For most of the time commercial flight has been available to the average traveler, avoiding extra fees and other paid aspects of flying has been a part of nearly every passenger’s journey.
To reduce the cost of checking a bag and ensuring that their items will not be lost in the shuffle from airport to airport, some travelers have sought the perfect carry-on bag that will pack the most items while ensuring that they would not incur an extra cost.
In recent years, many bags have been marketed as meeting strict sizing regulations for multiple airlines. One brand has emerged as exceptionally popular among young women, Béis. Recently, the brand launched a small roller case that is marketed as the perfect size to fit in the overhead bins of most major airlines.
Now, a content creator who focuses on luggage and packing reviews, says she is concerned about the marketing of the bag, as it may work for one airline, but likely will not fit a lot of smaller, more regional flights as they often use smaller planes.
In her video, Rilee Smith (@rileejsmith) says she believes the marketing for the bag to be misleading. The dimensions provided by Béis for the bag are larger than what is allowed in the overhead bin for many airlines, she claims.
“Béis is a brand that comes up a lot on this channel because their standard carry-on bag is notoriously too big to be a carry-on size for most major airlines,” she says in the video. “As I’m speaking right now, there are going to be people typing in my comment section about how they’ve used their Béis across Europe and the United States and they’ve never had a problem.”
She goes on to say that the new mini roller bag, which has dimensions of 17 by 16.5 inches with a depth of 9 inches, when compared against measurement guidelines for many major airlines, only fits the requirements of Spirit Airlines for carry-on bag sizing.
“So what’s the big deal here?” she says. “A lot of bags are technically too big to work for a lot of U.S. airlines, why am I specifically calling Béis misleading with this campaign? Because in their social media post, and in their copy for the bag on the website, they are doubling and tripling down that this is a carry-on bag.”
Smith says marketing videos from the company show that the bag can technically be stowed in the overhead bin, but they only show the bag sizer for Spirit Airlines, as it is likely too large to fit in sizers for other airlines. She shows screen grabs of the comment section from the video, which features responses from the company claiming to have used Spirit Airlines because it is the “most strict” when it comes to carry-on sizing.
“First of all, that’s not true,” she says. “All you have to do is look at different airline size requirements to know that Spirit is the largest size. I also find it very telling that the only video they’ve posted showing that the bag fits the airport carry-on sizer was the sizer for Spirit Airlines, which is the biggest of all of them and the only one that actually fits and meets size requirements for.”
Ultimately, Smith says this makes her upset specifically because of how it will impact consumers who purchase the bag because of the marketing around it.
“The reason this makes me so upset and the reason I think this is so misleading is because the average consumer is not me,” she says. “They are not crazy about looking at luggage specs. They are going to look at the social media posts, see that it fits in airport sizers, see that it fits in the overhead bins, look at the product page, and see that it’s labeled as a carry-on. They are going to invest their money in this quite expensive luggage, rest assured that they just bought a really cool new carry-on bag. They’ll be able to take it on one or two flights and be fine, I’m sure, but the second they are asked to put it in the airport sizer to verify, or a gate agent spots that it is too big, they are going to have to check that bag.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Smith and Béis via email regarding the video.
When it comes to the dimensions of the bag, many major airlines cap their dimensions at 22 by 14 inches, with a depth of nine inches, making the bag too wide for the following airlines when it comes to carry-on sizing, per Travel and Leisure:
- Alaska Airlines
- Allegiant Air
- American Airlines
- Delta Airlines
- Frontier Airlines
- JetBlue
- Southwest Airlines
- United Airlines
@rileejsmith a mini rant about the beis mini roller and carry on size requirements 👀🙈 shop smart out there, friends! always check your luggage dimensions! #luggage #traveltips #suitcase #beisminiroller #beis #travel #packing #packingtips #travellife ♬ original sound – Rilee
Several viewers self-identifying as passengers and flight crew said they have experienced issues with Béis bags being oversized, impacting room available for other passengers’ bags.
“Not me watching all the Beis carryons go ahead of me on my last flight and me whose carryon bag actually fit the size requirements had to check at the gate because there was no room left,” one commenter wrote.
“FA here, beis are so pretty but they are the worst and most problematic bags in the overhead bins! Especially when they’re expanded!” another said. “They never fit and take up 2 spots!”
“I saw a girl balling her eyes out on a plane because her Beis expanded carryon was too large and they were going to make her check it,” a further user added.
The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.