RedOxx Combo, Tom Bihn Combo, or something else?
 

Greetings,

I travel a decent amount for work and pleasure - usually 3-7 day trips, and after breaking yet another cheap rollerboard, I'm ready to get serious about my luggage, and have gotten a little of the 'onebag' bug.

What I'm looking for is a non-wheeled bag of high quality, that I can pair with a laptop bag of equally high quality that I can fit inside the luggage. The idea being I travel with just one bag, or if needed in cases of overpacking, use the laptop bag as my personal item, and when I get to my destination I leave the luggage in the hotel, and just take a nice laptop bag into the office.

I'm fairly flexible on looks, though my wife advises heavily I should look more business-friendly everyday :p

I'm willing to spend whatever to get a bag that lasts and has a good warranty.

So far, the two combinations I've come up with that fit my 15" Macbook Pro Retina, plus travel clothes, gear, workout clothes (Only travel with a suit once or twice a year for weddings), and the normal electronics one travels with are:

* Tom Bihn Tristar + Tom Bihn Cadet

or

* Red Oxx Airboss (or maybe skytrain?) + Red Oxx Metro Briefcase

I would love some input from the experts here on their thoughts on the above combinations, and if there is a preference or recommendation for some other products or combo's.

Thanks!

What kind of clothing would you pack on a 3-7 day trip and who much stuff would you need to carry in the briefcase? I personally tend to have too much work stuff in my briefcase to have the bag inside a bag solution work, particularly when I pack suits. I know there are super one-bagger's on the board who can do that, but I can't. Also, with the ways airlines are getting more aggressive in sizers it is getting harder to do that unless your briefcase needs are on the very minimal size.

I have been able to carry the clothes in my MEI Executive Overnighter and my usually overloaded Tumi briefcase on trips together. The easiest way to do that is to put the Overnighter in backpack mode and put it on both shoulders (you could do this with a RedOx Skytrain or Tom Bihn Aeronaut also) and then sling the Tumi over one shoulder (perhaps over the neck). When it is actually time to walk down the plane aisle it is easier to use the grab handle and put it in front of me and swing the briefcase to the back. Overnighter goes in the bin up top and the briefcase under the seat in front of me.

I'm not sure about the bag-in-bag plan either and I have heard good things about RedOxx, but I can say that I love my Tom Bihn bags. I have one that I use as a daily commuter-- the bag before this disintegrated in about 3-4 years, but this bag is barely showing any wear after 7+ years, plus it's very nicely designed.

Typically Bag will be:

• 1 - Jeans
• 1 - Slacks
• 2-5 Polo/Short sleeve shirt
• 1 - Long sleeve shirt
• 1 - cargo shorts
• 1 - Workout shorts
• 3 - workout/undershirt
• 1 - Workout shoes (Low profile vibram five fingers)
• Appropriate number of underpants
• Small 6"x3"x3" toiletries bag
• 2 - Large Turban (think of like a 1 yard x 4 yard length of thin cotton)
• 1 - Small turban (4 yard x 10in)
• Small Sandals

Computer bag is fairly minimal

• 15" Macbook Pro
• Magic Mouse
• Thumb Drive
• Mac Power adapter
• 3 or 4 thunderbolt adapters
• Portable battery + usb cables
• Pen
• Small pill bottle

I'm not super-duper sold on it either honestly, but if it's possible I think it would be awesome. Obviously I'm ok doing this as one carryon + laptop bag/personal item.

My solution for bag in bag is the Red Oxx Air Boss and Tom Bihn's Daylight Briefcase. The Daylight is smaller than the Metro or Cadet, and leaves room in the centre of the Air Boss for shoes and toiletries.

It's also very minimalist, so no structure or padding (but lots of pockets).

This may not work for OP and the 15" laptop. The Cadet may be just right, but I have no experience.

My vote for the MEI Executive Overnighter bag. I like mine a lot. Potential advantage over the SkyTrain ('potential', as I don't own the SkyTrain, just read about it) may be that it has 3 compartments compared to the SkyTrain, otherwise quite comparable. Get a separate, padded shoulder strap off amazon.
Have my bag since a few months and took it on some international multi-stop business trips, up to 2 weeks in one-bagging spirit. Passed gate agents with ease.
What I do (and it always takes 2 minutes): When approaching the check-in as well as the gate, I hide the backpack straps again and just use the shoulder strap (or handle). When leaving the plane after landing, I convert the bag again into a backpack. A small hassle, but I imagine that this increases my chances to get past any gate agent otherwise inclined to make me check a bag the size of mine, or SkyTrain, or AirBoss, or the likes.

You won't be able to properly pack a laptop bag INSIDE the AirBoss - I tried, and failed miserably. The solution was to get a nice ballistic sleeve for my laptop, so I could carry it around while on the ground.

One of the drawbacks of the combinations you are looking at, is the weight of the entire setup, once you are packed - eventually you may get tired - I did :)

I can vouch for the AirBoss in terms of quality - it is a very well made bag - was sad to sell it, but it just didn't work for me - went to another product.

I use the daylight briefcase inside of an ebags motherlode convertible. But it won't work for a 15" laptop.

The biggest challenge I had in the bag in a bag set up is depth and an inside bag with little structure, because that structure takes up a lot of space on the inside.

I travel with this exact setup quite often as well.

Just a contrarian opinion with regards to your no roller strategy:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...ble-carry.html

I have the Redoxx Skytrain and the Tom Bihn CoPilot. I take my Skytrain every where, but I will bring the CoPilot if I will be out and about and need a smaller bag.

I found that the most important thing for traveling with my Skytrain is to pack lightly.