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These are the best luggage available today. Credit: Reviewed / Seamus Bellamy

The Best Luggage of 2024

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These are the best luggage available today. Credit: Reviewed / Seamus Bellamy

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Reviewed's mission is to help you buy the best stuff and get the most out of what you already own. Our team of product experts thoroughly vet every product we recommend to help you cut through the clutter and find what you need.

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Editor's Choice Product image of Travelpro Platinum Elite 29” Expandable Spinner
Best Checked Luggage

Travelpro Platinum Elite 29” Expandable Spinner

Check Price at Amazon

The Travelpro Platinum Elite 29 can hold a ton of clothes, is easy to maneuver through airports and train stations, and doesn’t cost a ton. Read More

Pros

  • Excellent maneuverability
  • Easy front-opening access
  • Premium build quality

Cons

  • Nothing we can think of
Editor's Choice Product image of Tom Bihn Western Flyer
Best Under-Seat Carry-On Luggage

Tom Bihn Western Flyer

Check Price at Tom Bihn

The Western Flyer is a traveler's dream bag. There are plenty of spacious pockets and compartments in this sturdy, well-thought-out bag. Read More

Pros

  • Plenty of storage space
  • Sturdy construction
  • Customizable

Cons

  • None that we could find
Product image of Away Carry-On

Away Carry-On

Check Price at Away

This colorful hard-sided spinner carry-on has plenty of packing space and comes with lots of extras, including a built-in charging battery. Read More

Pros

  • Plenty of packing space
  • Lots of colors to choose from.

Cons

  • It comes with extras travellers may not want
  • Scratches easily
  • Zipper pulls may drag on the ground
Editor's Choice Product image of Briggs & Riley Sympatico Large Expandable Spinner

Briggs & Riley Sympatico Large Expandable Spinner

Check Price at Amazon

The Briggs and Riley Briggs & Riley Sympatico Large Expandable Spinner is a great piece of hard-sided, checked luggage. Read More

Pros

  • Offset handle a great design
  • Lots of organizational touches inside
  • Resilient

Cons

  • Extendable handle quality makes navigating more difficult
Product image of Briggs & Riley Baseline Softside Carry-On Luggage

Briggs & Riley Baseline Softside Carry-On Luggage

Check Price at Amazon

This high-end spinner bag has lots of packing space and can be expanded from a thickness of nine inches to 11.5 inches if needed. Read More

Pros

  • Built to last forever
  • Very expandable.

Cons

  • Heavy
  • Best Checked Luggage Travelpro Platinum Elite 29” Expandable Spinner
  • Best Under-Seat Carry-On Luggage Tom Bihn Western Flyer
  • Away Carry-On
  • Briggs & Riley Sympatico Large Expandable Spinner
  • Briggs & Riley Baseline Softside Carry-On Luggage
  • What You Should Know About Luggage
  • More Articles You Might Enjoy

Owning a well-made, abrasion-resistant, thoughtfully designed suitcase or bag can help make traveling feel breezy and manageable. The trick to avoiding lousy luggage is by traveling with as many different pieces of small or large checked luggage, carry-on luggage, under-seat carry-on, and travel backpacks you can lay your hands on. Unfortunately, most people don’t have the time or money to invest in this sort of research. Fortunately, your curious friends at Reviewed do.

Whether you prefer to travel light or insist upon bringing every scrap of clothing you own on your next adventure, we’ve got the best carry-on and checked bags highlighted in this luggage review, at different price points. Here are the best luggage brands to buy from, and the best bags for carrying all of your belongings with you.

Editor's Note:

The recommendations in this guide are based on thorough product and market research by our team of expert product reviewers. The picks are based on examining user reviews, product specifications, and, in some limited cases, our experience with the specific products named.

The Travelpro Platinum Elite 29 Inch Expandable Spinner
Credit: Reviewed / Geoff Morrison

If you need a great piece of checked luggage, the Travelpro Platinum Elite 29 Inch Expandable Spinner is the suitcase to get.

Best Checked Luggage
Travelpro Platinum Elite 29” Expandable Spinner

The Travelpro Platinum Elite 29 Inch Expandable Spinner had a decidedly more premium feel than several of the higher price tag options we looked into for this guide. This soft-sided luggage is easily maneuverable, despite its size, and comes with desirable extras such as TSA-approved lock-compatible zippers and a garment bag.

One of the Platinum Elite’s best features is that access to its main compartment is gained by unzipping the front face of the suitcase rather than down the middle of the bag, which is more common. This means that the whole volume of the suitcase’s generous main storage space is available to use as one compartment, rather than being split down the middle into two. That said, the depth of Platinum Elite's cavernous main compartment could have you digging around to find items located at the bottom of the suitcase. However, by using packing cubes this becomes a non-issue.

The Platinum Elite’s main compartment comes packing multiple built-in organization aids, including a removable toiletry bag, to help you keep track of your belongings. At the end of your trip, should you find that you picked up more mementos of your journey than the suitcase can handle, Travelpro has your back: with the simple pull of a zipper, the Platinum Elite’s width can be expanded by two additional inches.

