Maxlite® 5 Carry-On Rolling Tote

There have been a number of people here who use MaxLite bags. If you are comparing sizes I encourage you to use the metric measurements instead of the inches, which are rounded - sometimes up, sometimes down.

Are you looking for this to go under the seat in front of you or will you stow it in the overhead?

In the overhead

I have the Maxlite 5 21" spinner and the carry-on tote, and have taken both on trips with no problem getting them in the overhead compartment. Keep in mind that the spinner and the tote are approximately the same width. I'm not sure what you mean by sideways, but when I think of sideways, it means the opposite of what you should do with the bag, which is to place it in the comparment head (or feet) first. That also holds true for the 21" bag.

I mostly fly Delta and have never had a problem. With regards to the European airlines, I doubt that a .2" difference is going to be a problem.

My husband had a Travelpro bag, the kind with 2 wheels and 2 feet. After only a few uses, one of the feet broke off. It was already out of warranty, but they have a parts catalog and the foot was in it so I thought I was all set. But nope, they said the foot was unavailable and they had no idea when they'd have one...but I could have a discount on a new suitcase. This despite the fact that the identical suitcase was still being sold so they had access to that part somewhere. Luckily my brother-in-law was able to 3D print the part for us, but I would never buy another Travelpro product

Patricia, I'm sorry you had bad luck with your bag, but I've been buying Travelpro luggage since for almost 25 years and have never had problems. I doubt that there are any companies out there that have never had a faulty product. I don't typically blacklist companies unless I've seen evident of continuous bad products, and this doesn't seem to be the case. In fact, there are many people here on the forum who love their TravelPro bags. :-)

I am one who does. I bought mine about five years ago in a quest to have a lighter bag. I loved it so much that it became my graduation gift to my children, spouses, nieces and nephews as well as a Christmas present for my husband.

Beth, what a cool thing to do. I'm taking two of my grandkids to London and Paris next year, and am planning to buy them each a TravelPro bag for Christmas. I'm still trying to decide which one. I have the Maxlite5 spinner carry-on, and was thinking about that for the two of them (he will be 15 soon and she is almost 11).

That is how I started buying bags. My son’s now wife was going with us to Italy. I wanted her to have a carry on bag to bring (she brought an absolutely huge purple bag to my house when she visited.) She was graduating from nursing school so I decided to buy her a purple travel pro bag (two wheels as I like them better) as a gift. I got 22 inch which works with US based carriers.

I converted her and they went on their honeymoon to Portugal with carry on only.

I’ve used Travelpro bags for 15 years and love them. There have been other posts about the MaxLite wherein I have given my opinion. Here is a thread form a year ago about my most recent purchase.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/iceland/icelandair-carry-on-bag-size-limits

Not buying another TravelPro 21 inch spinner. I wheel deconstructed, another on the way to failure. Only 2 years. I do travel frequently 8 European trips in 23 and 24 so far,plus 3 to Oaxaca Mexico. Lots of cobblestones in my Europe trips, but it should have been more durable. I had to buy a new roller in Copenhagen. Only a samsonite 2 wheel available just to get me home.

I've read some negative things recently about 4 wheel spinners and cobblestones

When travelpro. first came out, they were one of the best pieces of luggage ever. unfortunately, I don’t think that way about them anymore. The most recent lines like the maxlight are light for a reason because they’re cheaply made. It doesn’t hold up anymore I can’t explain it, but they have let our quality go, and as was that pointed out the warranty is no longer what used to be. Understand that you are not buying a piece of luggage for a lifetime with travelpro any longer.

Now the exception to this is, if you can get your hands on a piece of luggage they sell to airline crews. And if you ever put your piece of luggage up next to one that a flight attendant or pilot is using you will understand the difference. It’s a different quality of luggage, but unfortunately that quality does not appear to be sold to the public any longer.

I've read some negative things recently about 4 wheel spinners and cobblestones.

Yes, and unfortunately, I believe most, if not all of those comments were written by owners of 2-wheeled bags. For some reason, there is a misconception that spinners will just fall apart on cobblestones, which is so far from the truth. I've had a TravelPro spinner for at least 15 years and have never had any problems on cobblestones. If there are any rough areas, I just pick up my very lightweight bag and carry it a bit.

BTW, the public can purchase the same bags that flight personnel buy. It's made by TravelPro and is called the Aviation Professional Collection. My brother was a pilot for Delta (he retired late last year) and that is what he had. I also have a sister-in-law who is a flight attendant and she buys their bags from this collection as well. I prefer the lightness of the Maxlite collection, and since I don't travel the way flight personnel do, I don't need anything that durable or heavy.

But I think we've been digressing from the OP post, so my apologies to jbare47! So I'm assuming you are looking for a rolling 2-wheeled bag for your main luggage and then a small backpack for your personal item?

Just a note, to buy the aviation pro luggage you have to register and as part of that registration, you have to tell them which airline you work for. . I don’t know if they check

When travelpro. first came out, they were one of the best pieces of luggage ever. unfortunately, I don’t think that way about them anymore. The most recent lines like the maxlight are light for a reason because they’re cheaply made.

Carol, I agree with you. The quality has declined. I had the Maxlite version 1 rollaboard. It weighed about 7 lbs and was very sturdy and had lots of nice features. It zipped out 2 full inches all the way around. It had sturdy handles on 3 sides. It had a water bottle holder. The zippers were heavy duty and the wheels were substantial. I used it for 12 years (including a couple of years of frequent business travel). It is still in excellent shape.

This year I bought the Maxlite 5 rollaboard. While I really like it, there is no way this suitcase will last as long as my older version. It is more than 2lbs lighter and I love this aspect. However, it is obvious how they reduced the weight. The zippers are less substantial. The wheels are thinner. It doesn’t expand as much. The end with the wheels doesn’t have a real handle; it just has a cloth inset thing that you can grab. The back of the suitcase no longer has plastic ridges to help prevent the fabric from being torn when you slide the bag out of the overhead.

Still, I prefer the maxlite 5 over the older version purely because of the weight. I still think it is a decent suitcase and worth what you pay for it and I would still recommend it.

The Travelpro Platinum Elite line is a much higher quality suitcase, but it weighs almost 8 lbs and costs nearly 3 times as much as the Maxlite. I do think Travelpro’s quality and customer service have declined and they seem to have had a supply chain problem with parts during the pandemic; I don’t know if there has been any improvement.