Subterra 22-Inch Wheeled Carry-On

The quality of this bag is fantastic. Zippers are solid, fabrics are tough, the whole thing feels solid and holds up. It rolls very smoothly and has a strong handle with excellent extension and retraction - much nicer than most bags I’ve had, even Tumi. I love that the bag stays standing up and doesn’t fall all the time. It stays balanced and right side up when rolling. The compression plate is cool and works well, but not if you use packing cubes. I keep leaving it out so it doesn’t waste space. Plus, the bag only has the compression on one side, so you only get half the help it should, so it’s not a huge impact. I love the look and the idea of this bag, but I hate using it. One side of the bag has the bars on the inside, so even with the compaction device, it doesn’t fit as much as it could unless you put everything in loose around the bars. The Thule packing cubes don’t work with the compression plate. And the packing cubes get very thick against the bars making zipping the bag up a chore. The other side of the bag is the worst. One third is wasted by an exterior pocket that is rigid and can’t be flexible on the inside. Because it is rigid, you can’t fit much on the inside and you can only use one packing cube, leaving a weird size of space. Such as waste. That exterior pocket is also a terrible size and shape. Too big. Even with a TSA quart bag, passports, phone, keys, glasses, etc there’s a ton of room, but you can’t put a water bottle or snacks in there without crushing them. So, I don’t know what to do with it and it ends up as wasted space. I ended up putting shoes into it and crushing the leather due to the crazy shape of the rounded outer pocket. It’s the worst feature in the whole bag and it needs to be removed. Please replace with a thin pocket for tickets, passport and phone only that doesn’t impact the inside storage space. I like the idea of having a quick zipper to pull out the TSA quart bag, but this isn’t it. Think more like your two direction laptop removal options in your backpacks! Lastly, please make the bag a rectangle. The curves look nice, but screw everything up. The curves eliminate potential packing space all along the top of the bag and at each corner. Plus, packing cubes can’t fit into the sloped corners leaving even more wasted space. I bought all of the Thule packing cubes hoping this would solve the problem, but they don’t. They don’t match at all. It’s like the design group for the bag and the design group for the packing cubes never met each other. No configuration of sizes of their cubes fit the half with the horrendous exterior pocket. And they are too thick for the bag to close if you want to use cubes on both sides. I also don’t like the netting on one side of the bag. I feel like it will rip at some point as it has no strength for tension to hold stuff in. So, I love the quality, the styling, and the feel of the bag, but hate this particular design. I’d recommend the brand, but try a different bag. Also, pick packing cubes without curved corners that waste space. Wish I’d gone a different direction but I don’t have time to replace before my next trip.