The Best Carry-On Luggage (Must-Have Features in 2023)

today I'm sharing five of the best carry-on suitcases because of their helpful features for airline travel this year you will see the best hard shell carry-on and soft-sided Luggage that is on the market today before you travel with a carry-on suitcase or checked luggage I'm going to teach you what features your bag must have the number one feature for these carry-on bags is the capacity inside your suitcase in which you can pack even if your airline has small strict size dimensions or weight restrictions I want you to be able to utilize all of the space that's inside your suitcase open up the suitcase and check the corners can you pack shoes or clothing all the way to the edges of your suitcase and the corners you'll notice this bubble gum pink suitcase that I bought is not even wide enough when you turn it to the side so I quickly returned that and I like to test the space inside my carry-on bags by putting a paper towel roll from Costco or a jumbo size roll of paper towel and one tip is to lay them horizontally inside the suitcase or vertically just to see if the suitcase edges go all the way up to the top of that paper towel roll you'll see that in my blue suitcase there is a gap When I close it another way you can compare the space inside a carry-on suitcase is by packing clothes in a packing Cube or a compression packing Cube I have packed four t-shirts and a pair of shorts in each of these compression cubes you start with one zipper and that zips the cube then you use the second really strong high quality zipper to compress the air that's why I like using them but you can pack them just like you would your paper towel rolls you're going to lay them horizontally you're going to see if there's space to stack two of those cubes it doesn't mean that it's a bad suitcase if you cannot stack them but I want you to figure out which will give you the most packing space I also have tested my suitcase space with a pair of boots you want to lay the boot on its side and see if you can pack that boot in each of the sides of your suitcase or if it's like my normal carry-on that's two wheeled oh that's where I store everything if you have a video about how to store or organize your travel Essentials in between flights I will link it for you but with this one there is only one flap that opens as well as the one that my son has by Ricardo it opens with one flap we bought this one for him probably 10 years ago when the spinner Wheels were just coming out and I thought oh it's never going to last but it has been fantastic the newest carry-on that I bought this year does not have an outer pocket and I have thought that I must have an outer pocket but now I feel like it may give you more space inside the entire suitcase if you take away that outer pocket this one is six and a half pounds and it is fantastic I'm going to show you more as we test now I am a pilot wife and I have been rugged with my carry-on bags we fly standby most of the time so we have to travel in a carry-on suitcase and I am not gentle with them so I'm giving you this expert advice from a non-gentle rugged Cobblestone Road perspective from Europe or Savannah Georgia the number two feature that your carry-on bags must have like mine do is durable Wheels there are three types of Wheels to look for you can have the double Wheels both of these blue ones just have the double wheels and to me that helps stabilize the balance of your carry-on bag and a tip is if you do over pack maybe and your suitcase tips over you want to pack your heaviest items like your shoes near the base of the bag that it will be in if it's standing upright if that makes sense you also want rugged wheels wheels that can stand up to being banged against curbs cement curbs going off the escalator or Cobblestone roads like I mentioned and then the third type of wheels that you must have in your carry-on bags is embedded Wheels you want them to be embedded somewhat here's an example of embedded Wheels the Travel Pro makes the best embedded Wheels you can see that half of the wheel is protected and embedded inside the carry-on bag even the wheels in this suitcase that goes under the airplane seat they are embedded halfway which is great and it cuts down on the height of your suitcase I did an entire video on how I pack eight outfits inside an airplane under the seat bag that I will link for you it is a high quality bag I also have this one just to mention one tip that I have noticed that some carry-on suitcase companies are doing when I bought it a few years ago it was called an under the seat bag and it does not fit under any airplane seat but if weight or size is a problem for you that one will fit in the overhead bins even on the small airplanes I wasn't planning on talking about that suitcase the reason I bought this one is because I walked into JC Penney's because I had to park there in our local mall and they have a fantastic luggage section so I tested out several of them and I did not like a lot but this one I loved two types of Wheels to avoid when choosing a carry-on suitcase are the hollow sounding plastic Wheels you want to test them by tapping the wheels if it is that rubber sound that means it's going to be higher quality and another type of wheel to avoid is the type where the suitcase wheels are hanging by a thread of plastic which means they could easily pop off if they're thrown into the belly of the airplane or going through baggage claim all those little pipelines when I got this suitcase I tested the wheels and I was skeptical of it only having one single wheel under each corner so after tapping it and finding out that was good I inspected closer and there are two prongs on either side of the wheel then there's also a cylinder that that part of the wheel goes up inside and it is also somewhat embedded inside the base of the suitcase so because of those I know that I could trust that feature for high quality luggage travel today and I've flown with it once already and it has been tested with my rugged personality or rugged perspective and I can recommend it I forgot to mention the expansion on this is like two inches it is it is oh it has a lot of space inside it I love it I also test my carry-on luggage features with the push method I test mine rolling them over carpet but one caveat is that most airports are getting rid of carpets so that is not really an issue but it's something that may help you one Hot Topic when choosing a carry-on suitcase is hard shell luggage versus soft-sotted suitcases and that is just really a personal opinion I found with a former video that I made so I'll let you choose that the third feature is organization in your luggage if you must have a lot of organization I highly recommend soft sided suitcases because they have the extra space on that outside flap to put Pockets but one travel tip is that you can be in charge of adding organization to your carry-on bags by using little pouches in this carry-on suitcase it has an inner flap that is very tight and uh shallow I guess that's a good way to describe it a lot of people do not pack in that pocket because you can barely fit anything down in there but I want to say a packing tip is to think in a different way I packed roll up travel slippers for the hotel room in the flat way and they fit fine down in there put a hat um gloves down in there anything that's flat even flip-flops for when you get to your Resort and your room's not ready