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I have an Away hard shell carry on and love it. It has held up well for the last 3-4 years of regular travel.

If you want a rabbit hole to jump down for just carry on luggage/backpacks - check out r/onebag or r/manybags

Both have tons of recommendations and are great resources for packing and reducing what you travel with

I use a backpack, the GR3 because it holds more and I like my hands bring free.

Having lived out of a suitcase professionally for the last 15 years, I can definitely say that you‘re going to want the external pockets that soft bags offer. Hard shells are ok if you’re just going somewhere and unpacking everything, but for daily access to stuff they kinda suck.

Take a look at Luggageworks, they make some pretty good bags in your price range, and I guarantee you’ve seen hundreds of them if you’ve ever been to an airport.

As a (fellow?) pilot. I agree. Luggageworks is great. Pretty heavy, but build like a tank.

Briggs and Riley is a little bit suited for the average traveler and has a fantastic lifetime warranty.

Your best bet is to not shop your conclusions but to state your specifications and seek responses. https://zerohalliburton.com/collections/luggage/products/edge-lightweight-22-continental-carry-on?variant=31476914618486 would seem to curbstomp your conclusions.

I have an Away carry on (have used it a fair amount) and while it's not bad and the outer shell and wheels are probably pretty durable, the straps inside are glued to the plastic and one has now partially broken off (still works but doesn't cinch down to the bottom of the suitcase).

I have since also bought a carry on by Horizn Studios for european travel, which I actually find is much more sturdy and durable. It has had a lot less use than my Away, but overall build just feels stronger, while also having a few nice (albeit minor) design things - like the small handle on the top for carrying being on the opposite half of the suitcase as the extendable handle

Yup, and I agree with your sentiments. I have two Briggs bags that I travel with regularly, and they’re great bags but they are less suited to full time use. I’ve managed to break all of the exterior compression straps, and that damn external handle, with having to hoist it up 7 feet to the baggage door, catches on the lip every damn time.

But I guess that’s really outside the scope of this discussion, since Briggs and Riley is a bit outside the op’s budget unless they’re looking into the used market.

I notice that pilots and flight crew seem to use travel-pro more than any other brand (at least as far as I’ve seen). So I went with that for my carry-on and it still looks good after 10 years. Seen some flight crew who go with Briggs. Never seen one with Tumi.

We've had a Travelpro for several years now and it still seems like magic to me -- it's so insanely light it feels like it should be flimsy, but it's not at all.

One other brand I’ve been seeing pop up on Instagram ads is Monos. Granted I have zero experience with the company.

You can’t really compare a hard sided 4 wheel spinner against a soft sided 2 wheel option. I always suggest people go with a hard sided option if not going to use all the space a soft sided suitcase allocated towards the extra front pockets. I’m my opinion the better comparison would be Away vs one of TravelPro’s 4 sided spinner. I’ve personally used the. TravelPro MaxLite 5 hard used international size for close to three years (travel for work roughly 45 out of 52 weeks a year) and have nothing to say about the bag. It is incredible simple and durable. The outside will start to show wear and scratch marks as well as the wheel’s “hub caps” might fall off but the bag is a tank. Would HIGHLY suggest especially at only a $110 price point on Amazon.

Most of the airlines have deals with travel pro to purchase bags at reduced rates.

Tumi and BR are definitely a step up where I think BR wins in all categories. Think about how much money Tumi spends on store fronts in airports and malls to try and push their over priced bags.

Once I received my luggage 3 days into my trip because the airlines lost it. When I received my luggage with a zipper everything on the inside was soaking wet, so I’ll assume wherever my luggage traveled to, it was raining. I made an investment in some decent luggage after that fiasco and purchased from Solgaard. I have no control over my luggage getting lost, but I’ll be damned if my clothes are ever returned to me wet.

I travel carry-on only including for work and have for 20 years since I started travelling. From experience you want soft sided with pockets, expandable, good quality wheels and a resilient fabric.

Soft sided with pockets is easier for travelling. You’ve got your pouch to pull your liquids pouch out of easily for security. It will also squish a bit if you need it too. Gives you easy access to things you might need before boarding or when you land. Hard shell suitcases are a pain in the butt, get dinged up easily and won’t squish and they’re inconvenient for getting stuff in and out. They’re expansion capabilities often suck as well.

I have a Samsonite Silhouette Sphere 2 21 Which has been worth every penny and I absolutely love it. Going on 9 years with it, with pretty regular travel for work and personal every year except for 2020-now. My work travel is just starting up again. Edit to add I believe this one might be discontinued now.

Travelpro makes a special edition for airline employees. There are multiple small but noticeable enforcements the special edition has that we normal consumers don’t. The result is a heavier bag but sturdier. In either case they have lifetime warranty with many local contracted shop to bring your bag to if needed. Highly recommend this brand.

Average traveler here (but moved and flown plenty). Love my Briggs and Riley. Before that, I was replacing luggage every two years from getting beat up and torn

I want to get a luggage works stealth premier. Do they ever have a sale? Any promo codes out there.