lostgravity

After debating between the purdy neat stuff bag or the costco bag I went with the one that would keep the most green in my wallet. The bag arrived last week and I really liked the look and design of it. My first trip with it.... it doesn't fit in the CRJ overheads. D'oh!

Back to the drawing board and the bag is going back to costco. Now I'm debating between the PNS bag and the Briggs and Riley. I'm leaning heavily towards the B&R mainly because I'm going to be using it for personal travel as well and it's a lot lighter. Not to mention it has the lifetime warranty.

Does anyone know if the B&R will fit in a CRJ overhead?

JT8D

I can't offer any help on whether or not whichever Briggs and Riley bag you're looking at will fit in a CRJ but I've had a B&R bag for about 2.5 years now and it's been virtually bulletproof. I overstuffed it once when packing for 12 days on the road and the zipper separated from the lining, sent it back to the factory and it came back as good as new with the wheels having been replaced as well. Their bags are worth the money and I highly recommend them.

Radar

I've been using a B&R for the last six years. It fits in the CRJ 900 and EMB overheads. I have never tried the 200 as it has always been gate checked or was required to go in the back when I was flying the plane. Mine is a standard size bag and fits anywhere a standard bag fits.

The bag has been utterly abused. I've taken it in for service twice. They simply ask what is wrong and fix it. There are a surprisingly large amount of luggage shops that will perform service on the bag without having to to send it back to Briggs. In this case, they perform the maintenance work and send Briggs the bill. Always no questions asked as the warranty implies.

I would stay away from the expandable mechanism as that is what has failed most regularly. That mechanism was the reason for my two repairs and it is, in my opinion, a design flaw. If I had opted for the bag without the expansion system I probably would have never taken the bag in for repair, but simply tightened a few screws now and again on my own.

I have had several failures of the add-a-bag strap, also a design flaw. To the bags credit the strap has only failed when I have ran at cement steps with my flight case still attached (gotta catch the train you know). I just walk in with the broken strap and the lady hands me a new one. Both of these design issues have sturdier engineering on the newer models.

This is not to say that these two issues have been the only things that have gone wrong with the bag. Any bag that you treat this harshly is bound to have things that fail or fall into disrepair if not maintained. I think I have asked them to repair or replace nearly every moving part and screw on the bag. As I said, I have tightened a few screws on my own, but mostly I do the bare minimum to get by until I have a few days off and can get it into the shop to have them do it.

I treat my bag incredibly poorly. I have thrown it out of the cargo hold of the Saab straight to the ground on a regular basis (several times a day). I regularly drag it up stairs with my 40lb flight case attached. I never pick it up in the snow to keep the bearings dry. In fact, I turn it around in front of me to clear a path to walk in if the snow is heavy enough. All of my time at the airlines, with the exception of the last eight months, has been under a company policy that required the bag to go in the cargo hold. Usually this means the rampers pull it off and put it back on the plane on each leg. They are not careful; the worst I have seen the ramp do to my bag is stand on it in the rain so they could reach the cargo hold (clothes were still dry.

Unless you need to look like a pilot, by which I mean you need to drag around a heavy, clunky, kludged together bag with broken zippers... buy a Briggs.

Can't say enough about the warranty.

FlyingNasaForm

I bought a B&R 21" U-21NX. It does NOT fit in the CRJ 200 overhead. The exterior telescoping handle keeps it from fitting.

I ended up giving the bag to my wife. It is awesome. No matter what happens to it, they fix it, period, for the lifetime of the bag.

I bought a PNS bag and love it. 3.5 years later everything still works. Warranty isn't as good as the B&R, but the PNS bags are built tougher. If I had the choice I'd go with the B&R bag as it's lighter.

lostgravity

&*$(#@6$&!!! It seems like the only decent bag that will fit in the overhead of the 200 is the PNS bag? This is extremely annoying!