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Overview of the Aer Travel Pack 2
The Aer Travel Pack 2 is a sleek, medium-sized carry-on bag with great features that converts to a daypack. With a simple minimalistic outward appearance, this bag is full of features including locking zippers, comfortable shoulder straps, and water bottle holder. The Aer Travel Pack 2 is ideal for business commuters, as well as one-bag travelers.
Cost: $230
Capacity: 33 liters
Dimensions: 21.5″ x 13.5″ x 8.5″
Style: Clamshell
Weight: 3.7 lbs.
Laptop: 15.6”
This is a really, really nice looking bag. It’s hard not to just stare at this thing. It’s just so sleek, and minimalistic. Simple outward appearance, compression straps, waterproof zippers. It’s a work of art. It also works really well as a travel bag. And while I really wanted this to be the perfect travel bag, it has some small design flaws that prevent this.
For a full table comparing ALL the max size one-bags click here.
Materials, colors, and sizes of Aer Travel Pack 2
Aer makes no compromises in the use of their materials. They use some of the most high quality, robust, quality materials available for the Aer Travel Pack 2. Ballistic nylon water-resistant fabric, lockable YKK® Aqua-guard® zippers, and sturdy Duraflex® hardware. This bag is absolutely made for the long-haul.
1680 denier Cordura® ballistic nylon is one of the toughest luggage materials on the market. It is the main material used in the exterior of the Aer Travel Pack 2. The fabric is uncoated, meaning it doesn’t have extra waterproofing material. However the tight 2×2 basketweave of ballistic nylon makes it a very water-resistant fabric. The leakiest part of this bag will not be the fabric, but the zippers.
Zippers and buckles
Aer solves this dilemma by using waterproof zippers in some (but not all) of the pockets. It protects the most vulnerable areas from water, such as the laptop compartment, and the front exterior pouch. These are the two areas most likely to be affected by leaks. The front compartment also adds a waterproof flap to cover the end of the zipper. Protecting the small gap naturally created by the separation of the zipper, with the nylon coil.
You can see attention to detail used in the zipper pulls, and buckles as well. The zippers are metal, and have long, plastic zipper pulls that allows you to easily open the pockets. You can also open the bag while wearing gloves. The buckles are beefy molded plastic Big Dog Duraflex®, designed for heavy loads.
Exterior components of Aer Travel Pack 2
Accessing your electronics and smaller items is easy and functional with the Aer Travel Pack 2. This bag offers exterior compartments for a laptop, top-access pouch for small items, and medium sized carry all back pouch, a larger organizational compartment for loads of smaller items, and a water bottle pouch.
Laptop Compartment
An exterior, back-facing laptop compartment is large enough to hold up to a 15.6” laptop. We tested it using a 15.5” Toshiba laptop, which fit with room to spare. There was about 4” of space on the top, and an extra inch of space on the sides. You could fit a larger laptop in here, but probably not as large as a 17”.
The laptop compartment on the Aer Travel Pack 2 however, lacks a “false bottom” feature in its laptop compartment. A false bottom feature puts a seam several inches from the bottom of the pocket. This protects the laptop by keeping it from resting on the bottom of the bag when upright. The beefy padding on the bottom of the laptop pocket does however, do a good job in protecting your electronics.
Organizational Compartments for Small Items
The top-access pocket is small, and located behind the handle. It doesn’t offer a locking or water-proof zipper, or fuzzy interior padding, so should be used for less vulnerable items. It is big enough for a large cell phone, or sunglasses in the case. The front pouch is larger, with a water-proof zipper. It is large enough for a small electronics case, travel documents etc. It runs about half the length of the bag, but doesn’t offer additional interior pockets.
The large, uber organized exterior compartment offers a plethora of interior pockets. There are a total of 10 pockets in this compartment, including the two large pockets that run the length of the bag. Two pencil sleeves, one mesh pocket, and an additional zipper pocket with a key holder, keep your small items organized and easily accessible.
The exterior water bottle pocket is expandable and will hold a medium-sized water bottle. The slick-looking exterior of the pouch is barely visible when not in use. An ingenious zipper hides the expandable mesh of the pocket, allowing it to be stored out-of-sight, when not in use.
