Air travel: need bag recommendations

Back to one of our favorite topics: bags!

When I travel, I generally have a few things that can't be taken through the TSA checkpoint: a knife, for example, and the kit. I used to just check everything except for my laptop and some personal items. That means paying at least $50 extra each trip, but I thought it was worth having my gear with me in an unfamiliar place.

On this last trip, a trip I took for work, the airline misplaced my luggage, and I ended up without my work clothes (suit, shoes, tie, etc.). It was seriously inconvenient. So now I'm thinking I need another bag when I do air travel. That makes three bags: the checked bag with my gear, the carry on bag with my work clothes, and the laptop bag.

What bags do you recommend? It needs to be small enough to be a carry on. It needs to carry a suit without wrinkling it. I need to be able to lug it around with two additional bags -- in other words, something convenient.

When travelling I use an add on saddlebag over my everyday briefcase. Best of both worlds. Easy to pack, easy to store onboard, one handle. See the link below for ideas.

Briefcase Saddlebags

I have a tri-fold garment bag that I use when my work requires suits. Mine is Eagle Creek, but I do not think they make it any more. There are others out there on the market. The tri-fold is small enough for a carry on but can take good care of your suits. Mine will hold two suits, ties, shirts, and even shoes. I have not really looked at the other models as mine is still working well after 14 years.

I have yet to find a single carry-on bag that carries all the vital stuff I need and that will fit all of the various and changing airline carry on size restrictions. I find I have to have several bags in varying sizes for different sets of rules.

On my last trip to Europe, due to the final failure of my favorite carry on bag just before the flight, I ended up using a standard gym type bag like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Nike-Brasilia-Medi...gym+bag+for+men

And it worked so well, it is now my go to choice.
Good points:
1) relatively cheap (cheaper than "dedicated" luggage).
2) light
3) shoulder strap (removable)
4) various sizes available to meet airline regs.
5) dual zippers that meet to close bag allow a small lock to keep prying hands out.
6) no internal or hard frame, so its "stuffable" and can conform better to odd space left in the overhead compartment.

I also have one of the traditional style folding garment bags, but don't use it anymore as its to big to meet any of the carry on regulations on the airlines that I use.

On a slightly different topic, during my trip I noticed that laptops and pads got a lot of attention from the TSA, who ignored smartphones and 7" style tablets. . .both of which I carried and went through the checkpoints and x-ray without a second glance.

Current regulations require that laptops be removed from your carryon and placed alone in a tray for the X-ray machine, excepting only certain specific laptop bags that are designed for in-bag TSA compliance. I've gone through security with my iPad in my bag at least 50 times without any noticeable additional scrutiny.

When I am not planning to check in any baggage, I like the Kelty Redwing. It is pretty much the largest backpack that can be used as a carryon and still has a proper waistbelt. (not stuffed to the gills and ALL side pockets empty)

For checked in luggage, I like the Northface Basecamp Duffel. The medium is a good carryon (not stuffed to the gills). The large is a good checked-in (not stuffed to the gills). I prefer colors that are dead bang BRIGHT and UGLY since that makes them easier to see on the luggage carousel. These duffel bags have shoulder straps for short portages and are bomb-proof. For wheels, I use a separate luggage carriers. Wheels are a major source of failure and takes up a lot of space in regular luggage.

Conway Yee

Almost any bag would work, but I would look for "Maximum Legal Carryon" type bags which are specifically designed for this requirement. They range from $30 - $300+, depending on the quality and features you want. I personally like the convertible backpacks, but if this is strictly for business travel, then a rolling luggage would probably work better for you. If your laptop bag is designed for travel, a lot of them will slip on top of the handles of the roller so you don't have to manage two separate bags. I would think if you're checking a bag with the majority of your stuff, you should be able to get by with just one small carry-on bag. Most carryon bags have separate compartments for laptop to make it easier when going through security. I would strongly recommend not trying to juggle 3 bags through an airport, the less you carry the happier you'll be.

