16/17
American Tourister
Take2Cabin soft holdall, 38 litres
36 × 20 × 45 cm
Misses Firefly by 6 cm
Built to the shortest European frame on sale. It clears every box on this page with room to spare at the sides.
S$94.40
Cabin issue · Kuala Lumpur · October 2026
A cabin bag is a box. Every airline boxes it differently.
Seventeen frames, from a 40 × 30 × 20 turboprop bin to a 55 × 40 × 25 long-haul allowance, drawn here at one scale. Twelve bags on the shelf, each measured against all seventeen before it earned a place.
- Frames
- 17
- Bags
- 12
- Measured
- October 2026
Frame 01 AirAsia AK
Anything wider than 36 cm leaves the frame. That is the whole test.
01 / The bench
Pick a frame. Watch the shelf sort itself.
Every bag is drawn at the same scale as the frame around it, in plan view, longest edge across. A solid block sits inside the box, a hatched block is within a centimetre, and a bare outline does not travel.
- Frame
- 56 × 36 × 23 cm
- Weight
- 7 kg
- Pieces
- One cabin bag, plus one personal item
- Clears
- 0 of 12 bags
The shelf against this frame
AK AirAsia
A solid block sits inside the frame; a dashed one hangs outside it. Plan view, drawn to scale.
02 / The four centimetres
The bag that fits at home and fails at the counter.
Malaysia's narrowbody frames are 36 centimetres across. A great many cabin backpacks on sale are 40. The photograph shows a full-size bag; the frame shows a number, and the number is the one that gets checked.
The reverse trap is just as common. A case cut for a long-haul allowance of 55 × 40 × 25 will not go into an AirAsia box at all, and the traveller finds out at the gate rather than at the listing.
Two failures, one cause: the listing measures the bag, nobody measures the frame.
The overhang is drawn to scale: 2 cm on each side, 4 cm in all, which is what a gate sizer refuses.
03 / The shelf
Twelve bags, each already measured.
Each card carries a stamp: how many of the 17 frames that bag clears. Prices are what Amazon.sg showed on October 2026.
16/17
17/17
RuoSien
Anti-theft cabin backpack, 40 x 30 x 20
40 × 30 × 20 cm
Clears every frame on this page
The one bag on the shelf shaped for a turboprop bin rather than a jet bin.
S$55.27
17/17
Cabin Max
Metz cabin backpack, 40 x 20 x 25
40 × 20 × 25 cm
Clears every frame on this page
Narrow through the middle, which is what a 20 cm depth buys you on a full flight.
S$74.33
17/17
Cabin Max
Manhattan backpack, 40 x 20 x 25
40 × 20 × 25 cm
Clears every frame on this page
The soft-sided version of the same box, for anyone who would rather squeeze than measure.
S$63.70
17/17
Kabuto
Underseat backpack, 40 x 20 x 25
40 × 20 × 25 cm
Clears every frame on this page
A third bag in the small European box, listed because the price sits between the two above.
S$68.03
16/17
Anode
Hard cabin case, 45 x 36 x 20
45 × 36 × 20 cm
Misses Firefly by 6 cm
Exactly 36 cm across. It passes the regional frame on the millimetre, which is a different feeling at the gate.
S$83.38
16/17
Cabin Max
Manhattan hybrid backpack trolley, 30 litres
45 × 36 × 20 cm
Misses Firefly by 6 cm
Carry handles that fold away. Still 36 cm wide, still level with the frame rather than under it.
S$62.89
16/17
Cion
Soft-sided four-wheel trolley, 50 x 34 x 20
50 × 34 × 20 cm
Misses Firefly by 10 cm
The narrowest wheeled case here. Wheels are counted in the 50 cm, and the listing says so.
S$104.78
14/17
Kono
Cabin backpack, 55 x 35 x 20
55 × 35 × 20 cm
Misses Firefly by 15 cm and Scoot by 1 cm, and 1 more
A full 55 cm long and still inside the regional frame, because the width stays at 35.
S$76.53
1/17
Anode
Hard shell cabin case, 55 x 35 x 25
55 × 35 × 25 cm
Misses AirAsia by 2 cm and AirAsia X by 2 cm, and 14 more
Two centimetres deeper than most of the shelf. Depth is the figure that fails on the turboprop.
S$99.35
3/17
Cabin Max
Wheeled backpack, 55 x 40 x 20
55 × 40 × 20 cm
Misses AirAsia by 4 cm and AirAsia X by 4 cm, and 12 more
The 40 cm width is the whole story: four centimetres wider than AirAsia, Malaysia Airlines and Firefly allow.
S$84.63
10/17
Hanke
Expandable cabin case, 56 x 35 x 23
56 × 35 × 23 cm
Misses Firefly by 16 cm and Scoot by 2 cm, and 5 more
The only case on the shelf cut to the regional box itself, at the highest price on it.
S$169.14
04 / The frames
Seventeen boxes, as published.
