The New York Times - The best luggage for checking

It has become an object of pride for some travelers that they never check a bag. I’m Wirecutter’s senior staff writer covering travel and I still fall into this trap myself—carrying everything I need and testing the limits of carry-on allowances. It turns me into a strange, sometimes vicious person, making competitors of my fellow passengers locked in a struggle for precious overhead real estate. But paranoid and isolated is no way to board a plane.

‌

May I suggest a better, unencumbered way: Check every bag, eagerly and with joy. Lighten your heart, and your back, as you watch your bags disappear down a conveyor belt of serpentine circuitry. May the complexity of their journey further underscore the simplicity of your own. Call it the ABCs of air travel: Always Be Checkin’.

‌

At the heart of all this is, of course, the fear that we—or more specifically someone else—will lose our stuff. But this is a fear not based in reality; the statistical risk of losing your bag hovers somewhere just below the 1 percent mark. (If you really want peace of mind though, our experts suggest keeping tabs on your luggage with a Bluetooth tracker.)

‌

More compelling, perhaps: Moving around without heavy luggage is a chance to start your journey off in a better state. I’ve floated through airports with nothing but a phone, a ticket, headphones, and a passport, and it feels, every time, transcendent. It’s a lightness of spirit gifted to me by the invisible apparatus of people and machinery that moves my luggage to and fro. That so little luggage is lost every day is miraculous. The ABCs teach us gratitude.

‌

I realize that not everyone can check everything–especially people traveling with children. The goal of the ABCs is to travel lighter. Check everything non-essential within reason. The fewer bags the better. A great suitcase for checking, like the sleek and durable one we recommend in our (newly updated!) guide, can make that easy. Free yourself.

‌

The best suitcases for checking→