typical

As I look to getting back to work, I'm looking for a bag that will work for me to carry on.

I mainly fly European, African, Middle Eastern and Asian major carriers.

I'm looking for something:
- That looks professional enough to take to a client site, as/when I need
- That will hold a suit - PREFERABLY inside a garment bag, I hate travelling in suits and often change pre-flight in places where folding clothes carefully isn't at all easy
- That will also hold 3-4 shirts, underwear for 3-4 days, ties, small toiletries bag
- That will also carry a pair of size 12 gym trainers or running shoes (not both)
- That can be worn as a backpack

I'm looking closely at the Aeronaut with an Eagle Creek Garment Sleeve right now. Any thoughts about a better option?

I don't think the Sky Train really works with a suit as I'd want to carry it, the 235x seems impossible to get (and not a rucksack), and I haven't seen anything up to date about MEI, regarding the EO.

ETA: I love the look of the Tri-Star but it looks like it's just not long enough to get a suit in without horizontal folding.

(I've bought an eBags ML-TLS to see what it's like, in the Amazon sale.)

Any thoughts appreciated.

Baghoarder

I have an Aeronaut and a Tri-Star (well, my husband has "borrowed" the TS!). Neither comes with a garment bag and I am not sure whether any garment bag would fit either. I would say that the TS's compartments are slightly better than the Aeronaut's for packing a suit coat. The Aeronaut's central compartment is not as long as the full length of the bag, because of the end compartments, so it has a square (cuboid) rather than rectangular packing volume. I think both bags would require you to fold the jacket horizontally. However, if you search this sub-forum you should find some good threads on folding techniques that IME are effective at minimising creasing.

typical

Thanks. The TS is very pretty but yes, suit jacket...

I have been looking at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pMEAx5DRKA for garment bag in Aeronaut - it seems you can slip one in in a way that borrows space from the end panels. That plus a large packing cube looks good for me.

Not ideal though!

JA610

You should consider the Gate8 garment bag. I own a v.1 and it works great and the new v.2 appears to be even better. You can find reviews in this thread.

Uncle Dave

Its a tradeoff.

I have tipped in favor of the Air Boss for business travel and the Aeronaut for leisure travel.

I find the Air Boss easier to pack for business trips because of the slightly trapezoidal shape of Aeronauts main cavity vs. the Air Bosses rectangular cavities work better for me as my suit folds end up as rectangular shaped bundles.
Its not impossible to fit a suit in the aeronaut though, just not as easy for me.

The aeronauts end pockets are better for shoes than trying to fit them in the Air boss at the ends of the cavities.

At security the air boss wins by a landslide as the metro(or many different cases) briefcase fits right inside the center cavity perfectly and with 2 quick zips to open and close your laptop is out and on the tray and the AB is zipped back up and on the conveyer- 5 seconds max. You don't have to set it down to open it up.

By contrast the Aeronaut takes longer to open as you have to set it down, unzip the U shaped flap, then you have to open up your brain cell (when oriented for handle carry one needs to turn it around and open it and its hard to do that without completely removing the brain cell ) then pull out the PC put the brain back in cell and then set the laptop down then reclose the flap for conveyance through the x ray machine. A comparative hassle.

The aeronauts one tie down strap design "forces" you to pack items you don't want sliding around on the bottom of the bag like a suit in a packing cube (if you want the zipper facing up) The net net of this plus one cavity means your laptop bag is forced to be on top of your suits and cloth pushing down on them potentially increasing wrinkles. By contract the AB has straps on either side of the cavities and with the laptop in the center you can minize pressure on at leafs one side in you lay the bag on its side.

I like the aeronaut a lot though and find with leisure travel the cavity issue become non existent (but not the security issue) and if you are one to carry 2 pairs of shoes the end pockets in the Aeronaut swallow them with ease.

Carrying a magazine or newspaper onboard is easier with the air boss because it has an outer flap that runs the length of the bag that snaps open and the mag slips right in down.

The Aeronaut has one non zip pouch on one end, and a zippered pouch on the other but neither will fit a magazine or newspaper so you have to put them inside.

I prefer the TB strap to the Red Oxx strap (by a lot)

I like the Tom Bihn fabric better, I find my bright blue AB a bit annoying, and prefer the subtler blue of the Aeronaut, Its worth noting after years of use, I have no noticeable wear on either.

