Thought I’d add a few more thoughts on the well-reviewed Aer City Pack Pro. Also, did a couple of my own modifications to customize this bag more to my liking. It’s a great bag, but now it’s really “mine” and works better for me. I see the newly released City Pack Pro 2 took care of some of these issues, but not others, so I feel pretty happy with my own adjustments.
Pros:
Love the premium feeling 1680D ballistic nylon. Looks great and seems durable and abrasion resistant. Bag has the just right amount of pockets for me. Not too many, not too few. External form factor is nice and compact. Fits under domestic USA flight seat in some cases turned 90 degrees (18″ length fits the width of the underseat space). A tad heavy compared to super light bags, but really comfortable to wear with those nicely padded straps.
Cons:
– The vertical orientation of the luggage pass through is a very meh design choice. Maybe if there were other handles, it would be somewhat okay. It took 3 hands to put it on a roller. My 2 hands futzing around figuring out where to grab the bag and pull on the nylon webbing. My spouse’s hand to hold the miscellaneous items I was holding. Plus, in certain conditions, my water bottle may have some small amount of water at the lid that spills out a few drops when turned horizontal. Bag is water resistant enough, but this is annoying and needless. Fortunately, the CPP2 fixes this issue. For my CPP1, I’ve fixed it myself for now by adding a nylon strap, similar to what I did to an old Timbuk2 bag here:
– Key leash inside side pocket. makes a lot of sense conceptually. in execution, when loaded out, it’s tight in there and getting my keys in/out doesn’t happen as easily as in review videos. I like keeping a phone charger there instead. I really like how the CPP1 has that dedicated side pocket. The CPP2 has two water bottle pockets instead which seems nice, but in reality, I don’t tend to have two bottles, but I do always have a charger. As for the key leash location, should be easy fix to DIY sew one in the admin panel. Went ahead and did that. Only took a few minutes. I placed it in the middle so the keys can tuck into that little pocket. It’s sort of in the way of the zipper, but I don’t open that all the way, just part way to access the mesh section. This this small mod will be more useful for me. The CPP2 puts a key leash in that front pocket, but that seems odd to me. I’d prefer them to stay in the admin panel. I also tend to just store flat objects in that lower pocket, and if I put keys there, they would sort of fight with each other.
Neutral:
– As I just mentioned, the front lower pocket is a tight fit. This flaw has been covered well by reviewers. I stuffed some ANC headphones in there. Barely fit. Not sure what this pocket should hold other than flat objects.
– The sunglass holder: taking up some space in the main compartment doesn’t really bother me since my clothes kind of push down. But it fits only my glasses/sunglasses OR my phone, but not both. For going through TSA, I end up putting my phone in the laptop area or glasses in the admin panel. Overall, I mostly like this pocket. I think I’ll start keeping glasses in a case in the admin panel so I can use this pocket as quick access/storage for my phone mainly for the TSA line.
– Separate laptop area: a lot of people really want/need this feature, but I realized (after buying the bag) I’ll rarely have a laptop (only for business travel) and if I do, I won’t ever need to easily access it at the airport or on-the-go. So the divider just adds weight and takes up space. Slightly useful for putting flat shoes like sandals in the laptop area, and gives a little structure/separation. However, I might take the radical step of cutting it out altogether. Feels like I’d prefer the larger space over the organization. Will see if I get brave and cut it out.
– Water bottle holder: imho it’s very nice. I thought I’d really want it on the R side of the bag, but in reality, it turns out I don’t care. It’s only convenient when I go fill up my bottle at the airport when carrying the backpack on my R side. Otherwise I never need to access it unless I’m sitting and not wearing the backpack.
– Weight: slightly heavy un-filled, don’t really notice carrying it. prefer the Cordura and some structure rather than a super light but floppy bag, so this is neutral to positive.
Overall I love it. I’d definitely recommend it primarily for air travel for one-bagging or in combination with a small roller. Looks premium for business travel and more unique with no loud logos compared to the endless Swiss Gear or outdoorsy bags you see everywhere. I work from home so don’t need an EDC, but it would work well (but slightly large) for that kind of use case as well.
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