I’ve never had four wheels but was always curious once they came on the scene. I had a Tumi carry on that hit the spot for me. After our trip to Italy, I decided my girlfriend and I both needed new checked bags. Given the hype and advertising around Away, I thought it was a good time to see what this was all about.
I couldn’t help myself though, so I bought four bags. If you pair two bags together, you will get $50 off and I added a $20 coupon code that I got from listening to TPG’s podcasts. It was hard to tell exactly what I would get from each carry-on bag, but I chose the standard Carry-On size (not the ‘bigger’) because I wanted to be sure it would always fit in the overhead. I tend to fly quite a few smaller regional jets. Given my infrequent behavior of checking a bag, I thought the Medium suitcase was just fine. I was particularly skeptical of how much I could fit in the Carry-On suitcase size but I went for it. Away offers a 120-day money back guarantee. That’s great but only if you plan on using the bag within that number of days post purchase, so plan accordingly.
The Carry-On suitcase features a durable polycarbonate shell, 360-degree spinner wheels and an interior compression system. All of their bags come with lots of options of some cool color selections. As an extra bonus for storage purposes, the Carry-On suitcase nests neatly inside the Medium. The Carry-On suitcase also comes with a laundry bag and an international outlet adaptor. They both come with a cleaning pad because it will get scuffed and dirty. I find that the cleaning pad works well and after light use of both bags, they are mostly like new but don’t expect them to stay perfect.
The Carry-On suitcase also comes with an easy to use and easy to remove phone/tablet mobile charger. I will warn you, however, that even if this bag is not checked, 90% of the time the airport staff (Delta) will ask you to remove it before boarding the plan. I don’t think they want it in the overhead bins. The bag glides well, it’s lightweight when empty, the handles have two different positions and though they seem a bit flimsy they have held up well so far and are very comfortable.
As for packing, I’m impressed. I was quite skeptical upon purchase and even out of the box. Both sides are constructed very different but just figure out what works best for you to utilize the space most effectively. I tend to keep toiletries, shoes, laundry and the like in the mesh zip section and clean clothes on the compression side. The video below will give you a glimpse of how much can be packed. This was just for a two day trip but I have no issue going on a 4 day business trip with this bag (you’ll just need to give some thought to your outfits given you’ll need to carefully manage the number of shoes you bring along) and it fits in every overhead bin I’ve encountered.
Now that I own this suitcase, I see it everywhere.
