7 Best Carry-On Luggage 2026

Under five and a half pounds is the number that makes this bag interesting. The Maxlite 5 is a 21-inch softside giving you 46 liters at 5.4 pounds empty — lighter than every hardside here — and that matters on the international carriers that weigh your cabin bag before they weigh your checked one. It’s also the bag that squeezes: a soft body compresses into a sizer in a way a polycarbonate shell never will.

We like it for the trips where the bag has to disappear into the cabin. Two exterior pockets take the things you want at the gate, the full-length lid pocket keeps flat items flat, and the case expands two inches for the return leg. The PowerScope handle has stops at 38 and 42.5 inches, with the higher one there for taller travelers.

Where it gives ground is protection. There’s no shell between a softside and whatever it’s jammed against in the bin, and a soft bag won’t save a bottle of wine the way polycarbonate will. The coverage softens that: Travelpro’s limited lifetime warranty covers defects, and the Trusted Companion Promise picks up carrier damage for a year once you register the bag. We stopped worrying about the soft shell once the exterior pockets started doing the work.

The first thing you notice pushing this bag is how little of it you hear. Eight spinner wheels, a four-stop aluminum handle and a squared-off footprint add up to the straightest, quietest roll here — on a long terminal floor it tracked like it was on rails, and the handle settled at a height our hand actually wanted rather than the two positions most bags offer.

The build backs that up. Three layers of polycarbonate, a recessed TSA combination lock and a split-case interior with mesh pockets on both halves, plus a flat top that holds a stacked tote without sliding. The shell is rigid enough that we didn’t baby it, and the four-level handle doesn’t rattle when the bag is fully loaded.

Two things to know. At 7.7 pounds it’s the heaviest 20-inch hardside in this guide, which eats into a tight allowance, and 40 liters is mid-pack on capacity. Neither bothered us much, because the weight buys a shell that doesn’t flex and wheels that don’t wander.

Zipper pulls are the one place we hesitate. They’re the least substantial thing on the bag, and on a case this well made a pull is the only part that can strand you mid-trip. On a long trip with a lot of walking, we still take this one first.

Expansion is usually the throwaway line in a luggage listing. Here it’s the reason to buy: this shell opens up to 25 percent more space on the return leg, which is the difference between a week of clothes and a week of clothes plus what you bought there. For the money, we haven’t found a better space-to-price ratio in this group.

Inside, a divider and three zippered pockets do the organizing the shell doesn’t, and the four spinner wheels handle smooth terminal floors without complaint. There’s no built-in lock, so a travel padlock for the zipper pulls is on you, and at 7.7 pounds the bag is heavier than its footprint suggests — you feel it lifting it into the bin.

The honest caveat is the shell. ABS is the plastic that cracks where polycarbonate gives, and the telescoping handle is the piece to watch, because a wobbly handle is the usual first failure at this level. If this bag flies twice a year and lives in a closet the rest of the time, that’s a trade worth making; if you’re in the air monthly, put the money into the Samsonite instead.

Set the Pagosa next to our top pick and the trade is clear: half an inch more bag, at 22.5 inches overall against 22, in exchange for a lot more sorting. Five pockets, a zippered divider down the middle and a two-inch expansion gusset mean a week goes in as compartments instead of one pile of clothes.

We like the way it packs and the way it’s built. The shell is polypropylene rather than polycarbonate — a slightly more forgiving plastic that flexes instead of cracking — and the rubberized top and side handles are easier to grab off a belt than the thin ones on several bags here. The TSA combination lock is built into the case, so there’s nothing to lose.

The one thing that isn’t a feature: the charging port is a pass-through for your own power bank rather than a battery, so it’s only as useful as the pack you remember to bring. Everything else about this case is aimed at the traveler who likes a place for everything.

A cup holder on a suitcase sounds like a gimmick until you’re standing at a gate with a coffee in one hand and a phone in the other. The Astral puts a cup holder, a phone slot and a USB port on the back of the case, and it’s the only bag here with any of them. That’s the pitch, and for the right trip it’s a good one.

The bag underneath is a competent 20-inch ABS hardside: 22 inches overall, 8 pounds, four spinner wheels and a combination lock on the zipper pulls. The housing for the cup holder and port takes a bite out of the interior, so it packs smaller than its footprint suggests — think two or three nights rather than a week.

The port is the weak link. It’s a pass-through that needs your own power bank, and it doesn’t always work. We still think it’s worth buying for the cup holder and the phone slot, which are genuinely nice to have at a gate; treat the charging as a bonus and you won’t be disappointed.

A second bag is a different purchase from a primary one. The London is the case that lives in a closet, comes out for a long weekend and doesn’t ask you to spend much — 20 inches, 34 liters, a hardside shell and a five-year warranty. The mint finish is genuinely easy to spot coming down a belt, the sort of thing you stop noticing on an expensive bag and appreciate on a cheap one.

What you’re not paying for shows up in the details. The interior is a mesh zip pocket and a pair of elastic straps rather than a divider, so packing cubes do the organizing, and at 6.5 pounds the case is heavier than the Travelpro despite holding less. The telescoping handle and the four spinner wheels work fine — nothing about them feels special.

None of that makes it a bad buy; it makes it a specific one. We keep it on this list because the money you save is real, the coverage runs longer than the Pagosa’s, and the trips this bag can’t handle are the ones you’d have checked a bag for anyway. Fly often and it’s worth stepping up.