Help me find a carry on bag for United Airlines

May 1, 2023 3:48 PM

I'm looking for carry on luggage options to take on United Airlines Flights

Normally I never use one : A carryon, This time my wife and I are going to a wedding in NYC so we want to carry suit, dress etc on the plane so we won't lose them. Things happen. Their requirements (United) list size 22x14x9. To fit in their overhead compartment. I have looked up so many and seen a lot of options where some say, yeah it fits - and then someone else says it won't. I don't go until June 1st so still have lots of time. Please share your thoughts on this. I know there are lot of options out there. Thanks for any help!

posted by Upon Further Review to Shopping (15 answers total)

I fly United all the time and the Travelpro Platinum Elite (Wirecutter review) has been perfectly fine. It has a suit / folded garment compartment.

If you want to keep that folded garment compartment for the dress and need a way to pack the suit I have also used the shoulder pop fold trick for packing a suit and find that it works super well even when packing the suit into something unstructured like a duffle bag.
posted by bl1nk at 4:04 PM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]

You’re way overthinking this. Anything sold as a carryon will work in United’s eyes. The problem with United is that they fly 100 different kinds of jets, all with different overhead bin configurations. Some of the smaller planes have smaller bins. But that doesn’t really matter to you. If it doesn’t fit, they’ll just gate check it. Obviously don’t bring something that’s bigger than you are, but people regularly bring guitars or skis as carryons. “Carryon” is a word that has a specific meaning in the luggage industry, so if it’s being sold by a reputable company as a carryon, it’ll work.
posted by kevinbelt at 4:06 PM on May 1, 2023 [4 favorites]

Oh also generally carryon requirements don't vary a ton from airline to airline but what you may care about are which specific planes you'll be flying in. Generally so long as it's your usual cross country widebody like a 777 or an Airbus A320 then you're fine. It's more when you get to smaller regional flights served by United Express and flying on an Embraer or Bombardier where you have to worry about the bins being smaller than expected ... and even here they're going to make you gate check them, which means picking it up in the jetway when you land at your connection rather than worry about the bags getting stuck at the connection or original departure airport.

(Edit to add: and even with small Embraer shuttle flights the Travelpro has been fine and fits)
posted by bl1nk at 4:11 PM on May 1, 2023

I fly out of a smaller airport so smaller planes and almost always have to gate check my carryon. It’s honestly great and I love it because hauling that carryon in and out of the overhead is not my favorite.

My carryon is a no-name hard sided spinner I got on Black Friday sale at ebags 7 years ago. It’s fine.
posted by jeoc at 5:15 PM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

I use Travelpro and have never had a problem for ~15+ years of flying for work. I currently have the one linked on the Wirecutter. The airline crews also use Travelpro for the most part, so it's a very known quantity that nobody is going to question.
posted by Mid at 6:05 PM on May 1, 2023

Best answer: Those dimension guidelines are never enforced. Like, that thing they have in the check-in area where they tell you your bag only counts as a carry-on if it fits in the box? Fake news. I own so many carry-on bags and I have flown with all of them, as carry-ons, and I don't think any of them fit in the box.

The Travelpro linked upthread is a great bag! You won't regret getting that one. Actually, my household has several of the Wirecutter picks and they're all really excellent (and in general the whole article is worth reading). Definitely cheaper options out there too though.
posted by potrzebie at 9:06 PM on May 1, 2023

The main thing to pay attention to with carry-on dimensions is that they need to be for the entire suitcase, including wheels, because that's how airlines measure it. Often you'll see "total size" and "packing size", or similar terms, in the description.
posted by trig at 12:53 AM on May 2, 2023

(To clarify, "packing size" and similar refer to the internal dimensions, not including the wheels, handles, and other things that airlines care about. So you need to be sure you're looking at the relevant dimensions.)
posted by trig at 3:48 AM on May 2, 2023

Airline employee here.

If you don't travel often, pretty much any 20"-22" 'roll aboard' (for God's sake don't call it a 'rollerboard') will work for your needs. And green-tagged gate-checking (you'll get this on Embraer -145s and CRJ-900s, usually) is like having a concierge take your bag and bring it to the jetway. Doesn't take more than a few minutes. Works well.

Personally, I haven't found Travelpro to be of sufficient durability for the day-to-day abuse that flight crews put them through. A lot of crew do use them, but it's often because it's issued by the company.

If you want long term bulletproof durability, you want to look at LuggageWorks or Strongbags. Both will survive the apocalypse. Slightly less durable and much more attractive is Briggs and Riley.
posted by Thistledown at 4:18 AM on May 2, 2023 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks everyone for the tips, I appreciate the great advice!
posted by Upon Further Review at 9:07 AM on May 2, 2023

I would not listen to people who say that dimensions don't matter. It's happened to me and it is not worth the trouble. If you have the allowed dimensions and they want to check the bag, you can always explain that you have something precious, fragile, etc. inside. If it's too big then there's really not much you can say when they want to charge you money to check it or whatever.
If you are going to have the bag with you at the airport and on the plane, it really doesn't matter so much if it is a great quality bag.
posted by melamakarona at 2:28 PM on May 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

I agree that the airlines do bounce bags that are too large -- I see one or more of these rejections on most flights -- but in my experience the way this works is that gate agents eyeball bags and then selectively tell people to put the bag in the "sizer" if they think the bag is too large. They don't make ~90% of the people try the sizer - they just eyeball and call out the bags that stand out as the worst ones (or the customers they feel comfortable picking on). That's why I like the Travelpro or other "known quantity" bags - so they don't stand out in the eyeballing. So I agree the "dimensions don't matter" in the sense that if your bag is in the general ballpark of OK, probably nobody is going to measure it, but if your bag stands out as possibly too big, then you might be asked to stuff it into the sizer.
posted by Mid at 3:41 PM on May 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

I've travelled extensively and ONLY fly carryon. The Freitag Voyager is my bag of choice as I've never found a bag that's easier to pack / see your stuff in. They make a smaller one called a Skipper as well. (Scroll to the bottom of each of their pages to see video of the bags.)
posted by dobbs at 4:12 PM on May 2, 2023

If this is the only time you will use the carry-on, just go to TJMaxx or whatever outlet store. Look at all the "carry-on" sized bags lined up next to each other and pick the one that is an inch shorter than the others. It will cost less than a hundred dollars and will last for at least 10 trips, maybe more. I just bought one before my United flight last month and it was fine.

Also, don't overstuff it, which puts strain on the zipper and increases the risk of bursting.
posted by CathyG at 9:23 PM on May 3, 2023

don't overstuff it, which puts strain on the zipper and increases the risk of bursting

Not to mention, makes it more difficult to fit in an overhead bin, and therefore makes it more likely to attract the attention of United employees, who could then decide it's too big.
posted by kevinbelt at 6:29 AM on May 4, 2023