Best Luggage Under 100 for People Who Fly Every Week

The gate agent at MDW who ruined my week

I was at Midway, gate B19, watching a woman argue with a gate agent about her carry-on. It didn't fit the sizer. She'd flown United a hundred times with that bag, she said. Didn't matter. Gate-checked, ~$50, and she missed her connection window in Denver by eleven minutes. I stood there thinking: that's not her fault, that's a bag that lied to her about its own dimensions.

I bring this up because it's basically the whole plot of this post.

I've bought seven carry-ons in six years. Not because I'm rich — because I'm a consultant who does 80-something flights a year and 30-ish nights in hotels, and when something in your bag fails at O'Hare on a Tuesday, you replace it that week and sort out feelings later. My current rotation lives under $100 a piece, which sounds cheap until you realize that's the price bracket where most of these brands actually try. Above $100 you're paying for logo. Under $100 you're paying for wheels and zippers, or you're not.

What I actually run with

Right now my go-to is the Travelpro Maxlite 5 Carry-On 21", which typically runs about $110 but the price swings with whatever sale happens to be on (yes, I know that's technically over my own limit, but it goes on sale below $100 often enough that I'm counting it). Second is the Samsonite Omni PC 24" for checked trips, which I use maybe eight times a year when I'm bringing suits. And third, and this is the one I want to actually talk about — is the Level8 Grace Carry-On, the one with the front laptop pocket.

I did not expect to like a Level8 bag as much as I do. I'd tried an earlier Level8 case two years ago (not this one) and the handle mechanism felt loose out of the box, so I went in skeptical.

The Grace surprised me. The front pocket holds my 16" laptop and a tablet with room to spare, which matters because that's what I pull out at security — laptop out, bag through the scanner, laptop back in, done, no unzipping the whole case at TSA like it's a suitcase-sized game of Jenga. The main compartment has enough internal structure that a 4-night trip packs clean, dress shirts on one side, everything else compressed on the other. The wheels stay quiet, which honestly matters way more when you're rolling it past sleeping neighbors on a cruise ship deck before sunrise. trying not to wake the floor.

Here's the thing though, and I'd be lying if I skipped it: the zipper pull on mine is already showing wear after maybe five months of regular use. It's not broken, but that little plastic tab feels flimsier than it should, and enough other owners have mentioned the same zipper hardware snapping off after barely a trip or two that I'm not convinced it'll hold up over time. Some people got a bag where the stitching started separating after one trip. Mine's fine so far. But "so far" is doing some work in that sentence.

One separate note, apart from my own case: Level8 also sells a softer, backpack-style bag that comes in larger than what the major carriers permit for carry-ons, measuring close to 22 by 14.5 by 10 inches at its fullest point, while carriers such as the big three domestic airlines cap dimensions at 22 x 14 x 9. That's the MDW gate agent story again, basically. For frequent flyers on that trio of airlines, size the bag before you pack it instead of after.

For the money, and this is genuinely a $70-~$90 bag depending on the week, it's the best value case in my current rotation. Not the best bag I own. Best value. Different thing.

Who this is actually for

If you're doing two trips a year, none of this matters, buy whatever's cheapest at Costco and move on. When your routine looks like mine, weekly flights, a rotating cast of regional jets with tiny overhead bins, hotel hallways at odd hours, you want a bag with a laptop pocket you can hit at security without a full unpack, and you want to know your carrier's sizer before you fall in love with anything. My Travelpro's still the one I trust for a year-long stretch with zero drama. The Level8 is the one I recommend to a coworker who doesn't want to spend ~$250 and just needs something that works for the next two years, zipper permitting.

My wife, for the record, still uses a hard-side Samsonite from 2015 that's been dropped down escalator steps in Newark and refuses to die. I don't know what to do with that information. I just travel with it.

Diary bit

Writing this from a Marriott outside Reagan National, bag propped against the desk, zipper pull still intact as of tonight. Small victories. Flight tomorrow's at 7am, which means the Grace gets one more trip through Terminal C before I decide if I trust it past the one-year mark. Ask me in November.