Is Away Carry-On Luggage Worth the Price?
The brand is hot. Here's how Away's basic hard-shell carry-on fared when Consumer Reports tested it—and when I stuffed it to the gills.
By Tobie Stanger
Scroll through lifestyle or travel sites and apps, and you’ll most likely encounter Away luggage. Stylish, in tasty colors like lavender, petal pink, and “coast” blue, the classic ribbed hard-shell Away suitcase has become a social media influencer favorite and must-have for trendy travelers since it rolled out in 2016.
Credit that popularity to very savvy marketing. What other luggage brand publishes its own online travel magazine, posts drool-worthy pics of its staffers’ globe-hopping exploits, and has had limited-edition collaborations with fashion designers, tennis legend Serena Williams, model Karlie Kloss, and the NBA?
To be sure, Away isn’t the first hard-shell luggage brand to achieve star status; the high-end German brand Rimowa, for instance, has been a celebrity pick for years. But Away’s far lower price puts this bag within reach for more of us. A basic piece of Away hard-shell carry-on luggage costs $275, vs. Rimowa’s, which starts at $850.
But even at that more moderate price, is the basic Away suitcase—called the Carry-On—worth the money? CR’s test-based ratings, along with my experiment in extreme overpacking, will help you decide.
Away The Carry-On
See all Hard-Shell Carry-On Ratings
What’s Special About the Away Carry-On?
Feature-wise, not much. Away’s the Carry-On is a basic spinner suitcase without a lot of bells and whistles. For instance, it has only two internal storage pockets, vs. four in the Samsonite that’s our top-rated bag. But it does have a few unique and endearing qualities.
• Like a mattress, you can try it out. Away allows customers a unique, 100-day trial period. That means you can schlep the bag across town for a sleepover or across the ocean for a grand tour and return it if you’re not satisfied—regardless of condition—no questions asked. Well, okay, there are some questions. You’ll have to answer those in an online form, return the suitcase in its original packaging, and ship it back to Away on your own dime.
• You’re covered for life (with caveats). Away’s limited lifetime warranty is unusually good for a luggage brand. If you find defects or “any functional damage to the shell, wheels, handles, zippers, or anything else that impairs your use of the luggage,” Away promises to fix or replace it for you—or replace it with something comparable if that model is no longer available. And that promise is good forever, the company says. But as with most luggage warranties, the “limited” part of Away’s warranty carries exceptions. For instance, to put in a warranty claim, you must be the original owner or gift recipient. And the bag must be purchased from the Away website or one of its walk-in stores—not through a reseller.
• You get a little luxury. Away covers the hinge between the bag’s clamshell sides with a leather panel, a nice touch. The included luggage tag also is leather, so it’s more likely to hold up over time than plastic. For $10 extra, Away will monogram your tag, and for $50 more it’ll do the same on the bag itself.
• You can save your old plastic bag. The Carry-On includes a nice-sized washable fabric laundry bag with a zipper top, a major improvement from the old CVS bag I’d been using. Also standard are a TSA-approved, integrated lock and a pocket and USB port for an electronic-device battery charger. (Away used to provide a charger with its carry-on, but no more.)
Bag in a bag. The Away laundry bag folds into a small side pocket when you’re not using it.
Photo: Tobie Stanger/Consumer Reports
How the Away Carry-On Did in Consumer Reports' Tests
The Away carry-on earned an Overall Score of Very Good in CR’s recent tests of 12 basic hard-shell spinner carry-ons from as many brands, at prices ranging from $70 to $800. To be specific, it sits in the middle of the pack (all the bags received Very Good ratings). In our battery of 31 different tests, the Away bag earned some raves and some “mehs”:
• It can take the hard knocks. Twice we swung a nasty-looking, 17-pound pointed metal hammer at the Away suitcase to see what would happen if, say, the bag accidentally fell from a plane’s overhead compartment onto an armrest. The Carry-On’s polycarbonate shell aced that and related tests, and earned an Excellent score for impact resistance.
• It’s a brick house, for the most part. We inflated the Away carry-on with an air bladder to simulate gross overstuffing. It held up well for this test and others gauging how well-built it was. So we gave its construction a Very Good rating. However, the Carry-On zipper did somewhat worse than average at keeping the suitcase contents dry when we lay the bag on its side and drenched it in a simulated rainstorm. (None of the tested bags kept items completely dry, so the lesson here is to make sure you wrap vulnerable contents in plastic!)