A couple of the more popular carry on bags that I've been looking at (note most are backpack/shoulder bag style) in order of price

Eagle Creek Morphus (Actually 2 bags in one, can be a rolling carryon and a backpack). I think it's kinda heavy for a bag, but an interesting concept.
Tom Bihn Tri-star (or the Aeronaut, but not as suit friendly)
Red Oxx Sky train
Patagonia MLC
E-bags TLS Motherlode Weekender (or the more basic Etech weekender 2.0)
Campmor Essential carryon (extremely cheap, but very light)

I've gone through a few other, but I always come back to the Campmor bag. It's a basic bag, no frills, but about 1/2 the weight of the others. I've probably put over 100K miles on it with no issue. You need to pack it more carefully since there is no shape to the bag, but adding some foam sheets helped a lot. It's a very highly regarded bag with the one bag crowd, and the reason I know it must be good is because my wife liked it so much she took it for herself, that's why I'm shopping for a new bag.

I'm almost embarrassed to recommend a simple Ogio Sport duffel bag, it was a gift from my department in 1992 but probably would retail for $50-75 today. Mine is a 20 year old duffel that has survived easily over 1 million air travel miles in that time. I generally travel casual but its carried a single suit usually and can handle two suits if necessary. I meet everyone from government bureaucrats to sultans, so occasionally I will shy away from the duffel and carry on a suit carrier too.

Suits in a duffel - you have to know how to pack your suit, but I'll take the Pepsi challenge with my department VP any trip on whose suit looks fresher when we come out for a meeting.

Ogio has changed styles since my vintage 1990 bag, but every zipper and every seam has held up marvelously on personal and business travel. It has a reasonable shoulder strap that I seldom use but keep in a side pocket. Never met an overhead I can't put it in and generally it fits under every seat when required to do so. Expands enough to bring home gifts for my kids, and generally I'll chuck non-privileged collateral I collect on the road into the duffel rather than have it spill out into my laptop bag (which is a Tom Bihn, equally good and recommended). I love the duffel best when I travel light, socks underwear and a change of shirts and pants, then it really shines. My wife tends to snag the duffel now when we go out on vacation somewhere.

YMMV

There are two kinds of bags:

Carry-on and Lost.

I only check bags if there's really no other option - and yes, that means I travel without a knife. Well sort of. More on that later.

I have tried every permutation of bag there is and I've come to the conclusion that the best way to carry a suit is to wear it onto the plane. Put your "not work" clothes in the bag. Arrive dressed for work.

Forget trifolds and all that. Just wear it. Steam it in your hotel when you get there and wear the same suit every day - that's what they are for.

As far as the carry-on bags, I am never buying a roll-aboard again, because I bought the last piece of roll-on luggage I'll ever need:

http://www.briggs-riley.com/category/pro...&sec=travel

It was $340. Outrageous? All you need to do is have 3 cheaper bags fail over your lifetime and you'll spend more.

I also have a soft leather shoulder briefcase, it's perfect. My wife got it for me. With those two, I can go anywhere, for an indefinite period of time (just do some laundry now and then).

Oh and the knife? I have a very well-travelled item that I found in home depot that does everything a knife does. But it's not a knife. And I put it in plain sight at the TSA checkpoints. Over and over and over again. That's all I'm sayin' here.

For the last several years, my carryon has been a light, versatile backpack - Lowe "Alpine Attack" (how macho is that?) Not at all suited for packing suits, but I am generally flying to go dig for pots or bones, so no problem. I supplement it with a many pocketed vest, fully crammed with travel essentials and goodies.

I use a pelican 1510 roller bag (er...box). It is a pelicanbox on wheels. Heavy but solid. Meets carry on specs. Considering the quality the $130 price delivered seems cheap. Mine carries mostly electronics (1/2) and my necessary stuff (1/2).

Checkbag is an ospery. Many styles to choose from. Pricy but excellent quality.

Nomad.

I usually check a bag because when I travel, even on business, I generally like to take advantage of whatever outdoor recreational opportunities (hiking, etc) might be available near my destination. For that reason I usually check a bag with boots and/or other gear.

I travel fairly regularly, but by and large I have not had a problem with lost baggage. Part of the reason may be that typically my trips are on a single airline with at most two flight legs. That being said, I always make it a habit to pack a minimum of stuff in my carryon to get me through at least two days at my destination. In my carryon I always have a couple of changes of undies, a clean shirt, etc. Some of the new easy care clothing made from synthetics is really handy, since in a pinch you can wash it in a hotel sink and it will dry overnight. One nice thing is that in today's more casual business environment I never need to wear a suit anymore.

The one time in recent memory where a bag did get lost (actually not lost bu only delayed for one day) was on a trip to Europe which involved multiple connections on multiple airlines. However, since I followed my usual practice of having the minimum I need in my carryon that was only a minor inconvenience.

