Where this sits on the trip
- Stage 1Packing at Home
How much it holds
- Stage 2The Front Door
What it weighs when you pick it up
- Stage 3The Gate Sizer
Whether the whole object fits a metal frame
- Stage 4The Overhead Bin
Whether it shares a bin without a fight
- Stage 5The Baggage Belt
What survives a chute, a stack and a belt
- Stage 6The Hotel Room
Whether it opens flat in a small room
Packing at Home
How much does it hold?
What this stage asks
The bedroom floor is the friendliest examiner a bag will meet. It is patient, it is horizontal, and it lets you take things out and start again. The question it asks is the simplest of the six: how much of this goes in.
This is also the only one of the six tests that luggage listings genuinely compete on. A capacity in liters is easy to print, easy to compare and flattering to whoever prints the biggest number. Fourteen of the forty-seven listings gathered here name a capacity in some form, which sounds low until you notice that it is the highest score any of the six tests achieves.
It is worth being clear about what a liter figure is and is not. It is a volume the manufacturer has calculated for an empty bag, usually by filling the main compartment and not the pockets. It is not a promise about shape, it is not a promise about the opening, and it says nothing whatsoever about the five tests that come afterwards.
What the listings answer
Counted from the 47 listings gathered on this site.
- Eleven listings state a single capacity figure, from 6 L on the smallest option offered up to 130 L on a foldable storage duffel.
- Three more state a choice of capacities rather than one number, such as a pack offered at 24 L or 30 L. That is a listing describing two bags, so we count it separately rather than folding it in.
- Many more listings describe how the space is divided without saying how much of it there is: a shoe compartment, a wet pocket, a toiletry bag, a mesh top panel. These are real, checkable claims and they are not capacity.
- One organizer listing claims 50 percent space savings, which is a claim about how much a load can be squeezed rather than about how much the bag holds.
- Two duffels are described as extra large or as weekenders with no number attached at all. We have grouped them as capacity not stated instead of estimating on their behalf.
What nobody states
Not a shortlist of the vague ones. These are figures that appear on no listing in the catalog at all.
- Not statedWhere the stated liters were measured to. Main compartment only, or pockets included, is never specified on any listing here.
- Not statedWhat the bag weighs before you put anything in it. Not one of the forty-seven listings states an empty weight, which means the floor test tells you nothing about the door test.
- Not statedHow much of the stated volume the named compartments consume. A listing that states 35 L and a shoe compartment does not say whether the shoes come out of the 35.
- Not statedHow the shape of the volume relates to what you are packing. Forty liters in a tall narrow column and forty liters in a flat wide box are the same number and a completely different packing problem.
Before you close the lid: lithium batteries
Lithium power banks and spare lithium batteries travel in the cabin, not in a checked bag. The rules are published by the FAA and by your carrier, and they are the ones to read. We do not restate them here, and this site prints no thresholds and no lists of what may or may not be carried.
Worth being careful about
- Compression organizers reduce the volume a load occupies. They do not reduce its weight, and the scale at check-in measures weight.
- Lithium power banks and spare lithium batteries travel in the cabin, not in checked baggage. The rules are published by the FAA and by your carrier, and they are the ones to read before you pack. We do not restate them here.
- Where a listing states an expanded capacity, the expanded bag is a different object from the one the size figure describes.
- A capacity figure is calculated by the seller. There is no common method behind the number and no listing here says which method it used.
A stated size is the size of the body. Wheels, feet and an extended telescoping handle are not usually counted inside it, and the frame at a gate counts all of them.
Where to read next
The numbers behind this stage
Where it shows up in the catalog