The AB uses the mammoth YKK#10 zippers (sufficient plus 150% ) which could probably raise the titanic and the little monkey fists are very nice touch.

The aeronaut uses one size smaller YKK zippers(I think #9's), still well over adequate strength wise (sufficient plus 125%), but it has a neat weather resistance rubber flange that is superior in terms of moisture resistance. Its not going to cover you if you set it down in a puddle but if you are outside in a gale it'll probably keep more water out than the AB.

I like the handles on the ends of the aeronaut, a nice touch when pulling the bag down from any direction.

They are both simply great bags.

Uncle Dave

Climb14er

I use the Air Boss for business travel with suits and the TriStar for w/o suits and a RedOxx PR5 or Sunchaser for weekend or longer leisure travel.

Each of the above works for me well.

TheHoboPrep

I feel for you friend.

There are many ways to do this. While I am not a strict One Bag Travel Adherent, I do believe in traveling light, as you can see my thoughts about here.

My recommendation? The Tumi Alpha Carry On Garment Bag (non rolling) in leather. I use it with my Rimowa Topas Stealth. You can also fit a laptop in the front pocket. I do not believe in being a One Brand Blind Follower, so I believe in using Goods of Great Craftsmanship and Utility.

That's why I use the Tumi with the Rimowa. They are the best combination out there. I travel the world with these two bags (the roller and one on top, or the Tumi over the shoulder when needing to descend or ascend stairs).

Uncle Dave

I agree with their statement about good draftsmanship on these pieces, but in a strict sense your carry on of both items wont "fly" if under scrutiny.


Your combo constitutes 2 "full size" carry ons with one of the 2 being oversized/ illegal.

If you are forced to fit the garment bag in a sizer at 21 x 23.5 wide it all not fit or will stick out when you re-orient it.

Even United is now enforcing 22x14x9

at 23.5 you are 1.5 too wide to fit front to back in a bin and must lay the bag left to right taking up 1.5 inches of "someone else's space."

You also risk gate agents not allowing your to bring 2 "full size" carry on pieces. Basically if they check at all your are hosed and will have to check the garment bag.

You could probably fly a long time and never have a problem but I fear you will going forward.

UD

TheHoboPrep

The Topas IATA Rimowa is well within the size restrictions.

And the Carry On Tumi Tri-Fold Garment Bag is significantly smaller than that, and not much larger than a giant laptop bag for an 18-20 inch laptop.

Both are fine for travel alone or together. The Carry On Garment Bag with one suit is a thicker Folded Suit Bag - and is a personal item - but a much better substitute than a stock-standard Folded Suit Bag.

N1120A

I use an Air Boss when traveling for business, or when needing to carry a suit and a good bit of other stuff, and I carry a Sky Train otherwise. If I'm just carrying a suit and maybe one more day's clothes, I have Red Oxx's Gypsy suit cover.

Anyway, Till/tfar did a really good primer, which is still a sticky, on how to pack a suit without wrinkles. Further, Red Oxx printed an amazing card on their site of how to do the same.

GadgetFreak

Most airlines have published rules against two full size bags as opposed to one full size and one "personal item". Both those bags may be okay as full size bags but it looks like neither fits typical rules for personal items for which a number of carriers publish specific measurement limits. I got an email just yesterday that they were going to be enforcing the rules on personal items. I suspect other carriers will follow with similar policies.

gegarrenton

Which airline?

GadgetFreak

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 7_0_6 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/537.51.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.0 Mobile/11B651 Safari/9537.53)

Oops. Sorry, thought I said. Not paying attention. It was United. Listed specific size for carry on and separate size for personal item.

gegarrenton

Ah, that's what I figured, just wondering if AA was getting on the strict carry on size train yet!

Uncle Dave

Whose laptop is 23.5 inches wide? Go pull out a tape measure and rethink that.

Thats how wide your garment bag is.(at least thats what Tumi says)

The topas is fine the but the garment bag does not meet either sizer.

Take a pict of both fitting in the sizers next time you have a chance would you?

The "personal carry on sizer" is built into the "large" one and has much smaller dimensions (also spelled out).

Your "combo" wont pass or I should say the garment bag part wont.

Take a look at the sizers - you can just scroll to the pict. Or google uniteds new sizers.

A great thread right here on its dimensions.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...-2014-a-3.html

UD