Since I plan on using Frontier airlines on a regular basis and do not intend to purchase a carry-on on subsequent trips, I needed a bag that met the maximum size requirements for a personal item: 18 x 14 x 8.
Although the FRAME (which is pretty solid, but can bend enough, depending if it’s not filled to max capacity) of the Fairview XS is technically measured at 19.3H X 13.8W X 8D IN (and is technically 38L), it STILL can fit underneath the seat—it takes the ENTIRE space, and thus, does not leave much foot space—but a minor sacrifice in my opinion, especially since this was the only bag I brought for enough essentials for a 3 day trip.
Keep in mind, this isn’t filled at capacity: it’s maybe about 10 - 12 lbs, although if I crammed it full it can easily handle about 15 lbs, if not 20 - 25 lbs.
As a (weak😆) 4’11 person, I found 15 lbs really heavy to deal with, especially during the airport check-in process, and certainly when I was under pressure to cram and take out the bag under the seat during passenger loading. I found that keeping it about 10 - 12 lbs was comfortable enough to handle on a packed flight.
This bag has close to the capacity of my “international sized” Delsey wheeled hand-carry, so even though it was a challenge to cram 3 days worth of stuff into the Fairview, the design (which opens like a suitcase) helps the packing process, and felt essentially like the hand-carry without the wheels. There’s belts on the inside (and outside) of the bag to create compression and keep the bag slim, but I think the packing cubes were more helpful in keeping organized, and certainly keeping the bag from exploding, lol.
As mentioned, I am 4’11 and about 105 lbs: it’s bigger than my torso! But the pack distributes the weight well, and I found it especially helpful to pack heavier on the bottom since the hips help to support more of the weight. It comes with an unpadded strap to convert the pack into a “duffel”, but it looked pretty big as a duffel and I thought may induce questioning from the agent.
The price of the Fairview is pretty expensive, but given all of the cramming and abuse of the airport travel process, the quality of this pack is impressive and totally worth it. The design of the back-brace is probably why it’s expensive: it contours and braces the back really well, and helps to hold the weight against the body. There are many straps that you can adjust to help brace the weight against the body and I found the self-adjusting hip-straps and shoulder-straps were really helpful in making the pack fit my body. I found that I didn’t need to have myself entirely strapped-in during the course of the airport process however—you won’t since you’ll be constantly taking it off and putting it on during the check-in process, but I feel that this will be a pretty solid pack for a backpacking trip, or an international-sized carry-on, and I’m glad I have that option—in addition to being my to-go to bag for my visits to Colorado on Frontier.
Since I could not find a decent review of the XS Fairview as it pertains to this issue of flying on Frontier specifically, I decided to write this and hope it was found useful for those who need a personal bag👍
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