The Front-Opening Convert: Notes From Three Airports

I was standing in the TSA PreCheck line at LaGuardia's Terminal B, laptop bag zipped shut, cinnamon roll going cold in my other hand, when the guy in front of me had to fully unzip his top-loader and dig past three shirts to find his MacBook. The line stopped. Twenty people behind him sighed in unison. I'd made that same person out of myself at O'Hare eighteen months earlier, and I remember thinking: I am done top-loading my laptop compartment. That was the morning I started shopping for a front-opening carry-on in earnest.

I've owned seven boarding-size bags since 2019, which is either a sign of loyalty problems or just what happens when you fly 80-some segments a year and stay in hotels a third of the nights. Away got me first, then it fell out of favor after a wheel went soft near the Hyatt Regency loading dock in Denver — not a defect, just cheap pavement luck, but it soured me anyway. Travelpro's Maxlite 5 became my workhorse after that: boring, light, around $140, and it never once made me late for a gate. But the top-load laptop pocket kept bugging me on quick single-city trips, the kind where I'm through TSA and back out in eleven minutes if the bag cooperates.

So when a front-opening case from Level8 showed up for testing, the Carry-On Pro, front pocket version — I ran it the way I run everything: three actual trips, not a living room fondle. Denver to Minneapolis and back for a client kickoff. A one-night turn to Reagan National for a board meeting. Then a longer one, MSP to Charlotte with a connection, where I had ninety minutes to make a gate change and needed the laptop out fast for the second checkpoint.

The front-opening panel is the whole pitch and it delivers. It opens all the way up like a book laying flat, and the padded slot fit my bulky work laptop without a problem, leaving enough room for a tablet plus a portable speaker and its charging cable. At the second DCA checkpoint I had the laptop out before the bin even hit the belt. That's the entire point of a front-opening design and this one nails it. The wheels stayed steady across the long polished floors at the Charlotte terminal, rolling straight without pulling toward the wall the way my old Samsonite always did near baggage claim.

Here's the complaint, and people aren't exaggerating: the zipper pull on the main compartment snapped clean off on the Charlotte leg. The zipper track kept running fine, but the little rubber tab you grip broke away from its metal loop on day two, and for every remaining day of the trip I had to work it open with a fingernail. I've talked to other Level8 owners since who had the exact same failure, on the exact same style of pull, which tells me it's not a one-bag fluke. The internal straps also feel a notch softer than what Travelpro or my old Samsonite used — nothing structural gave way, but I noticed it packing shoes into the corners.

Worth flagging separately: I did not test a checked case here, but Level8's size specs run close to the wire. A few of their models sit right around 22 x 14.5 x 10 inches, and Delta's and United's sizers cap out at 22 x 14 x 9. Check the dimensions ahead of time if you're flying internationally on a partner carrier, since my coworker got charged roughly $50 right at check-in for a similar oversized front-pocket bag from a different brand, and it ruined her connection buffer in Amsterdam.

Who's this for? If you're a laptop-out-fast flyer, consultants, sales reps, anyone doing same-day turns through TSA more than twice a week, the front-opening layout earns its keep in a way a top-loader never will. If you're a once-a-quarter vacation packer who cares more about hauling four days of clothes than clearing security fast, skip it; the front panel eats interior volume you'd rather have for shirts.

Quick FAQ, since people ask me this in DMs constantly:

Is Level8 cheaply made? No, the shell and wheels held up fine across three trips. The frame holds up fine, it's the little tab on the zipper that gives out first.

Are the zippers going to give out the very first time you take it for a spin? Sometimes, based on what I've seen and heard. Mine held for two trips before the pull failed.

Is it actually worth the price tag? This one really only pays off when you're regularly digging into that front compartment. Around $225 for a case you unzip twice a week is a fair trade; for occasional flyers, get the Maxlite 5 instead.

Does the handle stick? Never had that issue on this one. A bottom grab handle would still be nice, though, my old bag had one and I miss it.

I'm still carrying the Level8 case three weeks later, mostly out of stubbornness and because the zipper track itself hasn't failed. My wife thinks I'm insane for owning eight carry-ons in a house with two closets. She's not wrong. Next month I'm running it through Denver's C concourse in January weather, which is the real test, slush, jammed jet bridges, and gate agents who do not care about your zipper pull. I'll update if it holds.