The best softside carry-on luggage

The Maxlite line is Travelpro's weight-discipline range, and weight discipline is exactly what a softside cabin bag is for. The structure is minimal, the fabric is polyester rather than ballistic nylon, and the result is a bag that leaves you most of a 7 kg allowance to actually use. That is the trade: it will not hold its shape empty the way the Crew Classic below does, and the shell will not shrug off a wet carousel.

Two cautions, both specific to this bag rather than to the brand. The 2-inch expansion zip is a checked-bag feature living on a cabin bag - use it on a cabin trip and the case stops being 9 inches deep, which is the single most common way a compliant bag becomes a gate-check. And the Trusted Companion Promise, which is the half of the warranty that covers airline damage, never starts if you skip the 120-day registration. Our warranties guide has the terms in full.

Briggs & Riley is the only brand on this page whose guarantee does not care how the bag broke. The published exclusions are real and worth reading - cosmetic wear, cleaning for odors or stains, normal scratches and scuffs - but the functional repair is unconditional and does not expire, which on a bag you check several times a year is the whole product.

The dimension is the other reason it is here. Briggs & Riley publishes 22 x 14 x 9 in for this case, which is the US carry-on convention exactly rather than a quarter inch over it the way several popular cabin bags are. On a strict-sizer carrier, a published figure that matches the frame is worth more than a brand name. The ZDX is the entry point to the range; the full lineup, guarantee exclusions included, is in our Briggs & Riley roundup.

Platinum Elite is what Travelpro builds when weight is not the only objective, and the difference shows in the two components that kill softside bags. The wheels are self-aligning, which means they recover from the side load that shears an ordinary spinner caster off its mount, and the handle has multiple stops instead of one - a detail that sounds cosmetic until you are tall and have spent years walking stooped behind a bag.

Crucially, the warranty names the parts. A limited lifetime warranty that explicitly lists wheels, zippers and extension handles is a different promise from one that covers defects in materials and workmanship and leaves you to argue about whether a worn wheel counts. See also our Platinum Elite review and the Maxlite 5 vs Platinum Elite comparison.

Structure is the thing softside bags usually give up, and the Crew Classic is the one that keeps it. A case that stands up empty can be packed on a bed rather than wrestled on a floor, and the compartments mean a two-night trip does not require unpacking the whole bag to find one shirt. The cost is honest and it is volume: a Maxlite of the same external size swallows more, because it is a bag rather than a cabinet.

The 21-inch height is worth noting in its favor. Several popular carry-ons publish 22 inches or more and then sit a quarter inch over the US convention once the wheels are counted; 21 inches gives you margin on a strict sizer. If a front-opening laptop compartment is what you are after specifically, our front-pocket carry-on roundup ranks on what the pocket costs inside.

Spinner wheels are the default because they are pleasant in a terminal, not because they are strong. Four exposed casters take side loads they were never designed for, and they are the most common first failure on any wheeled case. Two recessed inline wheels are the opposite bet: fewer parts, protected mounts, and a wheel that rolls over a curb instead of stopping dead against it.

The 22-inch height is the thing to check before you buy. Twenty-two inches is the US convention rather than a margin under it, so on a carrier with a hard sizer this bag is at the limit rather than inside it. Our spinner vs 2-wheel guide works through the trade in full, and best 2-wheel luggage ranks the format across sizes.

There is a real argument for buying a cabin bag you do not care about: if you fly twice a year, a case that costs a fraction of a Platinum Elite and lasts five years is the better arithmetic, and our cost-per-trip math says so plainly. The Sion is that purchase, and what it spends its money on is the pocket layout rather than the wheels.

Treat the expansion zip the way you should treat every expansion zip on a cabin bag - as a checked-bag feature you do not use when the gate agent is holding a sizer. For the broader budget field, including hardside options at the same money, see best budget carry-on.