Rick Steves Luggage

I used the "new" roller board carry on for a trip to Albania, Macedonia and Greece last October. As it replaced my older (larger) RS roller carryon, I found the way I packed the new one to be exactly the same as the old one, just a smaller space. This was good for me as I am a creature of habit! It was lighter weight, easy to maneuver through airports on the run (Frankfurt!) and I could easily put it up into the overhead bins without help. It fit just perfectly. I am pleased with it but it's only been on a couple of trips so far. I don't have any experience with the Ravenna bag but will be watching this thread to see what others who are using it think.

We own three of them. Great product and well built. Been all the way to Australia and back with no problems. They also fit into the overhead bins of Delta Airlines CRJ regional jets.

Roy, Do you own three of the Ravenna bags or three of the "soft" bags? Thanks!

Sorry. We own 3 of the rolling carry-on bags.

My experience is similar to Andi's with the small roller case except for me it replaced the RS convertible backpack. I am not sure how but I got almost exactly the same amount of stuff in the 20" over the 22". Go figure, lol! I did use Eagle Creek Sil-nylon packing cubes for both cases.

I carried on going over last Fall and it was easy to load in to the overhead bin for the international flight leg and also no problem with the overhead in the London -> Paris run of the Eurostar. I did gate check it out of my home airport as Alaska uses the Bombardiers for the hop to Seattle and you can barely get a package of Kleenex in those bins. It's just easier and quicker for me to throw it on the A La Carte and not have to worry if it will fit or not. I checked it coming back home from Paris and it did fine. I did unzip the expander as it seemed like it was packed pretty tight. I also routinely have a bright colored luggage strap around any suitcase I take for both ID purposes and in case of any kind of zipper failure.

No experience with the Ravenna.

I have the rolling carry-on and have been very happy with it. I've used it on several domestic trips and as my main bag on our 12-day European trip last summer. Holds a lot, easy to handle. No problems at all. I also use several of the RS packing cubes to help organize and compress stuff. My wife gave me the Euro Flight Bag for Christmas, which I intend to use for double duty as both my under-seat bag and to carry my CPAP machine. Seems plenty spacious for this role and will attach securely to the rolling carry-on handle, which the separate CPAP bag I was using did not.

Stoutfella's post made me think of a downside to the 20" rolling bag. Altho I didn't have any trouble with the extended handle on the roller bag it seems a little flimsy. I also had a Veloce as my personal item and had my good birding binocs in there which are fairly heavy along with an iPad Mini. I found that altho the Veloce will easily slide over the handle of the 20 incher it then became too heavy to pull. It worked much better to use the Veloce as a backpack and pull the roller bag.

Pam, did the handle seem flimsy all the time or just with the added weight of the Veloce bag? Thanks!

It seems flimsy all the time. Once it is extended to either length it wobbles a little and has some play in it. It has not so far made for any issues with rolling the bag itself, just felt overloaded with the Veloce. The construction of the handle does not seem robust but if it were, I suspect it would make the bag heavier. I am not one to pick a bag up by an extended handle to bump it up a flight of stairs.

Has anyone else had any experiences with these bag? Would love to hear from those who've used them and to get a good consensus. Many thanks.

TC - So far, wife and I've both used the new international sized RS rollaboard for 23 days in Ireland, 24 days in Italy, plus domestic trips 25 days each in New England and VA/NC. We also carried moderate daypacks, e.g. RS Civita - no other luggage. No big complaints about the durability or performance of the rollaboards, including rolling them in many cobbled streets in Italy. Only "issues" I've noted so far: 1) My bag experienced some minor stitching unravel in the large front pocket. A few added stitches from home sewing machine cured it. 2) Must be packed so they aren't top heavy or they will flop over (true for almost any smaller 2 wheeled bag). 3) Must be fairly brutal about how many outfits are taken. We got by OK once we embraced RS' travel light concept. Our Motto - "nobody is looking at YOU". 4) Using all the expansion room & front pockets could be a problem with some airlines. When we flew an AF leg from Florence to CDG, the agent put our rollaboards in the little metal sizing bin. Mine passed, but the wife had stuffed hers full of souvenirs. I moved some bulk from hers into mine, compressed them both and we each squeaked by for carry-on. My bottom line for the RS rollaboards: decent value for the money.

Many thanks to everyone for relating your experience with the RS international sized roller board. Has anyone used the Ravenna Bag?

Rollaboard® is a registered trademark of Travelpro, who inverted the rolling (roll-aboard) suitcase. Rollerboard® is the trademark for a child's scooter (roller-board).

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BTW, speaking of regional jets, a few years ago I flew from Oakland, CA, to Phoenix on one. They announced before boarding that no rolling carryons could be taken on board, but had to be gate checked and would be returned to the jet-way when we arrived.