How to choose a suitcase or a backpack

Case, set, or bag

A single cabin case is not a set of three. A set’s price can look high or low depending on what you needed. If you only fly with one cabin bag, compare cabin cases with cabin cases. Airline limits differ. The feed does not know your airline. Centimetres on the shop page are the check.

Backpacks use litres when the title bothers to say. A 15 litre city bag and a 40 litre pack are different. A laptop sleeve size is only real when written down. We do not carry the bags.

Wheels, shells, and what is included

Two wheels and four wheels change how a case pulls. A hard shell and a soft case are different. A ‘lightweight’ word without a kilogram figure is vague. Do not treat it as a measurement we made.

A rain cover, a lock, or a strap is included only when the title says so. Colourways are separate offers. A photo that includes a laptop or a bottle does not include those objects.

Price and the lists

A simple cabin case or daypack, a mid case with a spinner wheel, and a dearer set are different jobs. Compare inside one size. Postage and a damaged-case returns rule are the shop’s. One shop is one offer.

From our catalogue, open suitcases or backpacks. Read centimetres or litres, then Visit retailer. The affiliate link does not change the price and does not guarantee a cabin fit.

How we choose products

FindAProduct lists luggage that shops send through affiliate feeds and that still look in stock: a readable name, a price, and a photo when the merchant included one. We do not buy the products, wear them, or run them. We do not invent a winner.

Visit retailer is an affiliate link. The shop or the network may pay a commission if you buy. That payment is not added to the price, and it is not how we order the shops. If the live list is thin, this guide still explains the decision and the category page says what the feed currently has.

A last pass before you pay

Measure the cupboard or the car boot you will store the case in, not only the airline box. A large spinner that fits the airline and not your hallway will live in the way. Cabin cases that expand often exceed the limit once expanded. If you need the limit, use the unexpanded centimetres. The feed may only shout ‘cabin’. The shop page should have the numbers.

Zips and a lock you understand matter more than a slogan about toughness. A fixed combination and a TSA-style lock are different. If you fly to places that expect one of them, read the shop. We do not pull zips for a thousand cycles. A warranty is the maker’s or the shop’s sentence, visible on their page, not a badge we invented.

Weight of the empty case is the number that decides whether you can lift it once it is full. A ‘lightweight’ adjective without kilograms is not that number. If two cases match on size and one states a weight, you still cannot compare the weight of the other. Leave the gap as unknown rather than guessing from a plastic-looking photo.

Backpacks need the same honesty about litres and a hip belt. A hip belt on a heavy pack is a different product from a daypack with a webbing strap. Laptop sleeves that claim a size should be checked against your laptop’s measurements, not against a photo of a closed lid. From the suitcase and backpack lists, match size first. Visit retailer is where delivery of a big case, and the cost of that delivery, become real.

Details the feed leaves out

A cabin case you must check because it is one centimetre over is an expensive mistake. Write the airline’s limit next to the shop’s external size, including wheels and handles. Internal capacity is a different number and a worse one for the gate. We do not stand at the gate with the case.

Four wheels that only roll on a smooth floor and two wheels that track in a queue are a preference. Name it. A case that looks identical in a thumbnail can be either. The title or the shop’s specification is the source. A ‘spinner’ word is useful. Silence is not a spinner.

Backpack hip belts and a sternum strap are part of carrying a heavy load. A daypack without them is a different product, not a worse suitcase. Keep the two lists apart. When you finally compare two cases of the same external size, look at the empty weight if both shops state it, and at the shop’s delivery fee for a parcel that size. The feed price is only the start.

A nested set only helps if you will use the middle size. If you will not, price the one size you need against other singles. The set’s ‘saving’ is imaginary when two of the cases stay in the loft. Colour is a separate offer. A black case and a coloured case of the same shell and size can still be compared. A soft bag and a hard case should not.

Handles that lock up, and a carry handle that cuts the hand, are things you learn in a queue. We will not stand in that queue for you. What you can do now is refuse a case whose title and photos never show the handle or the wheel. An incomplete picture is an incomplete listing. Prefer a shop that shows the outside from more than one angle, then compare that case only with another of the same external centimetres. A backpack’s litre figure and a case’s centimetre figure are not convertible in your head. Keep the lists apart until the end, including when one price is much lower. The lower price is a different object. Wheels, a shell, and a litre count do not convert into each other. Write the centimetres you need, including wheels, and ignore every case that does not print them. A cabin claim without numbers is not a cabin claim you can use. Measure handles and wheels, not the shell alone, or the airline will measure them for you at the gate and charge you. A lock you do not understand is not a feature. If the shop cannot say how it opens, leave the row. You will meet that lock at a security desk, not on this page.

Questions shoppers ask