I recently aquired an iPad mini, and I absolutely love it for travel. It is lightweight and compact, and I can check email, web surf, and even do minor word processing etc, without the hassle of carrying a laptop. These days when I travel my laptop stays at home, unless I know I will need it for some specific purpose. I realize other people have different requirements when they travel. In some lines of work a suit and tie is essential, as is a laptop. But for me a day pack and small brief case as carryon, and my old Eagle Creek rolling bag for checked luggage does the job, even on fairly long trips.

Don't forget there are also weight limitations on carry on bags, as well as size restrictions.

If you're flying domestically in the US, the requirements are fairly generous (around 40-50 lbs). However, international flights have much stricter weight limits, sometimes <20 lbs, and even some as low as 15 lbs. This will make a big difference in the type of bag you choose, as some bags weigh almost 8 lbs empty. As far as I know, most airlines aren't enforcing these limits very strictly, but at one time they also didn't use to be so strict on the size limit either. It's really up to the discretion of the screener.

One way to avoid this is (if you're not checking bags) to wear all your heavy and bulky clothes (boots and jackets) through the screening process, then pack it back in the bag when you're through. So far, there's no limitation to how much you can carry on yourself.

I have one similar in size to this one (20x14x9):
http://www.amazon.com/Travelpro-Luggage-Maxlite-Expandable-Spinner/dp/B007BY2GPU/ref=cts_ap_2_cts

Mine is made by Atlantic and is a bit smaller, 18x14x9 (that's the bag size - if you count the wheels it's more like 19x14x9). And mine only has two wheels, so you have to tilt it to roll it. The newer ones all seem to have four wheels so you can spin and twist them every-which-way.

I bought this size specifically because it fits under the seat on a 737. So if all the overheads are full from the fools that drag ridiculously huge things onboard, I can still get mine under the seat. I do not have to check it due to the inconsiderate others who carryon everything including the kitchen sink and fill up all the overheads.

I don't normally carry suits, but when I have they've come out of this little bag just fine. I turn them inside-out and fold carefully.

My biggest criteria for a carryon is that it MUST fit under a seat. That way I'm not at the mercy of the rude overhead bin hogs. If there's room, I'll put it in the overhead. But on every flight I've taken recently, the bin hogs never leave any room.

I have a Kelty Redwing 44 backpack that I wanted to take on my last trip, but I didn't. While that pack would fit in an overhead, I highly doubt it would fit under a seat. So it got left at home in favor of my "I know it will fit" bag. When I have to take a laptop, that goes in my little bag too. No seperate laptop bag. One and only one carryon for me. I do not like to be forced to check bags - period.

Thanks, everyone! That's some food for thought. I'm sure now to find something that will carry my work clothes on the plane!

This touches on the trade off that I run into on my international flights. Wheels and ridged frames are really nice and convenient, but eat into weight, which reduces effective load, and as I mentioned in an earlier post, the frames (or lack of) give more flexibility to "stuff" into overhead spaces or under the seat.

That's why I found out (by accident) on my last trip to Europe why the light "gym duffel bag" so useful in the carry on role. Very light and inexpensive. Pick your size and stuff it.

I don't have to worry about business suits anymore, so that is not an issue. When I did (before retirement), I did, even in the less restrictive days of airline flight and carry ons, resort to the trick of hanging the suit in the hotel/motel bathroom, and running the shower nice and hot, building up the steam and ending up with a wrinkle free suit. Martin's advice is right on: if you need a suit, wear it! And put a clean dress shirt and tie in your carry on.

I hate checking baggage. On occasion, I've waited longer for a checked bag than the flight took, not to mention the damage to and theft out of checked bags.

On the rare occasion I do check a bag, there is nothing in it that I can't do without or afford to lose.

Exactly bws48! The only time I've checked my duffel was once when I overstuffed it too full for a LaGuardia USAir agent to allow it past boarding, and another time when my host dropped two bottles of very nice Rioja on me literally at the curb side, and I had to improvise padding and packaging to protect them from breaking several thousand miles getting home as checked baggage.

Another travel tip is when your collateral picked up overseas or out of town gets too heavy to truck halfway across the planet, FedEx or DHL does wonderful delivering it to me back in the US. Inexpensive and fast. And for delivery of wine, I've only had to come down to SeaTac customs once to fill out the declaration, otherwise import what's within your personal limit and you will often find the box of wine at destination within a day of your arrival. I know of travelers who do nothing but ship their checked bags to their hotel at destination, although I'm too cheap to do that.

