CARRYX Personal Duffel 27L Review

You’ve got options for avoiding baggage fees on the plane, whether it’s a personal-item-size travel backpack, a small roller bag, or even a large tote. Duffel bags are on the table, too, and that’s where the CARRYX Personal Duffel 27L comes in.

It meets the personal item dimensions of most major airlines we checked for our guide to the best underseat luggage, except Ryanair (and who can meet that?) and United Airlines. However, just because it fits doesn’t mean you want to use it as your personal item bag on the plane. You could carry an Amazon box with your belongings on board if it meets the requirements, but you wouldn’t want to, right? Let’s see if you’ll want to carry the CARRYX Personal Duffel 27L or if it’s just an influencer darling that doesn’t live up to the hype.

External Components

The exterior of the bag is made with 1680D ballistic polyester and 420D Oxford nylon, with the former beefing up the bottom half or so of the bag and the latter on the rest. It comes in black, and that’s it, but black goes with everything, so we don’t mind too much.

The material is water-resistant and PFAS-free, so it will protect your gear inside without exposing you to forever chemicals, and the only nod to branding is a subtle CARRYX printed in black on black at the top right of the front compartment. It flies under the radar, unlike some other brands we test.

There are a lot of zippers around the bag, and we’re happy to see they’re made by YKK, one of our favorite brands. They all work well and have cords woven through the metal pulls to reduce noise and make them easier to open. Sometimes the cords run into another zipper track, so watch out for that, but on the whole, they work well. The two main compartment zipper heads also have small holes where you can slide a luggage lock for extra security.

Nifco makes the hardware, which is mostly on the detachable shoulder strap. There are plastic tabs on either side of the bag where you can connect the swivel clips on either end of the adjustable, padded strap. The swivels keep the strap from twisting and help you untwist it quickly if it does. There’s also a plastic adjuster on the strap that slides easily and stays where you set it, so you don’t have to mess with the length every time you swing the bag over your shoulder. The padding can slide along the strap, and there’s enough space in the pass-through to let the plastic adjuster through, so it won’t dig into your shoulder; instead, the padding blunts the feel of it as you carry the bag.

There are two magnets built into this padding, as well, and they line up with their counterparts on the luggage pass-through on the back of the duffel. That means you can stick the strap to the bag when you’re not using it instead of having to detach it when you don’t want to use it. That keeps it from dragging on the floor or tangling with your feet if you try to stretch a bit while it’s under the seat in front of you on the plane; however, this is a big bag, so you might not have a ton of space for your feet once you slide it into place for your flight.

The pass-through can slide over the handle of rolling luggage if you were to pair it with a suitcase or want to make your travel companion cart it through the airport with their own luggage. The pass-through includes a zippered pocket, too. It’s a good spot to tuck your passport after you go through security, but we can fit two hands inside this pocket, so it has enough space for other gear, as well. It will be right up against your side if you’re carrying the bag on your shoulder, though, so you’ll want to think about that before using it for anything oddly shaped or bulky.

Aside from the shoulder strap, there are also two carry handles at the top of the front and back of the bag. The one on the rear has a wrap sewn to it, so you can connect the two for a more comfortable carry; it stays put with a hook-and-loop fastener. You’ll have to undo that to get into the main compartment, but it makes it easier to carry a duffel when the handles don’t fight to come apart or dig into your hands—these don’t.

One more thing to mention before we move on: there’s a metal gatekeeper clip attached to the right side of the bag, in front of the bottle holder. It’s a good spot for hand sanitizer or anything else you want to connect. You can use it for keys if you’ll need them shortly, but there’s a key leash elsewhere if you don’t want them jangling around the outside of the bag.

Fit Notes

We’re going to be really honest here—we don’t love the bag’s aesthetics. It gives off vibes of a cooler or a gym bag, and it just doesn’t look as premium and put together as other options we’ve tested. Sure, it has a lot of structure that makes it easy to pack, but it also makes it unwieldy to pull out of the car, carry around, and hang up if you don’t want it on the bathroom stall floor. The very thing that makes it simple to fill and gives it so much usable space works against you on travel day.

While it’s comfortable for a duffel, thanks to that nice padding on the shoulder strap, we just don’t like how it feels when it swings as you walk, depending on your stride and cadence. We also prefer to be balanced, and it’s hard to get balanced with this bag on one shoulder. You can get a better fit when wearing it crossbody, but our tester finds that heavy bags worn crossbody pull more at her neck than just keeping it on one shoulder and leaning into it. If you’re into the duffel style, you probably disagree, and that’s ok! That’s why there are different styles of travel bags to choose from.

