REVIEW – Unless you have status with an airline, the days of free checked bags on any of the major U.S. carriers have come to an end. Flying with only carry-on luggage can save you time, money, and minimize the risk of your bags showing up in a different city – but means you have a lot less space to work with. Waterfield designed the X-Air Travel Duffel to fit under the seat in front of you, maximizing your personal item allowance to go along with a carry-on bag (or forgoing it entirely), and letting you comfortably leave those checked baggage fees behind.
⬇︎ Jump to summary (pros/cons)
Price: $459.00
Where to buy: Waterfield Designs
What is it?
The X-Air Travel Duffel by Waterfield Designs is a 27 liter duffel bag made from X-Pac®, and is designed to fit underneath an airline seat to qualify as a personal item. While the size, and weight of the bag make it ideal for airline travel, this bag is plenty capable and adaptable to any situation. Reviewed in black, it is also available in blue, green, gray, and a heavier version in waxed canvas.
We reviewed the X-Air backpack and found it excellent, which bodes well for the travel duffel.
WaterField Designs X-Air Backpack review – the eagle has landed
Waterfield Designs is based in San Francisco where their bags are designed and manufactured. They’re often well reviewed thanks to their build quality and design elements, and have been regularly featured here on The Gadgeteer.
What’s included?
- Waterfield Designs X-Air Travel Duffel
- Supreme Suspension Strap
Specs
- X-Pac® VX21, high-performance textile
- 60% Nylon / 40% Polyester
- Durable water repellent
- Full-grain leather accents
- Capacity: 27 Liters
- Dimensions: 16” x 9” x 11”
- Weight: X-Pac® 2.6lbs / Canvas 3.6lbs
Design and features
The X-Air lineup from Waterfield is based on the X-Pac® material. X-Pac® is very lightweight and strong, making it ideal for travel applications where weight and durability are important. Waterfield has also added tasteful full-grain leather accents to the bag’s front pockets and carry handle, which is consistent with the other bags in the X-Air lineup.
In order to maximize space as a personal-item sized carry on, Waterfield has gone with a duffel style bag. A duffel gives a lot of open volume to work with in the main compartment, and there is only one other section of the bags interior which Waterfield dubs the ‘back office’. This section has a dedicated laptop pocket with false bottom that can fit up to a 16” MacBook Pro, and an additional pocket that will fit most tablets.
Inside the main compartment is the mainstay Waterfield water-resistant liner in gold which helps provide contrast when digging through the bag in low-light. Keeping everything secure are waterproof YKK zippers, which combined with the water resistant properties of X-Pac®, means anything in the main compartment and back office should stay dry in wet weather.
Aside from the main compartment and back office, you’ll find two front pockets with Fidlock magnetic closures, two open side pockets, and an open magazine/folio pocket. These open pockets are great for quickly stowing things away, like when you’re feeling the social pressure of getting all your stuff through security at a million miles an hour.
There are a few different ways you can get the X-Air Travel Duffel around depending on the situation. A luggage handle pass through is found in the back (specifically designed to be narrow for stability), but for those one-bag trips you can use either the eleven-inch shoulder straps or the included suspension strap for a cross body carry.
Performance
Packing out the bag is easy thanks to the relatively open duffel design, and the organizational elements are well thought out and executed. While this bag could easily be a one-bag option on a short trip for clothes and tech, I relied on it for my flight-tech and travel comfort items, with a carry-on spinner bag handling my clothes.
Shown above, the X-Air Travel Duffel comfortably stowed away the following in the main compartment (with room to spare):
- Bellroy Tech Kit
- Cabeau Neck Pillow
- XREAL One AR Glasses (in-case)
- Sunglasses (in-case)
- Bose headphones (in-case)
- Kindle Colorsoft
- ROG Ally X
Orientation and placement of the items is important when your plan is to access items from the main compartment in-flight. You will be packing the bag on its side but accessing things vertically. I know I’ll need my ROG Ally, headphones and AR glasses early in the flight, so I have those packed such that they will be closest to me when stowed away.
There isn’t much rigid structure to the bag so it’s possible to overpack height-wise – something to keep in mind as you weigh what goes in the main compartment vs. elsewhere.
