I bought my Aeronaut in 2014. Since then, it's traveled to every continent except Antarctica, spent lots of weekends at my mom's house, and ferried gym clothes to and from work a billion times. It still looks brand new, and I am not easy on my belongings. The interior is some kind of magical clown car -- the challenge with this bag isn't running out of room, it's making sure you don't shove so much stuff into it that you can't carry it anymore. I have a pile of packing cubes, which makes it easy to live out of this bag no matter how much you've crammed into it -- I usually don't bother unpacking, as it's easy enough to just grab the cubes out of the main compartment. I almost always wear it as a backpack; I bought the hip strap last year, which is nice but not essential unless you're carrying really heavy loads. Wearing it as a backpack also distracts gate agents from checking its weight -- it looks so reasonably sized when you're wearing it, even if it's full of bricks. I've yet to be forced to check this bag. (Maybe I shouldn't jinx this bag.)

I tell everyone about this bag. I watch videos of people packing their Aeronauts on YouTube just for fun. It's the best bag for people who travel like me: you can run through the airport with it, you can hold it on your lap on overnight bus trips, you can use it as a pillow when you have to sleep on a dock, you can carry it up ten flights of stairs, and you'll look sort of professional the whole time. What a win.

I am 5’ tall and don’t weigh that much, backpacks are extremely hard to find and fit. The compact size of the Aeronaut is almost a perfect fit. Off season travelling requires rain ware, warm clothes and light clothes. It all fits! I am also the family Sherpa most of the pharmacy goes in my bag, sunscreen, laundry detergent, hydration packs… still fits. I have even succeeded to carry 4 pairs of shoes.

Now, please create a super light convertible day backpack that can become a purse (like a mail bag). This way I can get on the plane with two items my Aeronaut on my back and the purse in the front. When backpacks are not allowed in the museum change over to the purse by hiding the straps. Going out for supper… switch to purse. Walking in an open air market switch to backpack. I am sure you can create the ultimate bag.

I originally bought the Aeronaut 45 for a trip to Italy. It's been around the US, Canada and Europe and has also been my daily gym bag for most of the past 10 years. There is very little wear after all of that time. Stitching is still strong. All of the hardware is working in good shape.

Each time I travel with a soft carry-on this one wins out because it's the perfect size for a week of clothes. I've fit it on European trains and small overhead bins.

The best feature is a dedicated shoe compartment. The boxy shape makes packing easy and has only a few, useful pockets. Shoes on the left, rolled clothes in the middle and smaller items on the right and I'm done. The zippered sleeve takes longer items like tickets easily with a passport, and the non-zipper sleeve will take a small water bottle. The grab handles on the ends have proven to be amazingly useful. If needed, I slide my laptop into the strap storage pocket, and it's better protected than some of my dedicated laptop bags.

The bag will collapse when it only has a few items in it. I use other bags when I have a small number of items to carry, so I usually don't have this problem. The new models feature an optional back panel to fix that problem.

This bag is an excellent value. It was expensive but it has given me more use than any other bag.

I've had my Aeronaut for more than a dozen years, and I've taken it on hundreds of trips (both business and personal), and yet it shows very little wear. I've used it so much that my average Aeronaut cost per travel day is somewhere between a dime and a quarter.

For me, this bag hits the sweet spot between a big, open duffel bag and a highly structured bag with lots of small organizing pockets. The open space in the center allows you to pack some large things if you need to--the most unusual cargo I can recall carrying on an airline is the large free-form bowl my dad carved out of a mesquite burl back in the 1960's. On the other hand, it has just enough pockets to provide some structure and to be my home away from home.

I always pack mine in the same way. I set the bag down with the handle towards me. That way, when I unzip the main flap, it flops towards me. My CPAP machine and socks go in the right, toiletries and underwear on the left. Outer clothes and a pair of sandals/shower shoes in the center, a light and other electronics, etc. in the flap pocket. For air travel, my documents go in a passport pouch in the end pocket. Magazines/newspaper/full-size document folders (rarely carried) go in the backpack strap pocket (be careful converting to backpack mode--they will go flying if you whip out the straps!). A wet umbrella or rolled rain jacket slides under the handle.

Everything you need to pack for your trip -regardless of length- will fit in the Aeronaut 45. This bag was the only one I traveled with, including an empty small day bag inside, for while at my destination.

I never owned previous models, so I cannot make a comparison to the previous iteration of shoulder straps, but these edgeless straps were extremely comfortable.

I was amazed at how much I could fit into the Aeronaut 45. The main compartment had a stuffed Western Flyer Packing Cube, along with several other medium and large pouches for electronics, cables, and miscellaneous items. I also threw in my MacBook Pro 13” and iPad Pro 11” with Apple Keyboard in the main compartment. The side compartments were perfect for shoes, and additional items of clothes. The zippered pockets at both ends housed earphones, and several small pouches.

Because of how much this bag can fit, it can definitely get heavy, especially you one-bag it. Additionally, being 5’7” it felt like I was backpacking when roaming around the airports. This is when cinching the shoulder straps to the appropriate fit, plus cinching the sternum strap tightly helped immensely with distributing the weight much better.

One-bag traveling with the Aeronaut 45 -as packed as it was- beats traveling with a duffle bag, which I have done several times. The Aeronaut 45 on your back is infinitely more comfortable than carrying a duffle bag around airports and/or public transportation.

One thing I will add is that the…