Tray Tables and Time Zones

The Ramble: A Review of Away Luggage

• Josh Bogle

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 21:09

Ready to step up your travel game? This episode is packed with practical insights, as I share my personal travel luggage strategy that prioritizes convenience and mobility. Discover why a combination of a backpack and a carry-on suitcase might just change the way you travel. I'll also dive into a review of my Away aluminum suitcase, highlighting its durability and reliability over six years of adventures, despite a pesky lock issue. 

But that's not all! This episode is a celebration of our growing community of travel enthusiasts. Your support has fueled our journey, and I invite you to keep sharing the podcast and leaving reviews to help us reach even more listeners. Together, let's build a vibrant community that thrives on shared travel experiences and insights. Whether you're a seasoned traveler or just getting started, Tray Tables and Time Zones aims to enhance your adventures, making every trip more enjoyable and hassle-free. Let's embark on this journey together and continue making memories across the globe.

Josh

Hey everyone, welcome back to TradeT Tables and Time Zones. I'm your host, Josh Bogle, and this is the Ramble. As some of you know by now, the Ramble episodes are episodes where we take a little bit of time to share reviews of all things travel, from airlines and hotels to electronics and luggage. We talk about it and review it. But today, before we get started, I wanted to share a little bit of news and say thank you. First off, we recently crossed 100 downloads of the Trade Tables and Time Zones podcast. That's a huge milestone in the infancy of this little podcast, and I cannot tell you how proud I am and how thankful I am to everyone that has taken the time out of their day to listen to my podcast. I love travel and I love sharing that travel and those experiences with people. I not only want to build a community of like-minded people that love to travel, but I also want to hopefully encourage others that don't necessarily travel that much to get out there and really experience all that this world has to offer. So again, to everyone that has taken the time to listen so far, I am so very thankful for you doing so and very much hope that you will continue to listen on into the future as we continue to grow and build the podcast. And lastly, to the ones that have sent me notes or reached out in some way to tell me that they've enjoyed the podcast so far. I cannot thank you enough because those words of encouragement mean more than you can ever imagine. I am inspired by them, I'm motivated by them and it's just been a real joy to get to read those. So to everyone that has taken part in this little podcast so far, I say thank you. You all are the absolute best, the OGs of this podcast. I'm the luckiest guy in the world for having you all as listeners. So please continue to listen, continue to tell your friends and family about the podcast, especially if they're into travel, and share the show whenever you can. And I do have one little request that I hope you all are willing to do, and that is to rate and review the podcast on Apple podcast, on Spotify, on wherever you listen to podcasts and can leave a review. You can't imagine how much those five-star ratings and an actual written review means to the podcast. It helps it move up in the searches and helps it be found more easily and helps us reach more people that may not necessarily know about it yet. So if you could take a few minutes and leave a rating and a review, I would greatly appreciate it. So, again, thank you everyone. Here's to the next hundred downloads and to many, many, many more after that.

Josh

Now to today's ramble. Of course, as you guys know by now, the ramble is more of a short episode that does some reviews, looks at you know all things travel right, whether it's gear or hotels, or restaurants, or travel equipment, electronics, all those types of things you know, things that I've used and that I think would be a good idea to use, or things that I've used and I really didn't like, and so that's going to be another one of these episodes today, and today we're going to talk about luggage and, specifically, the review. Part of this episode is going to be about the suitcase that I carry every time I travel, without fail. It's been with me since, I think, 2018, and I love it, and so, just a heads up, I'm going to highly recommend it, not only this particular model, but also this brand. This episode, by the way, is not supported or an advertisement for this brand or anything. I have no affiliation with them. It's just a product that I use and I really like. So just a heads up there that I get nothing from saying good things or bad things about this brand. So you know it's. This is my honest review.

Josh

So luggage is kind of a divisive thing within the world of travel, right, I mean, everybody has their own way of doing it. Do you carry big suitcases and check them? Do you carry small suitcases and carry on? Do you carry a backpack? Do you only carry a backpack? Do you carry a backpack as your carry-on and then check your bags? Or do you carry a backpack and then have a carry-on piece of luggage as well? You can do it a million different ways. I've tried, I swear just about every one of them, and there's some that I absolutely despise and there's some that have worked out better than others. And then there's what I basically do now for every bit of my travel, regardless of the distance, minus a few specific situations.

Josh

So I go with a backpack and a carry-on piece of luggage. I find that works the best for me. I can get most of my clothes into the suitcase, especially for traveling like in the US and even overseas. I like to travel light. You know I'm not opposed to washing clothes while I'm traveling, so I don't mind carrying of clothes with me to have that mobility. And the smaller bags and just you know, handle washing some clothes here and there as needed as I travel, right. And then I obviously want the backpack, because you know I carry headphones and sometimes a computer, but definitely cameras and video cameras and battery packs and lots of gear, right? So I want to have all that stuff with me as well.

