Having trouble deciding between the two, as a first time one bag travel for long term in europe and asia. im 5'7 ~160lbs

What started as a simple question quickly snowballed into the analysis I'll describe below. Like many of the degenerate carriers on this sub, I frequently find myself consuming internet bag reviews. Sometimes, it's in preparation for a bag purchase; sometimes, it's recreational. For me, Pack Hacker (PH, henceforth) is typically a first stop whenever I'm researching a new bag. Deep into a review binge one night, I found myself wondering how much reviewer subjectivity impacted PH's scores. Each review is attributed to either an individual author or the "Pack Hacker Team." I was also curious whether their average scores had drifted over time. My theory was that an established site with a solid reputation, like PH, could afford to be more discerning with their reviews, so maybe average scores would decrease over time. Spoiler alert, this turned out to be wrong.

Over the past few nights, I ran an analysis of the "Bags & Luggage" reviews published on PH. There are just over 1,000 reviews in this category, making it a healthy dataset for analysis. Here are some of the top-level results:

Top-level analysis results from the Bags & Luggage category on PH

Initial takeaways (again, only pertaining to the Bags & Luggage category):

• The vast majority of bags and luggage receive a score between 7.0 and 8.5. The mathematical average across the entire dataset sits right at 7.58.
• The Pack Hacker Team handles the bulk of the reviews collectively (255 reviews), but when it comes to individual contributors, Lauren Maternowski (235) and Eric Hergenreder (208) are by far the most active gear testers on the site.
• I looked at the 10 brands with the highest volume of reviews on in the Bags & Luggage category to see which ones perform the best on average. Unsurprisingly, Aer, Peak Design, and Tom Bihn consistently earn the highest average scores, all sitting comfortably around the 8.0+ mark ("Great" status).
• PH's review output for bags and luggage has grown significantly over the last few years, with a huge ramp-up starting in 2022 and reaching its peak in 2025 with over 320 published reviews. They're currently on pace for 600 reviews in this category for 2026.

And down the slippery slope we go. Next, I wanted to answer the question I initially set out to address regarding reviewer bias and subjectivity. Here's what I found:

Average reviewer score given in the Bags & Luggage category

This is remarkably consistent. If we want to nitpick, the data could suggest that Tom tends to grade slightly more generously than the rest of the pack, averaging a 7.70. In contrast, Kristyne is the strictest grader among the top 5, coming in with the lowest average score at 7.50. Overall, though, a 7.50-7.70 spread on the average across reviewers is pretty tight.

Next, I wanted to curate a short list of superlatives. For your reading pleasure:

• Highest Rated Bag: The Aer Travel Pack 4 (35L) took the crown with a near-perfect score of 9.3 / 10
• Lowest Rated Bag: The Nomatic Travel Bag came in with the lowest valid score in the dataset at 5.4 / 10
• Most Reviewed Brand: Bellroy is the single most featured brand in the Bags & Luggage category, with a whopping 62 individual reviews
• Largest Capacity: The Rux 70L gear hauler topped the charts with a massive 70 Liters of storage volume
• Smallest Capacity: The Nomatic Access Pouch is the tiniest reviewed item, holding a microscopic 0.4 Liters (essentially just enough room for a phone, wallet, and keys)

Looking a little more closely at the sub-score categories (i.e., Form, Design, and Value). My AI assistant (Gemini, in this case) suggested a violin plot to compare this data. If you can look past the overtly sexual way in which this data is plotted, it's actually pretty interesting:

Get your mind out of the gutter

It seems that PH is slightly more critical of Value and Design than they are of Form. At the risk of over-extrapolating, maybe gear makers have gotten really good at making bags look nice and picking high-quality materials (Form), but they still struggle to perfect the internal layouts (Design) or justify the high price tags (Value). The sub-score averages:

• Form Average: 79.1 / 100
• Design Average: 74.9 / 100
• Value Average: 74.1 / 100
• Overall Average: 75.9 / 100 (Shown as 7.59/10 on the site)

And some updated superlatives:

