High Sierra : 22-Inch Wheeled Carry-On Backpack

Review:
This set has received many positive comments in airports from other travelers who notice that the personal bag (backpack) zips to the main piece of luggage. This is no small blessing when you are traveling for long hours and can easily pack a 45 pound carry-on.

Without just rattling off an endless list of features, though I will highlight a few, this combo is the picture of functional. High Sierra’s bag designers really have insight into what makes or breaks travel bags. The luggage piece reflects this in many ways. For example, there are a couple of extra inches at the top that unzip to free up more space or zip to lessen space. There are inner mesh pockets (four) of different sizes to be able to contain valuable items or to provide organization options. There is a front pocket that you can get to if the backpack is zipped off but is secure with the pack attached.

The backpack has two front pouches, one which is larger and has inner pockets for a cell phone, pens, CD player, and anything else you may want handy. The backpack’s main pocket is not as useful as it could be. It is narrow (only about 3 ½ inches side width) and hard to cram an assortment of things into. It is my one reserve with this set and is an area of improvement. It seems to be designed for laptops (though there is no specific pocket)/ papers/ and a few thinner books.

Another small area of improvement, which might take some expert thinking, is that when the bags are seperated, the roller half has a hard time standing on its own. When I need my hands free I have to lean it against something in a way it won’t fall over. When packed and zipped together it's plenty stable in an upright position, but I find that I take the bags apart pretty frequently. That is not a huge deal, but there could be some way to make it balance regardless of whether the backpack is attached.

An awesome feature that actually first appealed to Chris, and that I grew to understand more, are the industrial zipper pulls. Once we checked that luggage bag (which works as check or carry-on) and it somehow came back without one of the pulls. Chris and I were bummed about it, but what was more baffling was trying to figure out HOW it came off. There was no stress to the area it came lose from and we figured it must have taken a hard hit to have popped off like that (the pulls are so well designed and cool looking, I almost wonder if a bag handler snagged one). I like the sporty, but formal, presentation with the chunky zipper pulls and different toned colors.