Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag

March 28, 2010 Steven 2 comments

I’m so tired of airport baggage claim.

The typical routine is 1) stand in line to check my bag, 2) hand it off to the folks at scanning, 3) take my flight, 4) head to baggage claim, 5) wait for 30-45 minutes for it to come around, 6) lug all that crap to my rental car, 7) lug it all up to my room. At the end of the engagement, it starts all over. Conservatively I’d say I spend ~2 hours per round-trip flight messing with a checked bag. If you multiply that over my 60 flights so far – oof, I just got sick.

Victorinox WT Wheeled Boarding Duffel

So I needed a carry-on that would hold all my clothes (just a week’s worth – I’m not above doing laundry).

My decision to go with a Victorinox (Swiss Army, essentially) was thanks to my good friend Jerome. He has a slightly different model that he took to Iraq while he was consulting. It carried his armor most of the time along with some other items, but it’s still going strong.

The original plan was to order it online and wait a few days. Ivy insisted we head into Portland and poke at one of them in person. I’m glad we did because she wound up finding it at a local luggage store for less than what it would have cost online (tax + shipping). That, and of course the lovely wife played Tetris with the little cubes to see just how many we could fit in the bag reasonably and still leave room for my TRX.

Eagle Creek Pack-It Cube Organizer

Now I can’t wait to hit the road again! I’ll print out my boarding pass before I leave the house, hit the curb at the airport, head right to the security line (and breeze on through), and then relax at my gate with my duffel and my backpack.

Off the plane, I’ll grab my bags and head right for the rental car kiosk. Instead of trying to coax a 360 wheeled bag down the hallway while I drag another behind me I’ll just have the one bag with all of its clever configuration inside.

Oh yes, it will be glorious.

Road Warrior airport, baggage, baggage claim, duffel, eagle creek, luggage, portland, security, swiss army, travel, victorinox

#1 | Written by etcwarrionr about 2 years ago. Reply

So, is it glorious? After having broken it in and tested it in the field, what did you like most? What was most disappointing? When your path crosses stairs, busted escalators, and unpaved surfaces must you carry it as a traditional duffel or does it have a backpack option?

I once thought I found the perfect carry-on-sized-one-bag-to-rule-them-all (an early Victorinox model). After the first few uses, I grew to dislike a great many things about it and regretted the purchase. Bags like these are not cheap so I continued using it and five years later that bag has traveled with me all over the world.

Recently, my wife decided she wanted a similar bag. In doing some research, I learned that most of the things that irritate me about this bag are impossible to judge from online product descriptions — even on the manufacturer web sites — and that while most of them have been fixed in newer models, I hate the newer models. So after disliking my bag for five years I now value it more than when I first purchased it. It might not be invaluable, but it is certainly irreplaceable and I will mourn the day when I can use it no longer.
#2 | Written by Steven about 2 years ago. Reply

I haven’t been on a trip yet with the new bag so I’m not sure what the usage is going to be like. I know that it solves several of the problems I had with my previous carry-on though so maybe that’s where I’ve been focusing.

It has handles on the top like a regular duffel and then on the top and bottom as well. I don’t roll my bag anywhere but inside airports & hotels so maybe I won’t run into the same wheel oddness you were seeing. What else did you have problems with?

Steven "MrXinu" Klassen

Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag

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