CarryHaulDepot
A reference for people who read the listing twice
6 tests · 47 listings · 2026
Each test asks a different question, and only the first one is asked at home. The bedroom floor wants to know how much fits. The front door wants to know what it weighs. A metal frame at the gate wants one thing only, and it cannot read the listing. Then a shared bin, then a belt that throws it, then a room where it has to open on a rack shorter than it is. Almost every claim on a luggage listing answers the first test. Fourteen of the forty-seven listings gathered here name a capacity. Zero of them say what the bag weighs.
Photo: Shainee Fernando on Pexels
How much it holds
What it weighs when you pick it up
Whether the whole object fits a metal frame
Whether it shares a bin without a fight
What survives a chute, a stack and a belt
Whether it opens flat in a small room
Photo: Rachel Claire on Pexels
Six stamps on a dotted line. Each one is a test the bag has to pass, and each asks a different question. Only the first of the 6 is asked at home.
No airline reviews luggage in advance. There is no register of approved models and no body that certifies a bag as admissible. Eight of the forty-seven listings on this site point the word at the bag or the cover anyway.
TSA does not certify luggage sizes at all. The scheme those words belong to is a lock standard, which is why the phrase means nothing printed on a fabric cover with no lock in it. One listing here does use it of an actual lock, and that one is not counted among the empty claims above.
The figure that settles it is the one your carrier publishes, for your fare, on the aircraft you are flying. We print no size limits here, because ours would be wrong for somebody on the day they read it.
The right-hand column is a count of the 47 listings gathered on this site, calculated from the data rather than typed. Some rows read zero, and those are the interesting ones.
| Stage | What it tests | What listings say about it | How many listings say anything | Page |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stage 1Packing at Home | How much it holds | Capacity in liters, sometimes. This is the one test listings compete on. | 14 of 47 | Packing at Home |
| Stage 2The Front Door | What it weighs when you pick it up | Nothing. Not one listing states an empty weight. | 0 of 47 | The Front Door |
| Stage 3The Gate Sizer | Whether the whole object fits a metal frame | Three listings state a full size. Eight say approved of the bag itself. | 3 of 47 | The Gate Sizer |
| Stage 4The Overhead Bin | Whether it shares a bin without a fight | Twelve listings say whether the shell is rigid or soft. None say more. | 12 of 47 | The Overhead Bin |
| Stage 5The Baggage Belt | What survives a chute, a stack and a belt | Eight listings make a durability claim. None names a test method. | 8 of 47 | The Baggage Belt |
| Stage 6The Hotel Room | Whether it opens flat in a small room | Nothing. No listing describes how the bag opens or how much floor it needs. | 0 of 47 | The Hotel Room |
Between the desk and the carousel, nobody is reading the listing
Photo: Markus Winkler on Pexels
Tool one
It calculates nothing. It shows you what a listing states, stamps every gap where a listing states nothing, and reminds you that the frame at the gate measures the wheels. Only 3 of the 47 listings here give it enough to work with.
1. Which kind of bag
Backpacks & Travel Packs is off: No listing in this category states a full external size, so there is nothing here to check.
2. Which listing
3. Expansion open or closed
How this tool chooses what to offer
What the listing states
External size
22 x 14 x 9 in
This is the body of the bag. Wheels, feet and an extended handle are not usually counted inside it.
Trade size
20 in
A naming convention rather than a measurement. It is not what a frame reads.
Capacity
35 L
A volume, which a frame does not measure. It is here so the two numbers can be seen together.
Empty weight
Not stated
No listing on this site states one. Weigh the bag yourself before you pack it.
Expansion
20 percent more, from 35 L to 42 L
The expanded external size is not stated on any listing here, including this one.
Closed, the stated figure applies as far as it goes. The listing also states 20 percent more, from 35 L to 42 L, so there is a second, larger size that nobody has published.
Compare the numbers you measure against the figure your carrier publishes for your fare and your aircraft. We print no airline limits here, and no listing that says approved has been approved by anyone.
