Luggage Sizes and Airlines

[knick1959]

Last spring I had my largest (yet not huge) bag start to disintegrate early on in a long trip to South America. I made it home with it ok, but had to apologize about the broken handle a dozen times and worried that the main zipper might break open and spill all of my stuff without me even being around! But I made it home. A junky backup bag that has lasted forever has finally twisted enough to worry about it, too. Time to shop for some new luggage.

My wife LOVES the new spinner bags; personally I'm ok with them but I have no trouble pulling a bag behind me. And the extra height added by the convenience of spinner wheels is scary. Each time I'd find a workable bag online, there would be several reviews warning about over-sized baggage fees. These scared me enough into trying to be ultra careful. I did order some pieces that were priced very aggressively; one set, an Amazon Black-Friday deal. 2 Samsonite bags for $119: a 21-22" ? and a 29" spinner. Nice looking bags, but the 29" easily measures 31" from the floor to the top of the bag because of the wheels.

Looking for some general feedback or reports of having trouble with spinner bags and airlines that treat them as over-sized. Anyone?

Are there particular airlines that are more critical of this than others? More of a concern for international travel (which IS a concern to us)?

Thanks in advance.

 

[pillow25]

Just check the dimensions of the bags and make sure not to exceed the airlines carry on requirements.

Usually, the 21" and 22" spinners are perfectly sized to fit carry on requirements down to the inch. But if you use to zipper to expand the bag, then they don't fit the carry on requirements (and don't fit in the carry on bin). By the way, I just bought the Costco 22" spinner, and it works like a dream.

 

[chacohen]

International travel might the be issue. I know the European LCC (i.e. RyanAir, EasyJet etc.) tend to have the most restrictive requirements. It's hard to find one piece that will satisfy all (international and domestic) unless you err on the side of caution and get a smaller piece.