• Highest Form Score: Veilance Nomin Pack
• Highest Design Score: Peak Design Travel Backpack 30L
• Highest Value Score: GORUCK GR2
• Lowest Form Score: AmazonBasics Carry-On Travel Backpack
• Lowest Design Score: Fjallraven Splitpack
• Lowest Value Score: Arkadia Sea To Sky Packable Daypack

The last thing I wanted to look at with regarding to the score values was whether there exists any correlation to other factors (including the year in which the score was generated). Here's a heatmap showing degree of correlation between the quantities that PH reports:

Heatmap showing correlation between factors for Bags & Luggage

Here is where my theory about score decreasing over time was disproven. There's actually a slight positive correlation between the Review Year and the Overall Score (as well as the Design and Value sub-scores). This suggests that as the years go on, the team is generally finding bags to be better designed and more fairly priced. Form, on the other hand, appears to be trending slightly down: while bags are getting better designed internally, the team is becoming harsher critics of the actual materials, aesthetics, and outer silhouettes.

I was also curious whether there was a score bias toward any particular bag type. Of the 1,079 bags reviewed by PH in this category, here's the score breakdown by bag type:

• Backpacks: 762 reviews (Average Score: 7.59)
• Sling Bags: 134 reviews (Average Score: 7.65)
• Rollers & Suitcases (Carry-Ons): 66 reviews (Average Score: 7.51)
• Tote Bags: 50 reviews (Average Score: 7.56)
• Duffel Bags: 34 reviews (Average Score: 7.59)
• Daypacks: 22 reviews (Average Score: 7.44)
• Camera Bags: 11 reviews (Average Score: 7.42)

You'll see here that slings actually hold the highest average score out of all the bag categories. Camera Bags and Daypacks, however, tend to score just a bit lower than the standard travel backpacks.

Last but not least, I wanted to get a sense for how the brands stack up against one another. Keep in mind here that not every brand has received an equal number of reviews. I've limited this list to only the brands which have received 5+ reviews by PH, which took the list from 204 brands down to 45. Here's the brand ranking, with the number of PH reviews in parentheses next to the brand name:

Definitive ranking of brands in the Bags & Luggage category

And here's a summary of the rankings:

• Best of the Best (8.0+ average):
  • Goruck (8.31 / 8 reviews): GORUCK officially takes the crown
  • Evergoods (8.18 / 23 reviews)
  • Aer (8.11 / 60 reviews)
  • Peak Design (8.04 / 27 reviews)
• Bottom of the Pack:
  • Nomatic (7.15 / 20 reviews)

Ultimately, most of this analysis was unsurprising. Maybe the most surprising thing to me was how remarkably consistent PH is across their group of individual reviewers. They seem to be discerning when it comes to dishing out high review scores, which is obviously a good thing when many of us are leaning - in some cases, heavily - on their evaluations prior to making a bag purchase. If anyone is interested in any other plots, let me know and I'll do my best to generate them.

Disclosures: I am not affiliated with any review site. I'm just a dude who likes bags (and data).

I'm looking for something along the lines of the Zpack Airplane Case for protection if I end up ever having to check my 35L Travel Pack 4.
Does anyone have any recommendations for something more appropriately sized (and ideally more affordable)?

Debating on getting the 24L CPP2 or 28L TP4 bags to pair with my carryon roller bag on my trips.

Does the 28L fit in the bottom of economy seats? Trying to find people fitting it in the bottom airplane seat but no such postings.

Mostly fly Star Alliance 90% of the time and occasionally budget airlines in Asia and Europe

How often would airlines look at the 28L and identify it as a second carry on instead of a personal bag? How often do they check to make sure it fits in the measurement bin?

Thoughts and recommendation if I would like it as a “personal” bag paired with carryon roller.

Thank you.

I have ordered the CPP2 20L and will arrive soon. Has anyone used it with Ryanair as a personal item and does it fit in the airport sizer if it's fully packed? The length is 4 cm longer than Ryanair's maximum size which is 40x30x20.

