Twenty-five words worth pinning down
Glossary
Trade vocabulary, seller vocabulary, and the handful of phrases that look like certifications and are not. Twenty-five of these entries point at other entries, because most of them only make sense next to something else.
- Carry-on
- A bag you take into the cabin rather than hand over at the desk. There is no universal size for one: each carrier publishes its own figure, and that figure can differ by fare and by aircraft. A carry-on is defined by where it travels, not by any dimension a listing can print.See alsoPersonal item, Gate sizer, Airline approved
- Personal item
- The smaller second bag that goes under the seat in front of you rather than in the bin. Footwell space is not standardized, differing between carriers, between seats and between aircraft types. Listings describe bags as personal-item size freely, which is a statement about intent rather than admission.See alsoCarry-on, Daypack, Gate sizer
- Gate sizer
- The rectangular metal frame near a boarding gate that a bag is placed into to see whether it fits. It measures the outermost points of the whole object, wheels and handles included, and it has no way of reading anything written on the bag. It is the least negotiable examiner a bag meets.See alsoCarry-on, Linear inches, Telescoping handle
- Linear inches
- Length plus width plus depth added together into a single figure. It is a convenient way to express a size allowance and a poor way to describe a bag, because three very different shapes can produce the same total. A tall thin bag and a flat wide one can be identical in linear inches and behave completely differently in a frame.See alsoGate sizer, Liter capacity
- Spinner
- A case with four wheels that rotate freely in every direction, so the case can be pushed upright alongside you rather than tilted and pulled. The wheels sit outside the shell and add height, which matters at a frame. Most of the case listings on this site describe themselves as spinners.See alsoTwo-wheel roller, Gate sizer, Telescoping handle
- Two-wheel roller
- A case with two fixed wheels, tilted and towed behind you. The wheels are usually recessed into the shell rather than mounted below it, so a two-wheel case is often slightly smaller as an object than a spinner of the same trade size. It rolls worse on smooth floors and better on bad ones.See alsoSpinner, Gate sizer
- Telescoping handle
- The extending metal handle on a wheeled case, running in tubes inside or against the shell. Extended, it adds a considerable amount to the height of the object, and it is usually extended at exactly the moment a bag reaches a gate. No listing on this site states an extended handle height.See alsoSpinner, Gate sizer, Empty weight
- Hardside
- A case built around a rigid molded shell rather than a fabric body over a frame. It holds its measured shape, which helps inside a sizer and hurts inside a full overhead bin where nothing will give. The shell polymer is the part worth knowing and the part most listings leave out.See alsoSoftside, Polypropylene, ABS
- Softside
- A case with a fabric body, usually over an internal frame. It gives at the corners, which makes it more forgiving in a shared bin and less predictable in a rigid frame, because a soft case packed hard measures more than the same case packed loosely.See alsoHardside, Denier, Gate sizer
- Polypropylene
- A thermoplastic used for hard luggage shells, valued for flexing under impact and returning to shape rather than cracking. Naming the polymer tells you considerably more about how a case will behave than the word hardshell does. One listing on this site names it.See alsoABS, Hardside
- ABS
- Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, another thermoplastic used for luggage shells. It is generally lighter and less expensive than polypropylene and generally more prone to cracking rather than flexing under a hard impact. Three listings on this site name it.See alsoPolypropylene, Hardside
- Denier
- A unit describing the linear mass density of a fiber, written as a number followed by D. A higher figure means a heavier yarn, which usually but not always means a tougher fabric. It says nothing about weave, coating or construction, and no listing on this site quotes one at all.See alsoSoftside, Tear resistant, Water repellent
- Expandable gusset
- A panel of extra fabric released by a zip running around a case, adding depth and therefore volume. It gives a case two external sizes, and listings almost always state only the smaller one. Using it is what turns a case that passed a frame into a case that may not.See alsoCarry-on, Gate sizer, Liter capacity
- Packing cube
- A zipped fabric box that holds part of what you are packing, so a case becomes several parcels rather than one layer. It divides; it does not shrink. Cubes have a weight of their own, which goes into the bag before your clothes do and which no listing here states.See alsoCompression cube, Empty weight, Liter capacity
- Compression cube
- A packing cube with a second zip that squeezes the packed contents into a smaller volume. It reduces the space a load occupies and does not reduce what that load weighs. If you are over a weight allowance, a compression cube cannot help you; if you have run out of room, it can.See alsoPacking cube, Empty weight
- Liter capacity
- The internal volume of a bag, given in liters, calculated by the manufacturer rather than measured to any common standard. No listing on this site says whether pockets were counted. It is the best-answered of the five numbers here and it still tells you nothing about shape.See alsoEmpty weight, Linear inches, Packing cube
- Empty weight
- What the bag weighs with nothing in it. It comes off your allowance before you have packed anything, and it is the single most consistent silence in this catalog: not one of the listings gathered here states it in any unit.See alsoLiter capacity, Telescoping handle, Compression cube
- Travel Sentry lock
- A lock built so that screening staff can open it with a service key instead of cutting it off. That is precisely what the standard is for, and it is why such a lock should never be described as protection against theft. It is a convenience for inspection, and phrases like TSA approved refer to this and to nothing else.See alsoAirline approved, Luggage cover
- Luggage cover
- An elastic fabric sleeve pulled over a hard case, sold to keep scuffs off the shell and to make an anonymous case findable on a belt. It adds a layer, so a covered case is fractionally larger than a bare one. Both cover listings here use the words TSA approved, which on a cover with no lock describes nothing.See alsoTravel Sentry lock, Airline approved, Hardside
- Weekender
- A soft bag sized by implication rather than by measurement, meant for two or three nights. It is a category name doing the work of a capacity figure, and on this site two of the bags described as weekenders state no size of any kind.See alsoLiter capacity, Daypack
- Daypack
- A backpack built around one main compartment and a sleeve, sized for a day rather than a trip. Where the listings here state a capacity it clusters in the twenties, which is roughly what a footwell will accept.See alsoTravel pack, Personal item, Liter capacity
- Travel pack
- A backpack sized and shaped for a whole trip rather than a day, often opening more like a case than like a rucksack. Both travel packs on this site mention expansion, which means both of them have two sizes and only one of them says what the second size is.See alsoDaypack, Expandable gusset, Carry-on
- Water repellent
- A description of a fabric that sheds water for a while rather than excluding it. It sits between water resistant and waterproof in ordinary usage, and none of the three carries any meaning unless a rating or a test method is quoted alongside it. On this site, none is.See alsoTear resistant, Denier
- Tear resistant
- A claim that a fabric resists a tear spreading once it has started. Published test methods exist for exactly this, and a seller who has run one usually names it. No listing in this catalog names a method for any durability claim it makes.See alsoWater repellent, Denier
- Airline approved
- A phrase printed by sellers that describes no approval, because none exists. No airline reviews luggage in advance, no carrier maintains a register of approved models, and no body certifies a bag as admissible. TSA approved is a related phrase with one narrow legitimate use: locks built to a service-key standard. On anything else, including a fabric cover, it means nothing whatsoever.See alsoTravel Sentry lock, Gate sizer, Carry-on