Measure it yourself
Scroll sideways. Each card is a number a bag has, and a count of how many listings actually give it.
inches or centimeters
3
of 47 listings state a full external size
An external dimension is three figures: length, width and depth, describing the box the bag occupies. It is the only specification on this site that a metal frame at a gate can act on, because a frame does not measure volume and does not read liters.
liters
14
of 47 listings name a capacity in liters
Capacity is a volume, given in liters, describing how much the bag holds when empty and open. It is calculated by the manufacturer, not measured to any common standard, and no listing on this site says which method produced its figure.
kilograms or pounds
0
of 47 listings state an empty weight
Empty weight is what the bag weighs with nothing in it. It is the simplest number on this site to define, the simplest to measure, and the one that is missing from every single listing we have gathered.
percent, or liters before and after
17
of 47 listings claim an expansion of some kind
Expansion is a zip, usually running around the perimeter of a case, that releases a gusset and adds depth. On a soft bag it is a panel that lets the bag grow. Either way it is a second size for the same object.
count and configuration
13
of 47 listings describe wheels or a handle
Wheels and a telescoping handle are the two parts of a case that are not really the case. They are hardware bolted to it, they are outside the shell, and they are the parts that fail first.
The shape of the silence
These are the claims that cost nothing to print and flatter whoever prints them.
These are the figures that would let you check a claim, which may be why they are missing.
Each one written up from its own wording. The source list had one item twice; it appears here once.
Corrected from the list we were given, not reproduced from it. Every move is explained on the page it affects.
The best-answered number on the site, and the one that matters at exactly one of the six tests.
The most consistent silence in the catalog. It is also the easiest figure in the world to measure.
Every number on a listing was chosen by somebody who wanted to sell you something
Photo: Mingyang LIU on Pexels
Five trip shapes. Each one puts the 6 tests in a different order of importance, and each one punishes a different habit.
One night
Out on Tuesday, back on Wednesday
One night is the shortest trip that still needs a bag, and it is the trip where almost anything works. A change of clothes, a wash bag, a charger. It fits in a daypack, it fits in a small duffel, and it would fit in a cabin case with room left over.
Punishes:Bringing structure you do not need. A rigid shell earns its keep by protecting things over distance, and one night is not a distance.
Three nights
Thursday night to Sunday evening
Three nights is the sweet spot for a cabin bag and the point at which the bag stops being incidental. You need more than one change of clothes, probably a second pair of shoes, and something for whatever the reason for the weekend was.
Punishes:Using the expansion outbound. Once it is open it rarely closes again, and the size the bag was chosen for stops applying.
Fourteen nights
A long trip with a bag in the hold
Two weeks is the point at which a checked bag stops being optional for most people, and the whole shape of the problem changes. The bag is no longer something you carry; it is something you hand over and then hope about.
Punishes:Buying the largest case available. Volume runs out slowly and the weight allowance runs out quickly, so a bigger case usually means reaching the limit half empty.
Any length
Everything in the cabin, nothing in the hold
One-bag travel is a discipline rather than a trip length. The rule is simple: whatever you are bringing goes in the cabin, and nothing goes in the hold. People do it for a weekend and people do it for a month.
Punishes:Using the expansion. A pack that expands by six liters is deeper than the pack that was described as a personal item, and depth is what runs out first.
A week or more
Several bags, several people, one queue
A family trip is not one packing problem scaled up. It is several packing problems that have to be carried simultaneously by fewer people than there are bags, through a building designed for adults with one hand free.
Punishes:Matching sets bought on looks. A set is two empty weights, and neither of them is stated.
Tool two
It divides a stated capacity by a stated set size and by the days you are away. If the bag has no stated capacity it says so and stops, rather than quietly using an average.
1. Stated capacity of the bag
Every figure below is one a listing on this site actually states. There is no average here and nothing has been rounded.
2. Which organizer set
3. How many days away
Result
Both figures below are arithmetic on stated numbers.
Dividing 6 L into 2 pieces leaves about 3.0 L each, which sits inside the range ordinary cube sets are cut for. Whether the pieces physically fit is still a question of shape, and no listing on this site states a cube dimension.
