Home / Methodology
How we source airline limits and bag sizes
Airline limits
- Every limit is read from the airline's own baggage page and stored with that page's URL and the year it was checked (2026 for this edition).
- Where the airline's page could not be confirmed to state a figure, the figure is stored as unknown and pages say "check the airline". We never fill a gap from a third-party site.
- Limits are compared in the unit the airline publishes. A 55 cm limit is compared in centimetres, so a 22 inch (55.9 cm) bag correctly fails it.
Bag sizes
- Bag dimensions come from the product listing. We record whether the listing says the size includes wheels and handles.
- Only wheels-included sizes are used for carry-on verdicts. A body-only size can be one to two inches shorter than the bag that goes into the sizer.
- Both sets of three dimensions are sorted largest first and compared side by side. Exactly on the limit passes; any amount over fails, apart from a 0.05 allowance for inch-to-centimetre rounding in listings.
Products
Products and images come from Amazon's product data at the time of checking, and budget bands come from the price then. Amazon's price at checkout is the one that counts. We do not test products in person; picks are researched from specifications, certifications and verified owner reviews.
Researched, not professional advice. Limits change; confirm with your airline before you fly.