Interior components and design of Aer Travel Pack 2
The base of the interior organization of the Aer Travel Pack 2 is a large clamshell style compartment. A further two smaller interior pockets allow you to store smaller items inside the bag.
The large clamshell compartment opens from the bottom, and lays flat lengthwise. There are no compression straps inside the bag so you should probably use packing cubes with this bag. Aer only offers one size of packing cube, but it is designed to fit perfectly inside the bag. If you use two of them, it will almost completely fill the inside compartment. You will have enough additional room to fit a larger item on top of the cubes, such as a sweater or light jacket. Because of the exterior compression straps, bulky items can be squished down to offer more space.
Let’s talk about that external shoe pocket
The external shoe pocket on the Aer Travel Pack 2 inserts a blight into an otherwise awesomely designed travel bag. Simply said, the size and placement of the pocket is in an unfortunate location. When packed with shoes (or dirty clothes), the shoe compartment fills an awkward size of space in the interior compartment. The interior packing cubes will now not fit in the bag, or for that matter, much of anything.
I understand the utility of a shoe compartment. It’s a great idea to keep dirty shoes, or laundry, separate from the rest of your gear. It protects it from dirt, and keeps it from smelling. However, if you are going to include an exterior access shoe compartment, you need to consider the impact this space will have on the interior organization. Aer seems to have overlooked this.
Fit, durability, and testing of Aer Travel Pack 2
During the design of the Aer Travel Pack 2, they decided to focus on 2 primary things: Comfort, ease of carry, and minimalistic aesthetic. These are things in which the Aer Travel Pack 2 shines. This bag is truly comfortable. Unlike some other bags which treat the backpack straps as an afterthought, this bag is designed first and foremost for long-term carry.
The primary method of carry is the backpack straps. There are no available shoulder strap, and there are no attachment points to add one. The top handle is beefy and comfortable, with loads of interior padding. The side carry handle, however is misplaced. To accommodate the water bottle holder, the handle is located on the edge of the bag. This forces you to carry the bag at an odd angle, which makes the bottom of the bag rub against your leg as you walk.
Overall summary of Aer Travel Pack 2
The Aer Travel Pack 2 will work fantastically for an urban commuter who wants a bag that can be used for one-bag travel. This bag has a beautiful minimal aesthetic, uber comfortable backpack carry straps, and superb interior organization. However, the design of the shoe pocket really makes me think twice about using this as a primary bag for long-term travel.
If you intend to use a 33 liter pack as your only method to carry all of your worldly possessions. You can’t really afford to fill half of this space with a bulky second pair of shoes. For those folks who like a separate shoe compartment, this bag is great. If you don’t really want it however, it really just gets in the way. Aer should have an option for removing, or hiding the shoe compartment. Or why not simply offer a water-proof nylon shoe bag that you can put in the interior of the bag?
Best features
- Sleek, minimalistic design
- Uber comfortable backpack straps
- Packing cubes fit in bag perfectly
- Keeps shape, even when empty
Worst features
- Shoe pocket takes up most of the bag.
- Zippers get caught on compression straps.
- Side handle forces you to carry bag at weird angle
- Backpack straps do not stow-away
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Hi
What type of zippers are these? Most reviews stop with the mention of ‘YKK Zippers’ – but are these metal zippers or coiled zippers, no mention of these. Can you please be specific, for someone that wants to buy like me – would want to make sure that it is durable and I understand a few other manufacturers who do not want to invest in YKK use metal zippers while the general view on metal zippers is that they are not flexible as the plastic or coiled ones. So really confused.
thanks
Sany
Good question Sany. The exterior zippers are #10 YKK Aquaguard, which are a nylon coil zipper coated with polyurethane (PU) to keep out water. Most of the time when people refer to “YKK zippers” they are talking about nylon coil, as these are the most common zippers in travel backpacks. However you’re right, YKK does make metal zippers and it would be impossible to know which ones they were referring to. Hope this helps =)
Hi Thanks for your response. What’s your opinion on metal zippers on travel backpacks? How would you react, had AER used metal zippers on this backpack?
I would be intrigued, because metal zippers would be so unusual in this type of backpack. Metal zips tends to be stiff and heavier than nylon coil, which is why most travel backpack companies use nylon. The kind of bags I would expect to have metal zippers tend to be made of leather or canvas and would have what I would consider a “vintage look.”