Taken by a friend and my attempt at a blogger shot. Remind me never to do shots that angle from the bottom up because hellloooo double chin >.<
One of my friends calls this the basic blogger suitcase and he's right. Every large blogger/Instagrammer I know has gotten one of these things for free. Unfortunately I'm a small-beans blogger so I had to buy my own. But on the bright side, I then get to say whatever I want about this suitcase without any pressure. So here goes my unsponsored and hopefully unbiased review of Away's Bigger Carry-On suitcase.
So I purchased this suitcase because my dog Hachi, one day out of the blue decided to pee on my Samsonite soft body suitcase (like this one), and I could not get the pee smell out. It was time to buy a replacement. And since I've never owned a hard case suitcase before, and because everyone and their mother seemed to have an Away, I got it in my head to try it out. And I have to say I'm not disappointed.
Inside there is a zippered compartment, which is meant for bulky items, while the other side with straps over a mesh pocket is meant for clothing. I really like the compartments and the zippered compartment, which you can see holds my hotel slippers that I carry with me every time I travel. The top right zippered pocket holds the included laundry bag (love!).
On the outside, there's a place to secure your zipper up top and the two usb charging ports are located underneath the handle. This is definitely the best feature of the luggage. It was nice to be able to add some extra juice to my phone while I was waiting at the gate. The battery came pre-charged but it comes with the necessary charging cords (though you still have to provide your own usb phone charging cords). And some of you may have heard but airlines will start banning suitcases with batteries like these that aren't removable. Luckily, the battery in Away suitcases are removable and they provide you with the screwdriver necessary to remove it {update: I was just informed in the comments below that all Away suitcases purchased from November 2017 on have a pop out battery so battery removal is even easier. Dang I wish I had waited for that!}. And since it is removable, the Away carry-on will still be allowed as a carry-on (but you will probably have to remove it from checked baggage). So just make sure you carry that screwdriver with you at all times, just in case (I leave it in the mesh pocket with the charging cord and my hotel slippers)!
I also loved that the suitcase was pretty lightweight and the wheels roll super smoothly. They also have a lifetime warranty on the hard shell, the zippers, wheels and telescoping handles.
But here are the things I didn't like:
- When you have the suitcase on its side (like in the pic above, see especially the right corner side), the heavy compartments compress the zipper area making it hard to unzip. It's slightly easier to start unzipping while it's still standing on its wheels, and then tilt it down to unzip the rest. I'm not sure if other hard top suitcases are like this? Also the black plastic-y leather material surrounding the zipper feels cheap and I'm not sure how well it's going to hold up with heavy usage.
- The telescoping handles are on the thin side and so it's not as sturdy as say the handles on a Rimowa suitcase (luckily my friend had a Rimowa on this trip and so I got to do a side by side comparison of the two). But when rolling the two, there's not a huge difference (and I definitely wouldn't pay an extra $400 for the Rimowa now having tried both).
So having tried out the Away Bigger Carry-On, would I buy it again? Yep I would. I love the charging capability and the really smooth wheels. And for $245, it's about the same price as a Samsonite but less than a Tumi or Rimowa. The big test, of course is how it will stand up to traveling and heavy usage. Well I'll be taking several trips in December and January so I'll update this post after all my travels and let you know how the Away fared! In the mean time if you'd like to try it yourself, Away has a 100 day return policy and you can get $20 off your purchase (of $125+) with this referral link (thank you for your support!).
{May Update: So after taking it to Hawaii and back, along with a 10 day trip to Europe I can say this Away luggage has held up excellently. The trip to London, Paris, Amsterdam were a good test of the luggage since I had to wheel it around multiple train stations and airports. The handles, wheels and zippers are all still holding up. Would I buy it again? The answer is still yes! Also in the comments below someone asked me if the Bigger Carry-on is allowed as a carry-on in Europe and the answer is yes you can get through security with it but if the plane is full, the airline might make you check it in. I traveled mostly by train so it was great and our last flight from AMS to Heathrow wasn't full so I could put it in the bin sideways. If you're going to be traveling a lot in Europe I think the Carry-On is a better size. But we all have different experiences and here's another blogger's review of the Bigger Carry-On vs. the Carry-on and her experience in Europe}
{September Update: So I took this old Away suitcase to the shop to get the battery changed out to the ejectable one, and the ejectable battery system is genius! It’s so easy to remove your battery now, which is also great if you just want a lighter suitcase. I really think Away has made a great carry-on suitcase and I liked it so much I got a second one for the hubby!}
{September 2019 update: When I needed to get a large suitcase for my 1 month trip to Hawaii, I purchased the large Away luggage and I love it. I’ll let you know how it holds up since this one will always get checked-in and we’ll see how it handles all the abuse!}
{February 2021: As you can imagine, I haven’t taken a lot of trips lately but I do have to say the large Away suitcase has held up really well. I stuffed both my bigger carry-on and the large suitcase to the brim for our 4 month stay in Hawaii with family and had no problems. Both were easy to wheel even when overstuffed and the zippers held up fine. You can see below the two Away suitcases along with all the other rag tag luggage we brought to Hawaii (we basically used every single one we had to move for this brief time). Also you can see I’ve got a second Bigger Carry-on in Black (this one already came with ejectable battery). I gave my older gray one to a friend.