Inside The Duffel

While this is a duffel bag that doesn’t look like a premium option from the outside, it offers much more organization than you’re probably used to.

On the back is that zippered pocket on the luggage pass-through we mentioned above. There’s no organization inside of it, but it’s still a place to tuck things you want to access quickly.

The front, on the other hand, is very organized. This large compartment has two zipper heads so you can open it anywhere along the track, and you can fold the front of it down to see everything against the back and in the middle if you don’t have something stiff in one of the pockets on that panel. There are a lot of them, though, so we didn’t actually do that in practice.

On either side of the front panel are large slip pockets for your glasses case, battery bank, or anything else bulky you want to slide in there. Between them is a pocket for earbuds in a case, and then, below that, is a slip pocket for a round smart tracker, like an AirTag.

Against the back panel of this compartment is a wide, deep slip pocket that could accommodate an e-reader or a notebook, two pen slots, and another, narrower slip pocket. There’s a huge zippered pocket behind that organization, so you really don’t need a separate tech pouch if you don’t want one. This entire compartment has padding between it and the main compartment, so while this area can press into the primary packing area, anything you put in the zipper pocket is protected from damage by gear in the main dump space. There’s also a key leash on a swivel hook attached to the top left of this compartment. Thanks to the dual zipper heads, it’s easy to access whenever you need it, and you can swing the bag around to make a key fob or key reach a door, though the clip on the bag’s exterior works better for that if you plan to use it that way.

The right side of the bag, by that clip, is a bottle pocket. It unzips down the center to reveal a stretchy mesh pocket, so it’s not flopping around if you don’t need to use it. But there’s definitely more space at the top than at the bottom, so slim or tapered bottles or tumblers work better here.

The left side of the bag has a different pocket style. There’s a large slip pocket on the exterior and a horseshoe-zippered opening. When you open this pocket, there’s a matching slip pocket on the interior and a large space that presses into the main compartment to hold something bulky like over-ear headphones, a canister of nuts or crackers for a snack, or a packable jacket. It’s not large enough to be a shoe pouch; we tried.

Against the back panel is a zippered laptop compartment for up to a 16-inch device. It’s well-padded, but there’s no false bottom. We didn’t have any issues sliding our computer in while the bag sat on a concrete floor because of the padding, but it’s worth noting.

There’s also a zippered compartment on the lid. You might have been thinking that the left-side pocket would work well for a 3-1-1 bag to keep your toiletries ready for security, and you’d be right if this pocket didn’t exist. It’s a water-resistant pocket to hold your toiletries without fear of them leaking onto your clothing if the circumstances are right. You could also use it for a damp swimsuit if you take a last dip before checking out—it is large enough to handle board shorts or a one-piece with ease. We used it to hold toiletries throughout our testing period, though, and it was nice to have them so easily accessible yet safe.

Flipping the lid opens the main compartment, which is mostly open space. There is one large side pocket on the right if you want to stand something up. It’s topped with elastic to hold a bottle or your flip-flops. The rest of the main compartment is yours to fill, just like a structured suitcase; you just load it from the top.

It’s handy in daily use if you stop by the gym on the way home from work. There’s plenty of room for your shoes, clothing, lunch, and snacks. Of course, this bag is meant to carry your gear on the plane without costing you extra, and it can easily hold several days’ worth. Twenty-seven liters seems like an understatement, but it’s because of the bag’s structure and the fact that nearly all of those liters are in the main compartment. You can fill it with folded clothing or packing cubes; nothing will jumble around if you carry it as intended and leave it upright.

However, while the size and shape make it easy to pack as a personal item bag that should fit under most seats in front of you, it’s not the most comfortable to carry for long periods. Sure, you can slide it over the handle of rolling luggage, but if you’re planning to pair it with a checked bag, that will only help you for a short time at the airport. On the other hand, if you’re pairing it with a rolling carry on, it might be overkill for your trip. It would allow you to maximize your space without waiting at the luggage carousel when you land. Still, most airlines are working to unload planes faster than ever, so our main goal in going carry on only is to remain comfortable and hands-free before check-in, and the CARRYX Personal Duffel 27L doesn’t quite meet the mark there. If you’re packing for a long-haul flight with young children, this would make a great grab back for their necessities and in-flight entertainment, but for most other circumstances, we’d rather go with a large backpack instead of something this unwieldy.