Away Carry-On Flex Review

It’s the last day of your trip. You’ve picked out the best photos to share later on social media. The last grains of beach sand have been shaken out of your hair (hopefully). Even the hotel mini fridge has been thoroughly emptied from last night’s ill-thought-out peckishness—it happens to the best of us, don’t worry. The only problem now is that you can no longer fit everything in your carry on luggage, including your new souvenir shirts (it’s always the souvenir shirts).

This is why the Away Carry-On Flex makes sense to us. It’s a carry on luggage with extra space in reserve in case you need it. Pack it full before your trip and expand it once you’ve loaded up with whatever vacation goodies you’ve decided to bring back. Or, you know, in case you get lazy with folding used clothing and simply toss them inside. We promise not to judge, so if you find that functionality interesting, read on.

External Components

If the Carry-On Flex looks familiar, you’ve most likely already seen our review of the Away Carry-On. But for those who haven’t, check out how sleek this is in Olive Green. Yes, the shape and the ribbed design aren’t exactly ground-breaking by carry on standards, but Away does their best to keep it classy with a matte finish and tasteful branding tucked away at the top right corner. Other colorways are available, including two that will appeal to those who want to stand out: Tango Red and Sorbet Orange.

The main material is a 100% polycarbonate shell, which is a fancy way of saying plastic, but it is a relatively strong type of plastic. Plenty of carry on luggage consists of this material, and it holds up well to tossing it into trunks, overhead bins, and even the occasional rough baggage handlers. Its real weakness is scratches, and it can get a lot of those when it scrapes on rough surfaces or fixtures with sharp corners. There’s a scuff remover that comes included, but it’s more for removing dirt marks, paint, or rubber that transfers from other materials; unfortunately, it doesn’t heal or buff out deep scratches.

Speaking of stuff that came with the Carry-On Flex, there’s also a good old-fashioned luggage tag. It’s as analog as it gets, requiring you to bust out the mighty pen so you can write your contact information. At least it’s readily visible and not so well-integrated that would-be finders would miss it entirely. Also included is a laundry bag, so you don’t have to repurpose one of your packing cubes by the end of your trip.

One of our chief complaints about the regular Away Carry-On is that the indented zipper track in the middle made the two halves feel floaty, and the entire thing flexed when you pushed both halves together. There’s a similar setup here, even down to the same YKK zippers, but now there’s also an extra zipper track for the expansion system. You’d think having two zipper tracks would exacerbate that floaty feeling, but no. If anything, the expansion system’s zipper track helps make everything feel more rigid because it’s more taut than the main compartment’s zipper track. Overall, we’re much happier with how much more solid the Carry-On Flex is than the regular Carry-On.

By the way, don’t worry about sourcing your own TSA-approved lock, because the Carry-On Flex already has one built in. Simply insert both of the main zippers’ tabs into the small slots, scramble the combination, and you’re good to go.

As for handles, there’s one at the top, one on the side, and one at the bottom. The top and side handles are these low-profile types that look too flat to grab. However, they expand once you pull on them, providing a comfortable amount of room for your hand to fit through. They’re unpadded yet comfortable enough for those quick-grab moments when taking the Carry-On Flex out of a trunk or an overhead bin. Meanwhile, the bottom handle is more of a scoop you can hook your hand into to slide the Carry-On Flex across surfaces.

The telescoping handle only has two levels of adjustment. It’s not a lot, barely meeting the definition of plurality. However, it’s also the minimum needed if you’re only after two movement styles: an angled one where the Carry-On Flex will be trailing you or the kind where it’s rolling on all four sets of wheels right by your side. The handle itself is triangular and not necessarily ergonomic, but we’re just glad it doesn’t feel plasticky. The locking mechanism feels quite solid and smooth as well. It can lock the handle’s level in place, but it’s also not creaky when we release it.

Fit Notes

There’s not a lot to complain about how the Away Carry-On Flex rolls around. There’s a bit of wiggle and play on the handle, but not enough to be out of the norm for most carry on luggage. It also looks sleek and professional, so standing beside it at a busy terminal isn’t exactly embarrassing, nor does it make us self-conscious.

As simple as they may look, the four sets of wheels also roll with relative ease along most surfaces we encountered. They’ll still visibly jiggle and shake if you run them through rough concrete, and you will feel that through the handle. Again, though, that’s expected of most carry on luggage. Similarly, rolling the Carry-On Flex along carpeted and tiled floors is a smooth experience.

Inside The Carry On Luggage

At its base configuration (as in not expanded), the Carry-On Flex has a capacity of 39.8 liters. It’s not a small amount by any means, and it’s honestly a lot if you’re looking to pack for a week-long trip with rolls of pants, shorts, and packing cubes of your best summer-ready tops—and, of course, underwear. All that goes on the left side, where a huge bucket space is ready to accommodate them. There’s an included compression pad on this side, too, by the way.

The compression pad is notably different from the regular Away Carry-On’s as its mesh pocket is not split into two areas. Instead, it’s a large mesh pocket for all your small accessories. We wish they kept it as two so we can better organize our gear, but it’s not a huge loss in the grand scheme of things. The compression pad is also entirely removable, though we dig how it’s easy to unbuckle and flip to the other side, so we opted to keep using it for the duration of our tests.

At the bottom is a very small pocket where you can pack the included laundry bag. There’s not much to say about this, but the fact that there’s a pocket specifically designed for the laundry bag is encouraging. Away went even as far as tethering the laundry bag with a snap-fastened strap. It means it’s not just an afterthought inclusion of surplus laundry bags; they designed this carry on with that amenity in mind.

It’s worth noting that it’s the right bucket space that gets roomier when you use the expansion system, adding 6.9 liters of space for a total of 46.7 liters. More importantly, though, while using the expansion system affords you more space in case you pick up extra gear during your trip (or if you’re too lazy to re-fold used clothing), it also might impact carry-on compliance. Furthermore, the added volume brings back some of that floaty feeling we got with the original Away Carry-On since there’s more weight bearing down along the zipper track.

On the right side is another bucket space separated by a zippered mesh partition. Plenty of carry on luggage has a partition like this where we typically pack any extra pouches, toiletry bags, and a shoe pouch. You can also pack extra clothing in here, of course. But all of this is to say that there’s plenty of room to work with.

Interestingly, Away is somewhat conservative with its estimates, saying that the Away Carry-On Flex is good for a three- to five-day trip with five to eight outfits fitting in total. Maybe we’re just too good at packing, but we can easily squeeze a week’s worth of clothing in here without using the expansion system. In general, there’s simply no shortage of space, and it’s best to leave the extra expansion for additional gear acquired during your trip.