and you're ready to change out of those snow boots just utilize all the pockets if that would help you the pocket in my pink Samsonite carry-on is fantastic I mean I can open it so wide to pack more cubes in or lots of different Essentials for travel there are two features in an outside pocket of a suitcase that are helpful for you while traveling and that is for easy access through the airport security line I am going to pack my passport report or my hoodie that I've got to untie from around my waist even though I have TSA pre-check I'm going to stash those in there quickly and then after airport security I can put them where they need to go in a more secure location it's just having easy access in the airport before I'm going to get on the plane and number two is that you can pack more things in that outer pocket you're going to extend packing I packed shoes I have packed hats gloves your laptop but one important travel tip is to remember that your bag could get checked last minute so have your laptop or other medicine so that you can transfer them to your personal item bag if it happens last minute many of you want luggage locks we have never used them but if it helps you feel less stressed because you stress less about that than have them the fourth feature for carry-on luggage this year is that it has a low added space in which to pack if you'll notice between both of these wheels the suitcase comes down in between there that is giving you two extra inches of space in which to pack and if you are going into like I did like Kohl's TJ Maxx Walmart even some of them are so cheaply built they're just a rectangle and the wheels are hanging by a thread of plastic that means they are taking away two inches of packing space for you so be sure to check out that feature here are some small features I noticed protection on the outside edges the added buffer protects them from dents happening in the airport or the airplane and the number five feature that I love and carry-on luggage and what I dislike strongly is the spinner wheel capability it is so easy to push your suitcase down the aisle in the airplane now and then another reason is for entering the airport bathroom stalls which a local TV show showed me when they had me on their show going into the bathroom stall I had no idea they were going to use that clip to introduce me I will link that little six minute segment up there for you the spinner Wheels make your suitcase so easily maneuverable and what I do not like about these suitcases is how awkward it is to open them and place on a hotel luggage rack I want to challenge one of you my brilliant travel subscribers to invent a luggage rack for these spinner open like a book suitcases it is so awkward and one travel tip if you need a luggage rack is one to invest in one for yourself or for your guest room and my other travel tip is do not get the one that we got it is like wrought iron and I there are all these moving parts and I get a bruise on my ankle every time I'm setting it up but I did buy one for my mom which is like the old-timey lounge chairs which you just open up and there it was and it's a little stretchy and it's super lightweight that's a great gift idea for yourself the most surprising carry-on luggage tip is that I could pack more shoes in my 20 inch suitcase versus my 22 inch one that I've had for almost 20 years I have no idea why but I think it's because I have two sides in which to pack instead of just a little bit deeper side to pack for that one the next carry-on bag feature to look for is the button inside handle does your thumb match the size of that little button is it too big too depress down into the handle you also want to check the quality of pressing in your handles down inside the suitcase because you're going to need to do that pretty quickly you walk down the Jet Bridge put the handles down and then push it through or pick it up so test that and then I must have a side handle on my luggage and here's why a lot of people did not understand this when I said I gave away my high quality delsi suitcase last year the handle was on the right side okay if you're looking at your suitcase handle okay you're going to stand behind that if you're left-handed it's great if the handle is on the side the right side but I'm right-handed so here's why if you'll notice the handle is down here look how much space I'm going to be lifting if you turn it around then my handle my hand is on the top of the suitcase not the base so I cannot lift it as easily you'll see in this one the handle is on a diagonal which is okay even if it's horizontal it's okay because it still gives you that oomph when you're lifting your suitcase a bonus feature and two brand new high quality suitcases that I found for you this year is one test the zippers you want to make sure you test the zipper quality over the edges and back down you want to see how easily you can work the zipper with one hand only and then also if it gives you any scratches you don't want to mess up your nail or your skin with a cheap zipper quality all right and then when I did walk into JC Penney's because I had to park there I was so surprised that they have a lot of the Ricardo brand and I think most of them are soft sided but they're spinner so four wheels the quality was excellent and the fill space inside was fantastic and then another brand I did not like a lot of brands that they had but the other brand that was luxurious looking and high quality to me was the Skyway carry-on suitcase so check that one out if you happen to be there it has so much organization on the soft-sided ones the wheel quality is fantastic their suitcases were beautiful as well if you are skeptical of any of my advice go into a store and test on your own or make sure when you're ordering from Amazon for example that you do have free shipping and returns or wherever you're ordering from I do have to say that my favorite suitcase I think is still this one it's eight pounds but it does not feel like it whatsoever I can pack so much in it but I have only flown with this one one time I'm planning a girl trip to Nashville so I will be able to use it again very soon and I wanted to tell you that I have the ultimate packing list printable for you after March so if you're watching this after then just go to the description box below for that and I also have a video about what you do not necessarily need to pack or some items that are helpful for a long haul flight I will put that one for a really long flight up here and then some International tips videos and other videos down in the description box and here's how you find it you can now look at the first comment I have put all of my information in the very first comment if I remember to or right above the shirts that I designed for our Channel you'll see the beginning of a paragraph and just click show more or read more or the upside down carrot if you're on your iPad I think or a phone I can't remember anyway thanks for your time and good luck and have such a beautiful vacation again my gosh hmm

Channel: Travel Tips by Laurie

Views: 306,162

Keywords: travel tips, best 5 carry-on suitcases with must-have features for airline travel, best carry-on luggage, luggage features 2023, best carryon suitcases, checked luggage, high quality luggage, travelpro luggage, samsonite carry-on, jc penney luggage, travel tips by laurie

Id: NLvS0Mm48L8

Length: 17min 9sec (1029 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 24 2023