“My first purchase of it was directed by my employer, during a brief period when security regulations made us travel with our laptops checked (we could take our hard drives out and handcarry them, though). It’s still what’s highly recommended if we’re possibly going to have to check any gadgets, laptops, etc”
This was your employer’s requirement, right? There’s never been a time in U.S. Security protocol where laptops couldn’t be carried aboard. I would think an employer requiring you to check laptops is foolish - They’ll be subject to far more jostling and temperature change vs staying with you, and the loss potential is far greater.
I have two wheel carry on bags…and four wheel spinners. The wheels don’t take up cargo,space in the bag. The wheels are on the outside…two vs four…doesn’t matter.
One of the issues for luggage is internal vs external frame. Internal is more protective of the hardware but takes up space. We have one internal frame bag and two externals; we use externals more as they hold more and and are entirely flat in the suitcase.
It does matter. Two wheels are usually set flush with the bag’s bottom. Four wheels always stick out by design, by at least an inch, making the useful length of the bag smaller (airlines measure bags with the wheels). So a 21" spinner has less useful internal space than a 21" roller.
I guess I haven’t noticed that the one inch difference matters.
I will say…on my most recent trip to TJMaxx…I checked the bags…always do. The two wheel carry on bags were all on clearance. The ones not on clearance were all spinners.
So I would suggest, if you want a two wheel carry on…get it soon.
I tend to be an extreme light packer and prefer to never check anything in if I can help it. When I went across the country for a friend’s wedding, I managed to fit a full suit, a week’s worth of clothes, toiletries, and a backpack with a laptop in one small 2 wheeled piece of luggage.
Ended up surprising my friend who assumed I needed another 30 minutes to wait in baggage claim when in actuality, everything I had was well within the airline’s carry-on requirements. When he arrived to pick me up, he was more astounded at how I was able to fit everything into a small 2 wheeled piece of luggage.
As for laptops, when traveling my policy has been to take one of my older notebooks running Linux as 1. No one will bother to steal something so old, 2. It’s still very usable and sometimes than even the latest machines running the latest version of Windows/Mac and 3. The Linux OS tends to turn off non-techies and thieves who are techie oriented tend to be much more inclined to steal relatively current electronics…not 2+ year old machines they’d consider to be “dinosaurs”.