See more of the best checked suitcases we reviewed.

Pros

  • Excellent maneuverability

  • Easy front-opening access

  • Premium build quality

Cons

  • Nothing we can think of

$399.49 from Amazon
A woman holds a Tom Bihn Western Flyer by its handle
Credit: Reviewed / Séamus Bellamy

The Western Flyer tucks neatly under an airline seat.

Best Under-Seat Carry-On Luggage
Tom Bihn Western Flyer

Constructed from your choice of either 1050 Ballistic Nylon or lightweight 400 Halcyon fabric and available in an assortment of colors, the Tom Bihn Western Flyer will fit under an airline seat with room to spare—a fact you’ll appreciate when you stretch out on your next cross-country flight. Its exterior front panel contains a stowaway water bottle holder and two large, zippered pockets: the first provides ample space for your car keys, passport, and other small essentials. The second pocket is large enough to store an eReader, 8-inch tablet, smartphone or paperback novel to read on your flight.

With 1600 cubic inches of interior space, the Western Flyer is large enough to use as a small suitcase for a weekend getaway with room to spare for a laptop, snacks, and magazines. The bag’s interior space is also broken down into two large compartments.

In addition to all of this, the Western Flyer is incredibly versatile. It can be carried by its built-in handle like a briefcase, be paired with a shoulder strap (sold separately), or worn like a rucksack, thanks to a pair of backpack straps that stow away when not in use. What’s more, thanks to Tom Bihn’s selection of packing cubes, padded electronics cases, and their organization Freudian Slip insert, this bag can be customized to please most any traveler.

See more of the best under seat luggage we reviewed.

Pros

  • Plenty of storage space

  • Sturdy construction

  • Customizable

Cons

  • None that we could find

Buy now at Tom Bihn
Product image of Away Carry-On
Away Carry-On

The Away Carry On bag is a piece of hardside luggage with a clamshell design. Once unzipped, you’ll have access to two large compartments: one in each half of the suitcase. Zippered mesh covers ensure that the contents of each side of the bag stay put while the carry-on is being opened or closed. Amesh pocket, located on the flap that divides the bag — is large enough to accommodate a laptop. One side of the Away Carry-On’s interior features compression straps to help you to fit more clothing and sundries into the suitcase. As a bonus, this suitcase comes with a water-resistant laundry bag. It’s also worth noting that the Away Carry On comes with international plug adapters as well as a removable 10,000 mAh rechargeable battery.

The Away Carry-On’s built-in combination lock secures its zippers in place. The zippers themselves are designed so that you can add your own TSA lock too. It’s worth noting that, because of the size of the zipper pulls, you’ll need to make sure that when the bag is zipped up they aren’t located at the bottom of your bag or they’ll drag on the ground. The bag has both a side and a top carry handle, comfortable though not padded. The retractable handle was sturdy and smooth.

Unfortunately, this piece of luggage is susceptible to scratches and scuffs. An eraser is included with the Away Carry-On to help mitigate scuffs, plus it comes with a branded cloth storage bag to keep the dust off when not in use or — if the thought of scuffing up your bag gives you nightmares — to protect it while it’s in transit.

Dimensions: 21.7 x 13.7 x 9 Our bag sizer says: It fits!

Pros

  • Plenty of packing space

  • Lots of colors to choose from.

Cons

  • It comes with extras travellers may not want

  • Scratches easily

  • Zipper pulls may drag on the ground

Buy now at Away
Product image of Briggs & Riley Sympatico Large Expandable Spinner
Briggs & Riley Sympatico Large Expandable Spinner

This carry-on suitcase is great for someone who is set on a hard, polycarbonate-shell suitcase. It is scratch resistant, has several zippered pouches, and includes a mesh compression system to help you squeeze in extra belongings.

One downside? These pouches aren’t waterproof. The expandable handle is also wobbly and not as maneuverable as other options. This suitcase has an average 5-star rating on Amazon and many reviewers refer to it as “quality” and “top-notch” so if you can overlook the issues we found, you'll likely be happy with this case.

Pros

  • Offset handle a great design

  • Lots of organizational touches inside

  • Resilient

Cons

  • Extendable handle quality makes navigating more difficult

Buy now at Amazon

$615.00 from Abt
Product image of Briggs & Riley Baseline Softside Carry-On Luggage
Briggs & Riley Baseline Softside Carry-On Luggage

Dimensions: 22 x 14 x 9
Our bag sizer says: It fits!

The Briggs and Riley Domestic Carry-On offers plenty of packing space (35.4 liters and up to 46.4 when expanded). This, along with its durable construction featuring a hybrid fiberglass frame, reinforced corners, and a 1680D ballistic nylon fabric exterior, make it a great luggage option for frequent travelers.

