freemach

First time poster and I'm sure this has been covered ad nauseam but I'm struggling to find some concensus. So apology out of the way this is what I would like to know:

I would like to buy a cabin bag for trips predominantly between Italy and USA (Chicago). Normally flying KLM or Air France for 8-10 days with a suit or two.
I've looked at both the B&R baseline international expandable U121CXW and the domestic U122CX. But neither seem to fit the KLM/AF guidelines of 55 x 35 x 25 cm (21,5 x 13,5 x 10 inch).
I don't mind spending the money but don't want something that won't fit. I don't mind sneaking around the gate staff as long as they fit in the bins.
Can anyone confirm which of the two is best or should I look at something else?
many thanks!

Enthilza

The CX will be fine as the sizers are always a bit bigger (1-2 cms) than the actual max bag size. The CXW being 3 cms over the limit might be a gamble though.

I'm flying AF/KLM/AZ as well and went with the BU220X and can confirm that it fits nicely in the sizers.

Ditto

The 55cm length is based on the bins depth, ok they are a bit more than 55 but not much more, so a 56cm would probably fit, but not more than that, the height of the bins is around 27-28cm on the KL 73X and a bit more on the AF A32X, so you should also be fine with that.

So the only thing left is the width of the bag, a 38cm wide bag might not fit in the sizer, but this will obviously have no effect on the bins, I've never seen KL/AF in either AMS, CDG or FCO using the sizer

freemach

Many thanks Enthilza and Ditto, I flew pretty much every week from Italy to the UK with KLM and never saw anyone checking. Now and again they'd make everyone check their bags if the plane was small but it wasn't based on any checks. Although in another post it seems the bag gets caught, so I'm unsure now. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...-s-limits.html

I like the suit bag inside feature. Is the Tumi Alpha 2 International expandable a better bet do you think?

Ditto

If you start your journey in CDG, you might hit checks in the security queue (which is irrespective of the airline), this has been reported in the AF forum, as for AMS I can say that in dozens of flights I took out of it in the last few years I never ever had my carry-on checked in a sizer.

In LHR (and maybe it applies to other UK destination as well?) they only allow trollies for FB Gold/Plat or STE+, all others have to check them in at the gate, but there is no sizer involved there as well.