Independent buying guides
For travellers flying from UK airports who want one case that clears cabin rules. One buying question per guide, allowances and prices with their check dates, and a pack-weight calculator that shows its sums.
The decisions that actually change what you end up with.
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Photo: Familydestinationsguide.com Images · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Weight, volume and what gets left behind.
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Photo: Mstephen247 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Temperature, weather and terrain, with real numbers.
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Photo: Sandrine Z · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
What the total comes to once everything is counted.
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Photo: Sandrine Z · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Intervals, parts and what they cost.
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Photo: State Government Photographer · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Standards, warnings and the checks worth doing.
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Photo: Miscellaneous Items in High Demand, PPOC, Library of Congress · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Each guide answers one buying question and shows the figures behind the answer.
How to choose
Choose a cabin case that clears the airline you really use: external measurements including wheels, the empty weight that eats your allowance, and what the CAA says.
Photo: Sachi Gahan · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Budget and prices
What a suitcase really costs per trip over the years you keep it, plus the £135 customs threshold and 20% import VAT on a case bought from outside the UK.
Photo: Bryan Ledgard · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Packing and load
Pack to a cabin weight limit without repacking at the desk: the 100ml liquids rule, one 1-litre bag per person, and the 7 and 21 day baggage claim deadlines.
Photo: Angelina Litvin linalitvina · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Every figure in a guide is taken from a named source, with the date it was checked. Where a number is an assumption or an example, it says so in the same sentence.
We do not run paid product tests, we do not publish reader reviews, and we do not claim to have handled every product mentioned. Where a claim needs a lab or a long-term test we do not have, the guide says that plainly.
Photographs are free-licence images from Wikimedia Commons or Openverse, credited to the photographer with the licence named. Charts are drawn from the figures printed in the same guide.
This site earns money from advertising and, where disclosed, from affiliate links. That does not change the order of a comparison or the conclusion of a guide.
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Each calculator shows its formula, units and assumptions. Nothing is estimated for you in secret.
Adds up a kit list against a weight target and a body-weight guideline.
total = base weight + consumables (water litres x 1 kg + food days x food per day); share of body weight = total / body weight x 100
What a cross-border order really costs once shipping, duty and tax are added.
landed cost = (item price + shipping) + duty + tax, where duty = item price x duty rate, and tax = (item price + shipping + duty) x tax rate
Turns a price into a cost per use, so a dear item used often can be compared with a cheap one used rarely.
cost per use = (price + consumables over the whole life) / (uses per week x 52 x years)