Travel Products - Carry on garment bag-pushing my luck?

Hey

I have bought a Tumi Alpha garment carrier without checking the dimensions. It was a bargain.

It is 18x 23.5x 5.5

Obviously this is 1.5 longer than the vast majority of limits.

A friend says he always carries it on no problem. However I'm concerned about this.
Should I swap it for a carry on one or will I find I have a similar experience to my friend.

Thanks

Hey

I have bought a Tumi Alpha garment carrier without checking the dimensions. It was a bargain.

It is 18x 23.5x 5.5

Obviously this is 1.5 longer than the vast majority of limits.

A friend says he always carries it on no problem. However I'm concerned about this.
Should I swap it for a carry on one or will I find I have a similar experience to my friend.

Thanks
Depends on where you fly, when you board and whether carriers tighten up their enforcement.

Overseas, most carriers are fanatical and it will be rejected. Period.

Domestic, if there's a coat closet, most FA will let you hang it. If you board toward the end and there's no room, it gets gate checked (something you don't want to do w. a garment bag). If you fly smaller aircraft, it won't fit and will need to be checked / gate-checked (again a bad idea).

They are fine for intl. travel in F/J. But even with priority boarding, small aircraft and last minute connections combine to make these things rough. And, no carrier will pay up on one of them.

Hey

I have bought a Tumi Alpha garment carrier without checking the dimensions. It was a bargain.

It is 18x 23.5x 5.5

Obviously this is 1.5 longer than the vast majority of limits.

A friend says he always carries it on no problem. However I'm concerned about this.
Should I swap it for a carry on one or will I find I have a similar experience to my friend.

Thanks

Hmm you will get turned away trying this in my experience. plus it's just the stress of knowing you are carrying something which is against regulations, without a doubt - across all major international carriers. try this new bag by lat56 www.lat56.com. you can use on all international carriers and even European/american budget airlines. plus it performs far better than your standard garment bags which is what you have. Tumi's bags just have tough material. it does not keep your suit in any better condition. also, my other issue with their garment bags (and most of their main black original stuff) is the weight. it's so heavy.

Thanks Jack. Do you work for Lat56?!

As it happens I did look at the Red Eye. My concerns were:

1. It is too small.
2. No external pockets so if I want to get my kindle or passport etc is a big deal.
3. They are new to market so is the lifetime guarantee worth it's weight?

Despite this I had been chatting to them, very nice guys. However when I clicked back to make my decision I saw they had been selling them for £99 which had just expired. Annoyed me a bit as when I had been chatting to them they must have known this and failed to tell me. They did offer me a discount but nowhere near this.

Their stuff does look good though, I hope they do well.

So back to the drawing board. I like Tumi, the layout of the Alpha is excellent. I could go away for a week if it wasn't 1.5" too long.

I have the same Tumi garment bag. Been stopped (or questioned) at least half of the time I've tried to bring it on. When flying F or J (dom and intl), they have tended to look the other way. Sometimes they let me hang it either in closet or coat hook on rear bulkhead.

Been made to gate check it and it was not fun. I guess the issue is that bag can get stuffed pretty full (I get a week's worth of clothes in there) and when folded, it looks more like a barrel sometimes.

Thanks Jack. Do you work for Lat56?!

As it happens I did look at the Red Eye. My concerns were:

1. It is too small.
2. No external pockets so if I want to get my kindle or passport etc is a big deal.
3. They are new to market so is the lifetime guarantee worth it's weight?

Despite this I had been chatting to them, very nice guys. However when I clicked back to make my decision I saw they had been selling them for £99 which had just expired. Annoyed me a bit as when I had been chatting to them they must have known this and failed to tell me. They did offer me a discount but nowhere near this.

Their stuff does look good though, I hope they do well.

So back to the drawing board. I like Tumi, the layout of the Alpha is excellent. I could go away for a week if it wasn't 1.5" too long.

Hi Silver,
Agree on some of above. I have used the lat56 for a while now. it's just made my life easier and I now pack so much more efficiently. it was amazing the amount of extra junk I used to carry - anything like toiletries come in the smallest sizes now, my clothes are more efficient and packable (rohan stuff usually), my adapters etc are streamlined to cover all electronics. I am much lighter as a result and my suit is in better condition too as an all important added bonus. I slip my passport always in my clothing anyway in case my bag is stolen/misplaced. my ipad or macbook air slips in the main compartment easy. I hear you on the lifetime guarantee, if they do it then fair enough, tbh i have been very impressed by build, quite a few people mentioned this on FT and was one of the reasons i bought it as i didnt want it falling apart. I could do with a better shoulder strap though. might buy a victorinox one as in my experience these are the best in terms of padding. see this video of it being run over by a 4 x 4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdKfxQLGWpo&feature=plcp&context=C3908a87UDOEgsToPDskKq_qVmbAdV1FuR-xNrtakA).

i used a code that was posted on FT to get a discount.

ps ha nope dont work for them! i just really like the bag and has made my travel easier so happy to talk it up. must be a lot of people that work for briggs and riley on this forum or tumi though now you mention it!

best of luck with your decision anyway. shame about the tumi 23.5"

Thanks Jack

Yeah I do travel very light, and as I say it was just a concern, I wouldn't have known until I got it which I definitely would have done at the deal price, but having seen them go for that money I refuse to pay full whack now.

I saw on their FB page they have new stuff coming out which I will view with interest. I'm back in the US soon so if I haven't got anything by then I think it will be a B&R tri fold for me. Same over there in bucks as it is in UK in pounds.

Thanks Jack

Yeah I do travel very light, and as I say it was just a concern, I wouldn't have known until I got it which I definitely would have done at the deal price, but having seen them go for that money I refuse to pay full whack now.

I saw on their FB page they have new stuff coming out which I will view with interest. I'm back in the US soon so if I haven't got anything by then I think it will be a B&R tri fold for me. Same over there in bucks as it is in UK in pounds.

FYI, dug this out, it was FRIENDTW that I used to get 50% off from www.lat56.com.