come at a discount, July's do not, but sets do ship with the suitcases nested inside each other to save space.

July's luggage has a simple yet sleek appearance. On the Classic line, the aluminum corners provide an added edge, elevating otherwise minimalist suitcases. In person, I immediately noticed how luxurious each suitcase felt: The exterior felt solid and substantial while the interior felt buttery smooth with a notable Y-strap over the standard compression panel. Note that the Carry-On Light instead features two zippered components with no compression panels.

The telescopic handle (pictured) stops at 20 different heights, meaning it will stop without falling down immediately, although it doesn't fully lock in until lifted to half its full height. It's also slightly slanted, for a more ergonomic hold. Some of our consumer testers appreciated this when wheeling it through our in-Lab obstacle course, but as someone with smaller hands, I found it a bit odd, although not uncomfortable.

The standard Carry-On also comes with a built-in power bank, which can be a nice perk, but I personally didn't use it while traveling due to the added bulk. When I tried it on its own, it charged quickly but noticeably warmed up. You can skip the power bank if you'd like by purchasing the Carry-On Essential , though it does not have the aluminum bumpers.

July also allows you to personalize your new suitcase for an added cost. This is great for easily spotting your checked luggage on a baggage carousel or in the event that your carry-on gets moved around or checked at the gate. I didn't personalize my luggage, as it delays the shipping, but I've always plastered colorful stickers on all my luggage to make sure it doesn't get confused. July's personalization, though, is definitely more intentional and long-lasting compared to my DIY endeavors.

Performance

I've tested many, many suitcases, but I've never used luggage that glided as smoothly as July's through an airport. Often, even when using pricey or top-tested luggage, I feel self-conscious, especially on moving walkways: The noises my other carry-ons have made in the past vary from slightly squeaky to loud, but this wasn't a problem with July. The wheels effortlessly accompanied me throughout several airports without any issues. During in-Lab testing, participants in our obstacle course agreed, giving July some of the highest scores for ease of use, particularly for its smooth, 360-degree wheels and adjustable handle.

In terms of packability, the Classic Carry-On, Checked and Check Plus were fairly standard compared to other hardside luggage, fitting our standard load with room to spare. Each included a thoughtful laundry bag for dirty clothes. The Carry-On Light, however, wasn't able to fit everything in our standard four-night packing load, so it's best for shorter trips.

When it comes to hardside luggage, polycarbonate is king, and all of July's suitcases are made of polycarbonate. It's an extremely durable material with excellent impact resistance, yet it's still lightweight, proving well-rounded when compared to other plastics or metals like aluminum.

It doesn't have the best scratch resistance, which we saw during testing, notably when we used a wire to scratch the surface of July's suitcases in the Lab. Still, when I assessed the Checked and Checked Plus suitcases (pictured), I didn't notice much wear and tear on the polycarbonate material (especially after wiping it down). The aluminum bumpers did show some damage though, with some visible scratches up close.

In our drop tests, which involve packing a suitcase with a set weight before releasing it from a 3-foot height at various angles, July came away without any dents, damages or changes in appearance.

Warranty & Return Policy

July's luggage comes with a "lifetime warranty." But this doesn't necessarily mean you can purchase it once and use it forever. The brand says it will repair or replace products with manufacturing faults on the wheels, zips, handles and compression straps. Certain cracks and breakages to the polycarbonate shell are also covered, but cosmetic damage is not. Be sure to thoroughly document it if you suspect something's off with your luggage.

The brand also offers a 100-day return policy, but it's only for new, unused luggage in its original packaging. Personalized luggage is exempt, as it's considered bespoke, as are notably discounted items (i.e. Final Call and Weekender promotional purchases). There's also a $20 return fee.

If you're looking for minimalist hardside luggage with a bit of personality , I would recommend investing in any of the suitcases from the Classic line (the Carry-On, Checked and Checked Plus). I've tested many suitcases in my role at Good Housekeeping, and July might be my new favorite luggage brand. The maneuverability is unparalleled , thanks to its smooth wheels and adjustable handle, and the materials feel sleek and durable.

The suitcases faired well in our tests , earning high scores for their ease of use in our in-Lab obstacle course and durability during drop testing. Note that the polycarbonate material can scuff, but this was easily wiped away in my experience. The aluminum bumpers don't have the best scratch resistance, though.

When it comes to the Carry-On Light, my recommendation depends on the type of traveler you are. The suitcase is incredibly light, but it isn't quite as versatile due to its smaller size. If you go on lots of quick trips or if you'd rather use a rolling suitcase over a weekender bag or travel backpack , then the Carry-On Light is a great choice.

Still, the return policy, while fairly standard, isn't the most generous, and the lifetime warranty isn't a fix-all, so I encourage you to thoughtfully examine any July luggage you purchase.

Grace Wu is a textiles reviews product analyst at Good Housekeeping and has tested all kinds of luggage and travel products using specialized Lab equipment. She's flown on dozens of long-haul flights over the years, both international and domestic, and swears by hardside luggage. Prior to joining GH, Grace earned a Master of Engineering in materials science & engineering (with a focus on polymers like polycarbonate) and a Bachelor of Science in fiber science from Cornell University.

Grace Wu (she/her) is a product reviews analyst at the Good Housekeeping Institute 's Textiles, Paper and Apparel Lab, where she evaluates fabric-based products using specialized equipment and consumer tester data. Prior to starting at Good Housekeeping in 2022, she earned a master of engineering in materials science and engineering and a bachelor of science in fiber science from Cornell University. While earning her degrees, Grace worked in research laboratories for smart textiles and nanotechnology and held internships at Open Style Lab and Rent the Runway.

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