Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsFits under the seat but provides very limited access to items inside
Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2018
I have a love-hate relationship with this bag. When it arrived, I loved it. It's much more lightweight than the bag I was replacing, and I like the styling and color. It rolls well either pushing or pulling when fully loaded.
As I started packing, I liked it a little less. The compartment on the top (in the front) doesn't hold as much as I thought it would from the picture. There's another pocket on the flap inside, but it's also quite small. The problem is that these two compartments kind of "share" a space. Putting anything in the front pocket made it difficult to put much in the interior pocket.
On the plus side, the main interior space holds a decent amount. I was able to put a change of clothes, including a pair of shoes, inside, plus my essentials for the flight and all of my "can't live without" stuff that I don't pack in a checked bag.
Even though I totally loaded this baby up, it still fit under the seat in front of me on my international flight (window seat). The problem was getting it there and accessing it. Flying in seats with 31" pitch, I really had trouble getting the bag angled right so it would slide under the seat because it totally filled the space between the seat in front of me and my seat. There was no room for my legs, so I had to push the bag under the seat while I was sitting in the seat next to mine -- awkward. Once the bag was in place, it was not coming out again until the end of the flight, so access to anything in it was very limited. While getting to the things in the outside pocket wasn't that bad, accessing the inner pocket was a pain. And because that exterior pocket is so small, I was without a lot of the things I'd hoped to have access to during my 12 hour flight.
It came with a small hanging bag that I didn't really have any use for, so left that out. I did appreciate that it came with a registration card that could be scanned with a phone. Really quick and easy to register. The handle telescopes and is adjustable to several different lengths.
For reference, the tablet in my photos is a Kindle Fire and the paperback is one of those old 1970s paperbacks (smaller than most modern paperbacks).
Overall, I think this would make a very good bag for someone who was planning to either put it in the overhead and forget about it, or put it under their seat but didn't need anything out of it during the flight. But if you're looking for something you can access much during a flight, this isn't the bag for you. On my return trip, I ended up putting my Kindle, etc. in a shoulder bag and checking this. I'm giving it to my daughter.