Packing out the back office section is straight forward with plenty of space for a laptop and tablet, powerbank, paperwork, whatever. The dedicated laptop pocket on the outside is padded, while the interior pocket is not, though I had no issues with it keeping my 11” iPad safe from harm.
The front and side pockets are perfect for smaller items – hand sanitizer, sanitizing wipes, snacks, or a water bottle. They expand outward so won’t encroach in your main compartment space. The Fidlock clasps take some practice to get the hang of when opening, but the convenience in how they close near-automatically make it worth it.
Since getting the X-Air Travel Duffel, I’ve had the pleasure of bringing it along on two coast-to-coast trips – which had me sitting in an airplane for six-plus hours, and navigating hub airports in Detroit and Atlanta. I did find the bag to be slightly wider than my Travelpro spinner carry-on luggage, which led to it occasionally wanting to lurch forward on me when attached to the luggage handle. I was able to fix this by hooking the front shoulder strap back around the handle of the luggage to increase stability. In hindsight, I could have also addressed this by using the expansion zipper on my luggage to make it a little wider and give the bag more of a base to sit on.
When taking the X-Air Travel Duffel around the airport without wheeling it atop luggage, the integrated straps are excellent. They’re long enough that you can sling them easily over a shoulder, but for longer layovers, the suspension strap is key. The suspension strap is well padded with leather accents, and as the name implies, the material has a bit of stretch and bounce to it. This lets you carry the bag crossbody like a messenger. I keep the suspension strap off most of the time as I typically wheel the bag around, but keeping it stowed in my carry-on means it’s always at hand in case I need to gate check my luggage (the joys of those regional jets).
I generally fly Delta, and living near a smaller airport means I can expect to be on a regional jet to get to a hub. During my trips, I flew on three different types of aircraft, and I am pleased to report that the X-Air Travel Duffel had no problems fitting comfortably under the seat in front of me on any of them:
Final thoughts
Having previously been a backpack enjoyer for my personal item sized carry on, I had guarded optimism going into this review that there was something magical about a duffel. The use of space and structure of the X-Air Travel Duffel make it superior to me than a backpack for this purpose, and I find it easier to cart around atop my luggage than side-loading a backpack. My neck and shoulders get enough abuse trying to stay comfortable in the seat of the plane as it is, and having the X-Air Travel Duffel around for my last two cross-country flights made those flights tangibly more enjoyable.
Speaking to durability… my normal process for a review is to get product photos as soon as something comes out of the packaging, since it’s easier to get those photos taken care of before any wear and tear may set in. I didn’t have time to do that with the X-Air Travel Duffel, and in fact, didn’t get any of the product photos done until after my second trip was over. The bag you see in all these photos, has already been across the U.S. and back twice… and still looks brand new.
I expect this bag will be with me on many more trips to come, and Waterfield has yet another excellent bag in their catalog.
What I like about Waterfield Designs X-Air Travel Duffel
- USA design and build of exceptional quality
- Thoughtful design and organization elements that compliment the main compartment
- X-Pac material is super light weight and durable
What needs to be improved?
- A little more rigid structure to the bag to help it keep its shape would be welcome, but only if the weight can be kept under 3lbs
Price: $459.00
Where to buy: Waterfield Designs
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by Waterfield. Waterfield did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
Check out these other duffel reviews!
- Saddleback Leather Duffel / Overnight Leather Bag Review
- 5.11 Tactical Allhaula 65L duffel review
- Roam Medium Duffel review – Custom luggage that’s a pleasure to use
![[From INIU - the SAFE Fast Chage Pro] Experience the safest charging with over 38 million global users. At INIU, we use only the highest-grade materials, so we do have the confidence to provide an industry-leading 3-Year iNiu Care. [22.5W Speedy Char...](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/416nS4GRFtL._SL160_.jpg)
INIU Portable Charger, Smallest 22.5W 10000mAh Power Bank, USB C in/Output Fast Charging 3-Output Mini Battery Pack Charger with Phone Holder for iPhone 16 15 14 13 12 Samsung S23 Google iPad Tablet
22% Off