Josh

So I kind of pick an in-between backpack that can easily be carried on as a personal item but also be big enough that it can carry all that gear and then when I use it when I'm in a city or something like that, it's easy, it's easily a day pack as well, right? So it's got to be multi-purpose. It can't just fit one thing and that's kind of how I look at backpacks for travel is that it's it's got to be multi-purpose, man, I've got to be able to use it for multiple situations. I don't want to carry the same thing all the time, or I want to be able to carry the same bag for multiple uses, whether I'm in transit or I'm at the location that I'm going to be staying at. So right now I'm actually in between backpacks. I'm using a backpack that I hike with as my carry-on slash travel backpack, because I haven't found the right one yet. I'm still looking, I'm still reading about some, and recently my technology and electronics carry-on stuff has increased a little bit with a drone and things like that. So you know it's still got to function for multiple things. So I'm in between right now and I've got to find a new one, but I just haven't found that right fit yet.

Josh

As far as the carry-ons go and carry-on size, you know I try to get a bag that will work as a carry-on internationally as well, right? Some airlines in the United States have a little bit bigger allowance as far as a carry-on piece of luggage than like a budget carrier in Europe or a budget carrier in Asia. Examples would be like EasyJet or Ryanair or AirAsia or Bangkok Airways or Jetstar Some of those you know budget airlines that I like to use when I'm in those regions because it's a really pretty economical way to get around, you know, to different places within those regions quickly, easily and cheaply, right, but I don't want to, you know, lose the benefit of paying that value price by having to pay for a bunch of luggage as well. So you know I try to get a bag that will work everywhere. So far this bag has it's. You know it's worked out perfectly for every airline I've flown on. No one's thrown a fit about the size. You know it's never been an issue at all and I've carried it pretty much all over the world.

Josh

And so to you know, to get to what I'm talking about here, I carry the Away aluminum suitcase and it's the carry-on size. My wife got it for me as a Christmas present because I've always loved that aluminum look. Right, the Ramoa kind of style of bag. I love those. I think they look sharp and I love being able to put stickers of the locations I've traveled to on there. And I do that. Right, my, my bag is covered in stickers from all over, right, and I love that. Look, I think it's really kind of it's fun. It's a cool way to document your travels. It seems like almost every time I get on a plane, somebody usually the flight attendants actually make a comment about how much they like it.

Josh

At this point in time I've had it for five, six years. It's dented and scraped and beat up, which gives it character, right. It actually it shows it's been used. I love that. I think it just gives that air of hey, this is not a piece of luggage that I'm just leaving in the closet all the time and babysitting. It's getting used, right and abused and it just takes it.

Josh

And that's what I'm going to say is, this has been really the first piece of luggage I've ever owned that has given me very little problems. It just works right. It never busts open. It always holds everything I want it to hold. You know, I've never had problems with the handle, the slide up handle that you that you pull it behind. It's got wheels on all four corners, so it's you know. You can roll it standing up or you can tip it over on two wheels and it works either way. Even after all this time of dragging it across cobblestone streets and dirt roads and everything else, the wheels still roll beautifully right. No issue there. It just works right.

Josh

It's just a fabulous piece of luggage, because I've had some really shit luggage before, you know, and the zippers will bust, or the locks will break, or the handle will break, or the wheels will break, and you know, at that point you're almost looking at luggage as a disposable item, right, you know you use it for a little while and throw it away, and I didn't want that. So when the idea of this bag coming available, I remember talking to my wife about it and saying you know how much I loved it, and I think that's probably where she got the idea to get it for me. But either way, fantastic bag and I would recommend it for anybody. The only issue I've had with it so far has been one of the locks sticks a little bit. Right, I know it's from overuse or from use, but it sticks. The way the latches work on this aluminum suitcase is it's two locks, right, it's two clamps and so those clamp in and then, where it's got a button that you would push to release the clamp, anyway, one of those sticks a little bit and you kind of have to finagle it to get it to work. Sometimes it does do it all the time, but it does do it, you know, pretty consistently.

Josh

And here's the one real gripe with Away. So it's got a limited lifetime warranty right Against parts not working and things like that. So when I first discovered this issue with the lock I was like, oh great, call Away, you know or reach out to them, and there's actually an away store here and where I live and so I could take it there if I needed to, or I could ship it to them or whatever. They would fix it. Ship it back, problem solved, no big deal.

Josh

Turns out you have to have the original proof of purchase, so like the receipt from when you bought it Well, I got it as a gift for Christmas I don't have the receipt. My wife doesn't have the receipt anymore. You know, it's like six years old, seven years old. I mean the receipt's gone. I mean, right, it went into the trash or went into the delete box in my wife's email a long time ago and so I don't have that to prove that. I guess I originally bought it or my wife originally bought it and that were the original owners of the suitcase.