• Dimension-wise, it’s a mixed bag. At 7.4 pounds, this Away suitcase is one of the heavier carry-ons we tested; the lightest is 5.7 pounds. Unlike several other bags in our ratings, the Carry-On is not expandable in its midsection, and its interior volume is not as large as the four highest-rated models in our tests. But Away says it will fit in the overhead bins of most domestic and many foreign airlines, and our strict measurements confirm that’s probably true.
• It’s not the easiest bag to handle. This Away carry-on was only middling in our tests of carrying and pulling, ergonomics and design, and general usability. In one test, for instance, our testers pulled the suitcases over a variety of surfaces. On cobblestones—which you’ll find in, say, old sections of Prague, London, and even Manhattan—Away’s the Carry On was more wobbly than most tested bags, despite an “eight wheel” design incorporating two thin wheels at each corner of its base.
• It’s not so adaptable. The Away carry-on’s telescoping handle, used for pulling the bag in transit, has only two positions—vs. six for our top-rated Samsonite—so you can’t tailor its height as well as you might like. Its stationary top handle also doesn’t adjust upward as some other brands’ handles do, so it might be tight for chubby fingers.
Getting a grip. The Carry-On’s handle feels a little tighter than those of some other bags.
Photo: Tobie Stanger/Consumer Reports
How Much Can the Away Carry-On Hold?
Away says the Carry-On is meant for about five days’ worth of clothes and accessories. And if you follow avid travelers’ advice, you know that a small, basic wardrobe—plus some travel packs of Woolite—can often hold you for many more days, and even weeks. It’s a commendable trait to be a minimalist traveler: carrying light, free of all but necessities.
But that’s not me. If I can cram more stuff in, I do it. Because, well, you never know.
I wanted to put the Carry-On through my own packing trial, which involved more stuff than our testers used. I was planning a late-summer, weeklong trip to northern California, which can be torrid or chilly, depending on where you are. So it was the perfect time to test how much this hardy bag could hold.
CR’s tests indicated it probably could meet the challenge. I had to be convinced.
My packing list. I’m no minimalist.
Photo: Tobie Stanger/Consumer Reports
Away the Carry-On. Let the packing begin.
Photo: Tobie Stanger/Consumer Reports
The company’s included instructions suggest placing squishable stuff in the right shell, where it can be compressed by a flat panel that you can tighten with straps. (The panel has a handy pocket on top that I also put to use, as you’ll see farther down.) Bulky stuff that can’t be compressed goes in the left shell, under a mesh, zippered cover. Following best packing practices, I rolled as many items as I could (saving some delicate items to lay flat on top later).
The right side gets big, rolled-up squishables (pants, long-sleeved shirts, undies, PJs), with smaller items (polos, tank tops, scarves) filling in the gaps.
Photo: Tobie Stanger/Consumer Reports
Experts say not to roll delicate items, and Mom says to always bring a sweater. So those get placed on top.
Photo: Tobie Stanger/Consumer Reports
Bulkies go on the left. (In these dry times, packing an umbrella for California is an act of faith.)
Photo: Tobie Stanger/Consumer Reports
Room for reading material. Away says you also can use the compression-panel pocket for a laptop or tablet.
Photo: Tobie Stanger/Consumer Reports
Almost done. Could I also fit my beloved Long Beach Island hoodie?
Photo: Consumer Reports
Yes! The hoodie fit, but the fleece jacket would need to be carried or worn.
Photo: Tobie Stanger/Consumer Reports
So, Is Away the Carry-On Worth It?
I’d say yes. If you’re looking for a sturdy, basic, on-trend carry-on spinner that isn’t likely to be turned away at the gate because of size or overstuffing, you’ll find one in the Away the Carry-On. If you’re creative with packing—for instance, trading bulky fabric toiletry bags for thin, utilitarian zipped plastic bags as I do—you can fit a fair amount into this suitcase’s little shell. To be sure, it’s not inexpensive. But given its resilience—and its generous warranty—the Carry-On probably will become unfashionable long before it becomes unusable.
If you prioritize finances and packing flexibility over fashion, you also can look to our ratings to find well-built, lower-priced bags with more convenience features, including expanding middles, more interior pockets, and handles with several telescoping options.
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