Compression reduces the volume a load occupies. It does not reduce what that load weighs, and the scale at check-in reads weight.
The formula, printed
Where the numbers come from
No panel of experts, no anonymous industry insider. Just the questions people ask and the shortest true answer to each.
These 6 cards are the listing that says the most in its category. Each card carries a stamp for every figure that separates it from its neighbors, and a plain sentence for every figure that does not.
None of the 6 listings here states an empty weight. That is why no card below carries an empty weight stamp: a label that reads the same on every card tells you nothing.
Carry-On Luggage
Only one you can check on paper
This is the most numerate listing in the catalog: a size, a capacity, an expanded capacity and a percentage, all in one place. It is also the listing that most needs its own caveat, because it states 22 x 14 x 9 in and then offers you 42 L. A case cannot expand and stay the size it was measured at.
Why:Its listing states 22 x 14 x 9 in and 35 L. Of the nine carry-on listings here, two state a size figure and only this one states a capacity as well.
Empty claim:This listing points the words airline approved at the bag itself. Nobody issues that and nobody checks it.
Best for
A traveler who wants to compare on paper before comparing at a frame, and who will read the expansion figure as a warning rather than a feature.
What is stated
What is missing
Checked Luggage
Only expansion figure here
A 30 inch case with the only expansion figure in this category. Nothing in the listing addresses what happens to it on a belt, which is the test a checked bag is actually bought for. Scratch-resistant is a claim about the surface and not about the structure underneath it.
Why:Nothing in this category says anything about a belt or a hotel room. This is the only one of the four listings that puts a number on anything at all: up to 15 percent more space.
Best for
A traveler who wants a large case and wants the expansion quantified rather than gestured at.
What is stated
What is missing
Travel Duffel Bags
Only duffel with both ends of its expansion
The only duffel here whose listing gives the capacity on both sides of the expansion, 32 L and 43 L, which is a genuinely useful pair of numbers. It also says waterproof, which is a word with no rating attached to it. A bag that grows by eleven liters grows in whichever direction the contents push it.
Why:It states expands from 32 L to 43 L. It is the only one of the nine duffel listings here that gives a capacity on both sides of the zip.
Best for
A short trip where you want the option of coming back fuller than you left.
What is stated
What is missing
Backpacks & Travel Packs
Largest stated capacity here
Forty liters, the largest capacity stated in this category, and the words airplane approved sitting right beside it. A backpack does not weigh less because it is on your back; it weighs the same and you feel it differently. Like every other listing in this category, this one does not say what that weight is.
Why:Its listing states 40 L, the largest capacity stated in this category. Like all thirteen listings here, it never says what the empty pack weighs, which is the number your shoulders are actually asking about.
Empty claim:This listing points the words airplane approved at the bag itself. Nobody issues that and nobody checks it.
Best for
One-bag travel for a traveler who will measure and weigh the loaded pack themselves.
What is stated
What is missing
Packing Organizers
Only percentage claim here
The only listing in this category that puts a percentage on anything, and the percentage is about space. That distinction is the whole reason this category exists on the site. Fifty percent less volume is not fifty percent less weight, and the scale at check-in reads the second number.
Why:It is the only one of the ten organizer listings here that puts a number on anything: 50 percent space savings. That is a claim about volume. No listing here, this one included, says what the set weighs.
Best for
A case that has run out of room but has not run out of allowance.
What is stated
What is missing
Luggage Covers
Widest stated fit range
A stated fit range of fourteen inches, which is a wide claim for a stretch sleeve and the widest here. It carries the words TSA approved, which on a fabric cover is meaningless: the scheme those words belong to certifies locks, and this product does not have one. That is the honest reason this category exists on the site.
Why:Its listing states a fit range of 18 to 32 in, the wider of the two here. Both listings also use the words TSA approved, which describes a lock standard and says nothing about size.
Empty claim:This listing points the words TSA approved at the bag itself. Nobody issues that and nobody checks it.
Best for
A household with cases of several sizes and one cover budget.
What is stated
What is missing