It’s not enough to simply buy a compliantly-sized roller bag anymore, the sorry excuses for airlines we’re stuck with will still end up making you check it half the time. If we’re forced to carry bags though, we can at least love them.
The Aer Travel Pack is the best wheelless carry-on I’ve ever used- nondescript, devoid of branding, and incredibly versatile.
Vitally, at the core of the bag is a lay-flat main compartment, so your trip won’t consist of pulling things in and out of the top of a backpack. There are at least three suitable places to put a laptop or tablet, and the shoulder straps feature the full range of adjustment options. The Travel Pack also builds in air mesh padding on the back of the bag and straps to minimize sweating.
Smaller touches are where things get interesting though. A bottom-facing vented shoe compartment is also great as a laundry bag or makeshift camera gear storage area, and a quick-access top compartment is perfect for your iPhone, sunglasses, wallet, passport, earbuds, and/or Mifi.
Peeling back the layers of the front of the Travel Pack reveals two front-facing pockets that are great for toiletries and power cords, followed by a zippered opening, pictured above, to catch everything else, and then yet another zippered pocket in the main compartment. There’s even an expandable external water bottle holder that’s not made out of shitty netting. You probably won’t even find all the pockets on this bag until halfway through your first trip together.
The Aer Travel Pack looks great, is super durable, and is essentially feature complete. You can easily add a Tile for bluetooth tracking, and if you’re a Kinja Deals reader you probably already own five external battery packs anyway.
The Aer Travel Pack is the best bag you’ll never have to check. Especially with the external compression straps that also make the Aer that much more secure.