Josh

So they won't fix it under the warranty, which, look, I kind of understand. I mean, I know you just can't be out there fixing them for everybody that's got it third hand and whatever. But as a what I would consider a pretty loyal customer, and having this bag and having used it for as long as I have it shows its longevity, you know, I wish they would make an exception or find a way around that to get it fixed, because I know there's going to be other issues that are going to come up. I mean, the bag has been used forever. I mean I think six years is a long time for luggage, considering how much I travel. Right, if it was just you know you use your luggage once or twice a year, then yeah okay, there's no real reason for anything to happen. But this bag gets used a lot and so I wish they would fix that, because as it gets older I know there's going to be other issues that I'm not going to necessarily want to have to continually pay out of pocket to fix. At some point it's going to be diminishing returns and it's just going to make more sense to get another bag than to fix issues. But that would be a different story if I knew that I could send it to a way and fix it. So that's my kind of bitch about the warranty. Like I said, I understand they have to have, you know, rules and guidelines within the warranty. I just, you know selfishly, I guess I wish they would take care of their, their customers that are longtime customers, repeat customers, because this isn't the only away bag we now own.

Josh

Because of this bag and how good it is. We've got two more. My wife has the bigger carry on size and it's the hard side, but it's the plastic composite hard side, right the traditional bag that they they started out with, and and that one just hard side, but it's the plastic composite hard side, right the traditional bag that they started out with and that one just as well. My wife doesn't travel quite as much as I do and she doesn't use that one quite as much as I do, but she has traveled with it quite a bit and I think she's had that for probably at least four years. Again, no issues whatsoever, never had any problem at all. And then we have a bigger I think it's their large size of the same composite hard side, but the composite, not the aluminum, that we use as a checked bag when we're, you know, like if it's a family trip and we've got us and our kids as well, then yeah, then I'll check that bag.

Josh

That one has traveled around quite a bit. We've only had that one for a couple of years, maybe three years, and again, no issues whatsoever. The zippers work really well. The zipper locks you know, the TSA locks on it work great, the wheels work great. Like I said, I've never run into a shit build on this bag. It's always been super good. I can't speak for, you know, I think they make some smaller like a duffel bag, backpack kind of things. I can't speak for any of those, but for the specific luggage side of it the carry-ons that we have and then the checked bag we have fantastic, can't recommend them enough.

Josh

I would suggest that bag and have suggested that bag to a lot of people that you know are just starting out traveling more and more and is looking for a bag to be able to rely on when they travel. That's not going out and buying a bag that costs, you know, $1,500 or whatever. Right, I mean, there's no doubt that aways are a little bit more expensive than going down to you know your local department store or going on Amazon and buying a lesser brand or a no-name brand bag. But you know, and that makes sense, if you travel, maybe you know, like I said, once or twice a year, maybe you don't need a bag of this quality and of this cost, but if you travel more than just a couple of times, it's going to pay itself off in spades because it's so reliable. You're not going to be one of those people with a busted suitcase at the at the conveyor belt and baggage claim, or you know you're going to be able to drag it down the airport, you know, and never have any issues with the wheels or anything like that.

Josh

Like I said, I uh I worked the my away bag over pretty hard and it's never failed me. So yeah, I mean shit. That's really all I've got to say about it. It's a damn good bag company. From everything I've seen, you know I'd like to be able to say that the warranty is great and that it holds up, but I have no idea because I can't use it. But other than that, the build quality so far has been fantastic. I've never had an issue. The longevity has never been an issue. All three of the bags we have from them have lasted a long time so far and to multiple trips.

Josh

So if you're looking for a suitcase whether it's a carry-on suitcase, or you need a bigger bag that you can check, that will require to be checked, or even if you're not using it for flying, if you're using it for road trips or however you travel. Man, I can't recommend aways enough. They're great bags and I think they would have something that would work for pretty much everybody. On the backpack side, like I said earlier, I'm still looking. I have no ideas. Slash, daypack, slash, you know, electronics camera kind of bag that you really enjoy using. Shoot me an email the email is in the description of the episode or, you know, reach out on like Instagram or mention it in the reviews If you want to do that. I would love to hear about them. I'll reach out to you and find out about them Because, like I said, I have three backpacks right now.

Josh

That are all my hiking bags, you know, for different situations, but they're not great for carry-ons. There's not enough little pockets here and there to put your wallet and your passport and all that crap. They just don't work for that. So the one I'm using right now it's not really a long-term solution for a backpack. So if you guys have any suggestions, I would love to hear them, because I will definitely check out the bags and then I'll tell you what. I'll make a decision. I'll buy the bag and then I'll come back on a later ramble and I'll tell you whether I like it or whether I think it's a piece of shit.

Josh

So, anyway, thanks everybody for listening to the ramble today. Thank you so much for all of the listens, all of the support. It's it's fantastic. I'm loving doing the podcast. I want to keep doing it and you guys are the ones that are really making this happen because of all the listens and passing that 100 downloads was such a huge, huge thing for me. Hopefully we can continue this thing and keep going and just start building on those downloads and we'll get more listeners and we'll continue to build this awesome little travel community that we're working on and be able to help each other out and make everybody's travel and everybody's adventures better and easier because of this podcast. So, again, thanks to everyone. Enjoy your travel, stay safe, check us out on social media rate and review and I will talk to you on the next episode. Thanks, guys. Outro Music.

Head Shot

Josh Bogle

Host