Length, width and depth in centimetres, with the weight allowance beside it. Figures were read from each airline's own cabin baggage page in October 2026, and they change without notice.
| Code | Airline | Frame | Weight | Pieces |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AK | AirAsia | 56 × 36 × 23 cm | 7 kg | One cabin bag, plus one personal item |
| D7 | AirAsia X | 56 × 36 × 23 cm | 7 kg | One cabin bag, plus one personal item |
| MH | Malaysia Airlines | 56 × 36 × 23 cm | 7 kg | One cabin bag, plus one personal item |
| FY | Firefly | 40 × 30 × 20 cm | 7 kg | One cabin bag only |
| OD | Batik Air Malaysia | 56 × 36 × 23 cm | 7 kg | One cabin bag |
| TR | Scoot | 54 × 38 × 23 cm | 10 kg | One cabin bag, plus one personal item |
| 3K | Jetstar Asia | 56 × 36 × 23 cm | 7 kg | One cabin bag, plus one personal item |
| SQ | Singapore Airlines | 56 × 36 × 23 cm | 7 kg | One cabin bag, plus one personal item |
| TG | Thai Airways | 56 × 36 × 23 cm | 7 kg | One cabin bag |
| VN | Vietnam Airlines | 56 × 36 × 23 cm | 12 kg | One cabin bag |
| 5J | Cebu Pacific | 56 × 36 × 23 cm | 7 kg | One cabin bag |
| GA | Garuda Indonesia | 56 × 36 × 23 cm | 7 kg | One cabin bag, plus one personal item |
| EK | Emirates | 55 × 38 × 20 cm | 7 kg | One cabin bag, plus one personal item |
| QR | Qatar Airways | 50 × 37 × 25 cm | 7 kg | One cabin bag, plus one personal item |
| TK | Turkish Airlines | 55 × 40 × 23 cm | 8 kg | One cabin bag, plus one personal item |
| NH | ANA | 55 × 40 × 25 cm | 10 kg | One cabin bag, plus one personal item |
| KE | Korean Air | 55 × 40 × 20 cm | 10 kg | One cabin bag, plus one personal item |
05 / The kit
What travels inside the box.
Ten pieces that change how a bag packs rather than how big it is. None of them carries a frame test, because none of them takes up the frame on its own.
Kriogoa
Luggage scale with backlit display
Backlight and a hold function, for weighing a bag in a dim hotel room.
S$14.32
Generic
Handheld scale with hook strap
Hook rather than handle, which is easier with a duffel that has one strap.
S$26.06
Delicate
Eight-piece packing cube set
Cubes do not add capacity, but they let a soft bag keep its shape inside a hard frame.
S$44.11
Pak
Five-cube set with laundry bag
The laundry bag is the part that earns its place on a four-day trip.
S$36.96
Delicate
Five-piece mesh cube set
Mesh tops, so a bag search at a counter takes one glance instead of one unpack.
S$41.30
Delicate
Eight-piece compression organiser set
A second zip pulls the air out. Clothes arrive flat and stay flat.
S$41.50
Delicate
Compression cubes, medium set
The mid-size set, which fits the 40 x 30 x 20 bags without a fight.
S$37.97
Delicate
Compression cubes with double zip
The largest set on the shelf, priced for a two-week trip rather than a weekend.
S$80.18
Delicate
Large see-through cube set
See-through mesh on the top face, which is what a security tray wants.
S$65.37
06 / The method
How the numbers on this page were read.
Each bag's three figures come from the seller's own listing, in centimetres, with wheels and handles counted where the listing counts them. Each frame comes from the airline's cabin baggage page. The two were put side by side in a script, sorted longest edge against longest edge, and a bag clears a frame only when all three edges fit at once.
Nothing here measures softness, give, or the willingness of a gate agent to look away. A bag that clears by a millimetre is treated exactly like a bag that clears by ten centimetres, and a bag that misses by one is out.
Prices are the Singapore dollar figures Amazon.sg showed on October 2026; they move, and the link always shows the current one. Every product link carries an affiliate tag, which pays this site a commission without changing what a buyer pays.
- Frames read
- 17 airlines
- Bags tested
- 12 against 17 frames
- Fit test
- All three edges, any rotation
- Tolerance
- None. One centimetre is out.
- Prices
- SGD, Amazon.sg, October 2026
07 / Questions
What travellers ask before the flight.
Is the frame the airline publishes the same as the sizer at the gate?
Almost always, though not always in the same units. Some airlines publish inches, some round to the nearest centimetre, and a few publish a frame their own sizer is a little larger than. The figures here are the published ones, because those are the ones a dispute gets settled against.
Why does a bag that clears twelve frames still get stopped?
Weight. A frame is one test and the scale is the other, and on a full flight the scale is the one that gets used. A cabin bag that clears its box empty can still fail once a laptop and four days of clothes are in it.
Do wheels and handles count in the measurement?
They count. Airlines measure the whole object, which is why the figures here are quoted as the seller publishes them rather than as the shell alone. Where a listing separates shell from wheels, the larger figure is the one on this shelf.
Can a soft bag be squeezed into a frame it does not clear?
Sometimes, at the counter, with a queue behind you. This page does not count that as a fit: the test is the frame, not the effort. A bag inside the frame by a centimetre is a different proposition from a bag that has to be pressed.
Where do the prices come from, and does the tag change them?
Amazon.sg, read in October 2026, in Singapore dollars. The tag rides on the link and pays this site a commission; the figure at the checkout is the figure shown here on the day it was read, subject to change on Amazon's side.
What happens to the tally when the page closes?
It stays in this browser, in local storage, under a key named bch_list. Nothing is sent anywhere until the tally is opened and the cart link hands the list to Amazon.sg, which builds the cart in one press.
Disclosure
Product links on this page carry an Amazon Associates tag. A purchase that starts from one can pay this site a commission, and the price the buyer pays does not change. Full disclosure.
Frames
Allowances were read from each airline's own published cabin baggage page in October 2026. Airlines change them without notice, and the airline's figure always wins over this page. Frames in detail.
Prices
Prices are Singapore dollar figures shown by Amazon.sg on the day of the reading, and they move. Nothing on this page is an offer, and no card details are ever entered here. Terms.
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