This suitcase rolls smoothly and includes a three-height retractable handle hardware system that is placed almost entirely on the outside of the bag, which ensures that it doesn’t take up valuable packing space.

The main compartment includes two nearly full-length zippered pockets and compression straps to help you fit more into the suitcase. It also includes a ‘suiter’ bar, designed to help keep garments wrinkle-free. You can even expand the thickness of the bag from nine inches to 11.5 inches if you end up buying new items on your trip. Should you take advantage of this expandability, don’t be surprised if the suitcase no longer fits into an airport sizer. All of this features also make this suitcase a bit heavy.

This suitcase has several pockets, such as an exterior pocket that is large enough to fit a laptop and your quart-sized bag of liquids. There’s another pocket for smaller items too. At the back of the bag, beneath the discrete luggage tag receptacle, there’s a pocket between the ribs of the retractable handle which would fit a water bottle or perhaps a collapsible umbrella. The main compartment and laptop pocket can be secured..

Pros

  • Built to last forever

  • Very expandable.

Cons

  • Heavy

Buy now at Amazon

$549.00 from Walmart

What You Should Know About Luggage

These are the best luggage available today.
Credit: Reviewed / Seamus Bellamy

When it comes to luggage, we advise you to spend more if you travel more. High-end luggage tends to be more durable, so you’ll have to replace it less often.

  • Price: When it comes to luggage, we advise you to spend more if you travel more. High-end luggage tends to be more durable to wear and tear, so you’ll have to replace it less often. The same can’t always be said for personal carry-on-sized bags. Sometimes, as these smaller bags, purses, and backpacks can be used as fashion accessories as part of your daily commute, the price of a bag is commensurate with this luggage brand’s recognition, rather than its durability or utility.
  • Wheels: if you prefer your luggage to glide through an airport concourse on wheels, four wheels are better than two. No matter whether you’re pushing or pulling your bag along, you’ll find it just as maneuverable. That said, two-wheeled bags are still a good get—they’re more portable and can often cost less. For shopping for bags designed to fit under an airline seat, avoid wheels if you can: they eat into the already limited amount of space bags sized to slip under an airplane seat offer. -**Handles:** Retractable handles should slide in and out of position, smoothly, and offer at least a couple of height settings to accommodate different sized users. This style of handle, however, isn’t desirable in under seat carry-on luggage: the handle mechanism takes up a lot of space in such a small bag. Built-in fabric or leather handles should be wide and padded to make the weight of what’s inside of your bag feel like less of a strain on your hand. Handles located on multiple sides of a bag are a win, as they make it easy to grab it out of an overhead bin, no matter how you had to place it in there.
  • Organization: Bags that offer a number of easily accessible exterior pockets for small items like a passport, smartphone, or plane tickets are a smart buy. Look for bags with a large main compartment that can be used with packing cubes, or stuffed full of a number of loose items such as a water bottle, snacks, or a hoodie. If you plan on using your bag for work trips or having it double as a tote for your daily commute, be sure that any laptop compartment, tablet sleeve, or admin panels built into it will suit your needs.

Travel backpacks are kind of their own thing. When buying one, you should look for the following:

  • A main, inner compartment that opens up flat, like a suitcase, to aid in packing and unpacking.
  • The inner compartment should boast at least one zippered pocket for organizing your clothes, toiletries and other sundries.
  • A main compartment with compression panels and straps to compress your cargo and keep it from shifting during transport is a bonus that allows the pack to be used with or without packing cubes.
  • An area that military types often call an "admin panel," which can store a laptop or tablet, pens, maps, tickets, passports, you name it. It's most helpful in the detachable part of a daypack, so you can carry valuables while leaving the cargo bag at their hotel.
  • Speaking of daypacks, travel backpacks that feature one are very handy.
  • A travel pack should come with an internal frame to help protect your belongings and keep your stuff from shifting around on your back while you travel.
  • A padded hip belt is a must: they’re designed to transfer the weight of your pack from your shoulders to your hips, helping to save you from discomfort and injury.
  • Whenever possible, load straps should be integrated into the pack’s shoulder straps to pull the pack closer to the back, transferring more of its weight to the hips.
  • Zippers that can be used with a TSA-compatible lock are essential for slowing down thieves and ensuring that none of your gear is lost while in transit. Some packs come with fabric loops for this purpose. You don’t want that. Metal zipper locks are where it’s at.
  • While there are few bags out there that are truly waterproof, you should at least look for one that's weather-resistant. Lacking that, invest in a rain cover to ensure the contents of your bag don't get soaked in a downpour.

Meet the testers

Reviewed Staff

Reviewed Staff

Contributors, Writers, Editors

@reviewed

The Reviewed staff is based in the heart of Cambridge, MA. Backed by our knowledgeable writers and rigorous test labs, we're working hard to make sure you can make the right decisions about what to buy.

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Johanna Read

Johanna Read

Contributor

Johanna Read is a freelance travel writer and photographer.

See all of Johanna Read's reviews

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