I'm looking to get some decent luggage suitable for air travel. I have no cool as to what to look for or what to get. I want durable but not overly "tactical" looking, although I like some of the Maxpedition bags. Any favorites?
I don't do tactical bags, especially for travel. I have a smallish semi-hard sided rolling suitcase with 4 wheels and a telescopic handle. I am too lazy to go look at the brand or size but I love mine. Ordered with Amazon Prime and was something like half of MSRP. Less than $100 and I've used it for half dozen air trips thus far. I can pack a weeks worth of dress clothes (pants, shirts, ties, underthings, etc.) along with a couple casual combos. It's tight but it works.
Luggage is one thing I feel like it's ok to splurge on since it gets beat to death and I've watched entire contents of bags come down the conveyer...without their bag. So, years ago, I spent crazy money on different luggage pieces. There is not one thing wrong with any of the pieces years later. Some of them have close to a million miles on them. The brands I've tested for years and love: Briggs and Riley ---this is the nicer, business like luggage. Red Oxx--this is pretty much the official luggage of the serious, carry-on road warriors and not so serious safari hunters. If you never want to check a bag again (I haven't in years), you can start with their Air Boss. I just had them make a custom sized rifle case for me and I've been using it a lot over the past few weeks. I'm going to do a serious review of it soon. GORUCK--not really marketed as luggage, but their GR1 and GR2 will get your stuff there and back, no matter where you go or what you do. It's pretty impossible to kill. It's the most "tactical" of the 3, although not overboard. They don't have a bunch of external straps, and buckles and all that crazy stuff hanging off of it, making it look ridiculous as you walk through an airport.
I'm still miffed at Delta for destroying my hardsided lockable luggage. I never travel without a firearm and it was perfect. I always check baggage. For cheap checkable luggage that works a surplus US Army duffle bag can be locked and doesn't have a zipper that can be popped open with a ballpoint pen. Just try to look like a hippie. On the other end a Tuff Pack can carry a 21 day safari worth of gear and can be locked either with a TSA lock or personal padlock. They come in different sizes and options none of them cheap. Designed as a way to transport marketing equipment it isn't "tactical" or gun centric to most mortals.
I do a lot of international air travel, and always check bags due to the quantity of equipment I travel with. I have tried lots of different brands, and a lot of time what I use has to to with my final destination. Places like Peru I want my bag to blend in and not be noticed by would be thieves and customs, in this case I use traditional roll-on suitcases. Travel Pro is my brand of choice in this case. I used large black MEC brand duffel bags (137 l Odyssey model) for just about everything else. Some of them I've had for more than 20 years and are still going strong. I see a lot of people I work with use The North Face Base Camp duffels, and they are well built but IMO they scream "steal me" in the third world. I've also recently purchased a MEC roller with a hardback/duffel style. So far I am really liking this one. When I bought this it was between MEC, a similar Osprey, and a similar Timbuk2, I went with the MEC as it was cheaper and they have a great warranty. https://www.mec.ca/en/product/5030-440/Fast-Track-3-Rolling-Duffle Below are the ratings from Consumer Reports, note these are based on customer satisfaction, not on their testing.
The Army issued me a really big duffel bag with zippers. I use that. They're kind of expensive (I think north of $200) but if you join the Army they're free. Sounds like a solid deal to me.
I travel about 18 weeks a year, not a ton but enough to know what's up. My recipe: For 1 week trips I carry on a hard side 19" spinner. Mine is a samsonite that I feel is decent quality. I always carry an Arcteryx blade 24 back pack. It's sized perfectly to fit under the seat and all the zippers are on one side making it really easy to access items quickly. When I do two week trips I check a 26" spinner in the same flavor as my 19" and still carry on the Arcteryx pack. Flight 001 spacepack stuff is great for compressing and organizing stuff.