Travel light, travel smart. Light is way more fun too.

With the charges for checked bags, FedEx, UPS, and the other services are now a really viable option. I have used them several times to ship things to the hotel I would be staying in, and as long as I notified the hotel in advance, they never had any issues with it. It was cheaper than checking my bags and saved some hassle.

I will take a slightly different track. For a carry-on bag I normally use a clean (not much stuff hanging on the outside) daypack (currently a GR1, wish I had bought the 2). It can carry a minimum of overnight gear and the things I want (and can carry on) on board. If folded carefully, I have little trouble packing a suit, but if I need one I usually wear it.

For a check bag (I need to check a bag on most flights with the gear I need to carry) I have gone back many years and am using a Zero Halliburton case. It is light and rugged. It fulfills the requirement for a hard sided case for those items that require it. I retrieved an old instrument case, changed the lock for TSA and plan on sending it back to have a suitcase lining put in. I use a homemade foam (old ensolite pad) insert to carry delicate stuff that is not allowed in the cabin and pack my clothes around it. Like others I have never LOST a bag, although I have had several delayed for a few hours to a few days. Flight planning helps, I have seldom had a bag delayed on nonstop flights.

Respectfully,

Jerry

Travel in the clothes you will wear at the presentation. Carry-on some lightweight casual clothing. Consider using overnight mail to send your non-tsa compliant edc gear to your destination. or give it up, and change your edc to a bic lighter, emt shears, and a fak. How much do you really need?

What I generally need could be filled by a SAK or multitool without the blades. Sure, blades are needed all the time, but we might as well give up on carrying those onboard an airplane anymore. So what's left is the rest of the SAK/multitool minus the blades. These are hard or impossible to find. I wonder why? There would certainly be a market for them IMHO.

The closest I found was this little gizmo, which I bought recently:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004EL4MLY/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

But I would still prefer a normal sized SAK with extra tools thrown in where the blades would have been. Actually, even without the air travel restritions being in place, I would still prefer an SAK without the blades. And I would carry a seperate folder for my knife needs. I never liked the blades that come on SAKs. They're OK for cutting threads and stuff, but I consider them more toy add-ons than real knife blades. The blades are thin, most of them don't lock, I dislike the blade shape, and they are made of lower-end steel. YMMV.

Victorinox, Wenger, Leatherman, Gerber ... are you listening?

My air-travel multitool is this one: http://www.leatherman.com/25.html#prefn1=sizecategory&prefv1=Keychain-Size&start=6 . Some TSA checkpoints examine it closely and let it through, others ignore it. It's made about fifty flights with me in 2013 without more than 30 seconds' delay.

Is it as useful as a full-size multi, or the keychain multi I carry when not flying? No. But it's far better than nothing.

Have you considered taking your preferred SAK, snapping off the blades in a vise, and attempting to pass security?

http://www.onebag.com

A good one
However, that works if you travel to civilized destinations only. In that case I'm usually just donning my ScotteVest Revolution "suite" and go without any bags at all (not true on the way back though, my family loves gifts from far away).

I love my GR1 but am buying a GR2 early next year with my 20% coupon from registering for Heavy. As much as I love mine, I know I'll like the GR2 even more.

So far it's filled the bill for all my carry-on-sized stuff since I bought it. I got one of the limited run coyote ones before coyote was a normal issue color.

I don't see what's so exciting about GR2? A large rucksack like GR2 without any waist strap - nonsense.

Without much thought, you should easily be able to find a bag that can hold your laptop and gear. There are about a million options. So, I'm not even going to suggest one. As for the work clothes, a good garment bag will do the trick. It doesn't even have to be a "good" one to protect your work cloths. That's two bags total.

I don't have a GR2 but I do carry a GR1 every day that's loaded probably heavier than most people would load a GR2. It's super-comfy and works very well for me without a waist strap.

I'm just out of context of the topic, I guess. Sure, for EDC in a city - probably OK. Also it's more fashionable without a belt. But on the GR's website the GR2 is performing in a rough hiking environment (vids, pics). Perhaps, just a marketing gimmick. I can not imagine hiking with such a huge bag solely on my shoulders.

Huge bag? 40 liters is around 2500 cu.in., typical daypack size. Many bags are available that are that size and are much cheaper, and still quite tough. I like a bag around 60 liters (3600 cu in) - a large day pack or suitable for overnight and longer trips if packed carefully.87y