A recent thread got me thinking about beating the common 62 linear inch spec for additional airline baggage fees. The thread had good comments re. the Ruster Henhouse. One guy in the thread asked about the Orucase Airport Ninja bag, but that idea got no comments.
I looked up the packing instructions for both, and found pics for the packed lay-out of parts. Both seem to require the same degree of disassembly. The key differences seemed to be:
Airport Ninja. The bag is square so measuring it is a no-brainer. It's cheaper then the Henhouse.
Henhouse. Because it's not square, it only measures under 62" if you measure it "a certain way", which gives me pause. That said, the reports from happy owners would seem to indicate that the airlines are usually good with it. Comes with more packing materials. One clear plus for me is that it comes in military camo. Being retired military, I can show up with a fresh haircut and every airline desk in the country will assume that I'm active duty and under some circumstances they get increased flexibility in the rules.
Do we have folks here that have traveled with the Airport Ninja?
Is a consensus emerging that it's rare for an airline type to get pick about the shape of the Henhouse and charge for being >62"?
Any issues re. durability? In my experience soft sided luggage gets torn up pretty fast by airlines. Do either of these outfits have a history of repairing bags that were damaged, or does one just take it to a local tailor and they sew on a scrap of kevlar-like cloth as a repair?
Books @ Amazon
"If only he had used his genius for niceness, instead of Evil." M. Smart
I looked up the packing instructions for both, and found pics for the packed lay-out of parts. Both seem to require the same degree of disassembly. The key differences seemed to be:
Airport Ninja. The bag is square so measuring it is a no-brainer. It's cheaper then the Henhouse.
Henhouse. Because it's not square, it only measures under 62" if you measure it "a certain way", which gives me pause. That said, the reports from happy owners would seem to indicate that the airlines are usually good with it. Comes with more packing materials. One clear plus for me is that it comes in military camo. Being retired military, I can show up with a fresh haircut and every airline desk in the country will assume that I'm active duty and under some circumstances they get increased flexibility in the rules.
Do we have folks here that have traveled with the Airport Ninja?
Is a consensus emerging that it's rare for an airline type to get pick about the shape of the Henhouse and charge for being >62"?
Any issues re. durability? In my experience soft sided luggage gets torn up pretty fast by airlines. Do either of these outfits have a history of repairing bags that were damaged, or does one just take it to a local tailor and they sew on a scrap of kevlar-like cloth as a repair?
Books @ Amazon
"If only he had used his genius for niceness, instead of Evil." M. Smart