All guides

Each guide answers one buying question and shows the figures behind the answer.

4 guides

Vintage striped canvas suitcase with leather-bound corners and a top handle, on a white background

How to choose

The four measurements that choose a suitcase for you

External size, empty weight, wheel type and shell material settle most luggage decisions. How to read each one off a specification sheet before you look at a price.

Updated 3/11/2026 · 9 min

Photo: Sandrine Z · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Tan leather suitcase covered in faded airline and travel decals, photographed against white

Budget and prices

What a suitcase costs per trip, and when the cheap one wins

Divide the case by the trips it will make. At three trips a year over ten years an example $350 case is $11.67 a trip in AUD, GST included.

Updated 3/11/2026 · 8 min

Photo: Sandrine Z · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Open leather case holding a folded striped shirt, a wristwatch, a hip flask and a spirits bottle

Packing and load

Packing to a weight limit: the arithmetic before the folding

Work backwards from the allowance. Subtract the empty case, subtract the heavy items you cannot leave, and pack clothing into whatever is left.

Updated 3/11/2026 · 8 min

Photo: Angelina Litvin linalitvina · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons

Black-and-white street scene of a uniformed man lifting two cases from a railway delivery van outside a house

How to choose

Check in luggage size: the limits Australian airlines actually apply

Check in luggage size is set as a single sum of length, width and depth, and the limit changes between domestic and international flights. Here are the published figures and how to measure against them.

Updated 6/11/2026 · 12 min

Photo: State Government Photographer · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons