Briggs & Riley expandable Wide-Body Carry-On Luggage

    Here's a true story. It begins as I try to squeeze my 22" carry on luggage into an airplane's teeny-weeny overhead compartment. Anxiety-ridden, perspiration-beaded, I hoist my bag and muscle it - Success!  Close the door ... close the door.... &*#%... close the door. "I'm sorry," the flight attendant leans over, "The door must close; your bag will have to be checked."  Aaaargh!

    Here's a happy ending. After reading many blogs and after frequent luggage searches, I have found 4 luggage manufacturers who have caught on and caught up. Kudos to Hartmann, Tumi, Eagle Creek and Briggs & Riley for being ahead of the curve with their new wide-body, carry-on upright luggage. Briggs and Riley has a "Simple as That" lifetime warranty which fixes damaged luggage, regardless of how it got damaged. Eagle Creek and Victorinox have similar warrantees).

    O.K., so I travel a lot and don't have piles of money. But experience has made me willing to spend a little more to get luggage that fits both domestic and international air travel carry on requirements and lasts a lifetime.  I'm impressed with the Briggs & Riley 20" carry-on Expandable Wide-body Upright. It measures 20" x 16" x 8" - two inches shorter than the typical 22" carry on but is 1-2 inches wider. Briggs & Riley has more packing capacity than a standard 21" or 22" wheeled carry-on. Really! Better yet. This  rolling carry on has an expansion feature which offers a 24% increase in capacity. Briggs and Riley's telescoping handle is on the outside of the bag leaving even more interior packing space, and the rolling carry-on luggage includes a built-in tri-fold garment sleeve. I like garment sleeves; they help prevent longer or more wrinkle-vulnerable clothes from creasing, and I just take remove them if I don't need them.

    Let's face it. Air travel is an exercise in suppressed anxiety. Whether it's the quart-sized, clear, zip-lock bag squeeze; the public "items in bins" strip-show; the straddle, body-wand search; or the frantic moving-belt and bin retrieval, - squish feet into shoes, belts in loopholes, sweaters, jackets, handbags, wallets, watches, keys, bags, scanned infants and pace-makers (just kidding), computers, cell phones, ...go, go, go.

    If I was looking for this, I would have signed up as a paratrooper.

    Hallelujah for redemption!  - the "fits in the overhead" Briggs & Riley 20" Carry-On Expandable Wide-Body Upright.


 

Briggs & Riley Travel Luggage And Accessories

    You've got to love Briggs and Riley for their sleek, luxurious, modern luggage, bags, rolling luggage, business cases, backpacks, non-rolling luggage, toiletry kits, travel bags, uprights, and wheeled duffels. Briggs and Riley's innovative details include subtle, rich colors, extremely durable Tuff-lite fabric and TPR covered zippers for zipping ease. Briggs and Riley Travel Luggage has the industry's only "Guaranteed for Life" warranty which assures the customer that damaged luggage will be either fixed or replaced as long as you own it. Savvy customers love the New Outsider handle system which provides an unusually expansive, flat packing interior. Briggs and Riley Transcend Luggage boasts deep packing space, a telescoping handle with a neoprene grip, classy mesh interior secure panels, and an exterior cargo net, hidden in a discreet pocket at the base of the luggage, which, when extended, clips to rings at the top of the bag providing yet another pouch for soon-to-be-used items. The Briggs and Riley Verb Collection of non-rolling cases and rolling cases is fashion forward, made with a Cordura nylon blend outer fabric and designed with a unique contrast orange stitching while the top-of-the-line Briggs and Riley Baseline Collection offers rolling luggage, wheeled garment bags, rolling duffels garment covers and, for business travelers, a wheeled 20" computer upright. Baseline features a rigid exterior panel which pops up to form the New LXpandable One-touch expansion system providing 31% more room on all uprights. Once business customers purchase Briggs & Riley, they become dedicated to the Work Line of business luggage for the rolling and hand-held computer cases, computer backpacks, overnighter computer briefs, and briefcases. New this season is Briggs & Riley's SpeedThru™ technology built into laptop briefs (Work and Verb Collections) which meets checkpoint friendly guidelines by allowing you to forego TSA bins and keep your computer in its sleeve.