Ever since I got my first aer bag (tp2 small), I have been hooked. I have other backpacks, slings, briefcases, duffels, and even their computer folio/sleeve. I’m planning a new trip, and of course that means a new bag. I’m looking at the aer cpp2, but I kind of want to see what else is out there. I’m looking for a true personal item as most of my collection is built for domestic (us) travel, and am taking multiple flights in Latin America. I have the synapse 25, but despite loving the organization, it doesn’t actually fit all that much. At least me or my wife will use the tp2 sm, but that leaves room for one more bag. What should I be looking at? The evergoods ctb 26 looks intriguing. I know the able carry max edc gets lots of love, but the internal water bottle pocket eating into main compartment is almost a deal killer for me. What else is out there, or should I just stick with ol’ reliable and get another aer product?

Just got my first Aer bag, the TP4 28L as my EDC/Travel combo.

I bought the bag from Aer Store in London, definitely worth checking out and trying out the sizes. I went in there confused about CPP2 24 and TP4 28 but after trying them on and looking at the sizes I loved the TP4.

I got the Cordura because, well I like the nylon look and material. Might be losing out a bit on weather resistance but I feel like the nylon is good enough and I didn’t feel like spending extra for a fabric that I didn’t like as much.

First few observations:

1. It is heavy. But once you put it on, the weight seems to disappear mostly. I had a no name nylon bag before this and air was light but you felt the weight when it on you. Not the case with Aer with the same load out. It feels lighter even though it might be a bit heavier.

2. The front bottom pocket was my only area of concern and unfortunately it still is. It feels tight, even without the full loadout. I feel it’ll just be a dump/ thin things pocket.

3. I assumed I’ll be able to put my ROG Ally X in with its official carry bag in the top admin pocket but nope it doesn’t fit. The only place to put it comfortably is the main admin compartment but I can work with it.

4. The water bottle pockets are amazing, my old bags pockets were the old school mesh and I hated using those. This one feels much nicer and can be used a pocket as well.

5. My anker 25000 power bank with its boxy shape doesn’t fit very well anywhere else other than the main compartment / bottle pockets or top quick access pocket(only if it’s empty). I haven’t taken it on a trip yet but can foresee a bit of tetrising.

Overall. Really happy with the bag. Get the job done in a superb way. Looking forward to my first trip. I haven’t yet had a chance to fully pack out the bag but I feel like I’m going to be surprised by the amount of stuff I can fit in it.

Great purchase for someone looking for a larger EDC/Travel combo.

Is there a valid use case for having both?

I had the TP3 in codura and loved it. It was my first dive into the bag world. Took it all over Asia and Europe. I didn’t like the horizontal luggage pass through, the weight and felt like the pockets were overkill.

Tried out the CPP2 xpac and love it. The vertical luggage pass through and xpac fits my usage

I just ordered the 35l in xpac and it will be my international trip bag. I know it’s gonna be too big for domestic trips and CPP2 is almost useless after 2 laptops and an iPad.

Hello, 

I’m looking for some perspective. 

Currently, I have 36L kestrel osprey backpack 

But I’m looking to get something that’s a bit more optimized for non-hiking/backpacking travel. 

I’m currently deciding between 3 form factors: 

1. 24L City Pack
2. 28L travel pack 
3. 35L travel pack

 

What I’m looking for: 

1. Something that is big enough for 5-14 day one-bag, USA domestic and international trips (one-bag)
2. Fits underneath an airplane seat

 

As of now, I’m leaning towards the 28L option. It seems small enough to fit underneath most airplane seats, but big enough to accommodate a minimalist international traveler.  

Few questions:

1. Is the 28L work too small for 2+ week international travel? Will I regret not getting the 35L?
2. What are people’s experience bringing either 24L or 28L on airplane as personal item?

 

Thanks for your help!

I made a comparison video between the Aer Travel Pack 4 28L Ultra and the Travel Pack 3 Small Ultra. I focused on fit, organization, comfort, and the real-world differences between the two bags.

I kept it as straightforward as possible for people trying to decide between these two Aer models.

What do you think : is the TP4 28L an improvement over the TP3 Small Ultra?

Are the water bottle pockets black material or somehow some matching blue material. Cant tell in pics.

I have and love the City Pack Pro XPac, which is almost perfect. Currently I use the quick access side pocket for an Anker 25,000 mAh power bank with retractable USB C cable which is super handy.

Where are you guys storing your power bank in the newer version of the bag now that pocket has gone?