Tom Bihn Co-Pilot Personal Carry On Bag Review

The Co-Pilot from Tom Bihn brings class and style to a bag you will want to bring on the plane. It's a little pricey at over $100, but I needn't remind you that you get what you pay for--namely durability and usability--in a bag that'd darn versatile, do I?

I like Tom Bihn bags. They're built and designed in Seattle. They have a close association with the people who buy their bags--and they take heed of what people like and don't like about them. It's the way things used to be done in the US: Make an innovative product that people will want to buy.

Tom Bihn's latest bag is called the Co-Pilot. The Co-Pilot is a diminutive "personal carry-on" bag. Ok, your first thoughts might be, "Ah! A man purse!" I know, that was my thinking exactly.

Of course, the Co-Pilot could be a man purse; it's not cheap and has plenty of room for our kinda stuff, just like woman purses.

But what we're really talking about here is a bag you'd feel comfortable with carrying on. A small bag. Stats: 12" x 10" x 5", 600-cubic inches inside space. Maybe they'd let you carry it on for free, since it's so "personal" sized. You could argue it isn't as large as the purses you see around you in the boarding area. You know, the kind that can hold a small Maserati.

Anyway, despite its size, the Co-Pilot can hold a lot of stuff. And safely; the bag has Bihn's trade mark gasketed zippers. Word on the web is that some of the more minimalist travel bloggers among us will try using the Co-Pilot as their only bag on a trip. Good luck with that.

We took it to Palm Springs with us. What could we put in it? Just about anything you'd want to carry in a bag that didn't really impede your foot room all that much if you were forced to "place your belongings below the seat in front of you."

The Ultrasuede-lined left pocket allows you expensive smart phone to snuggle up safe and sound with room left over for something like a toiletry kit. There's a pocket that fits a water bottle for when the airlines start charging $14.99 for a plastic cup filled with tap water. There's even drainage in that center pocket, in case you couldn't afford a water bottle that didn't leak. Another pocket has a place to keep your pencils and notebook--and maybe a charger or two. Those make up the three available front pockets. More ideas for their use are found on Tom Bihn's site.

The main compartment can store some bigger stuff, or, as Tom Bihn says,: "like more clothes and your netbook, iPad, Kindle, or book."

Well, they lied. Our "normal" but small and travelworthy Thinkpad X61 notebook fits either in the main compartment or in the back pocket, which would also be uber-useful for that magazine you're planning to read on the plane.

What did we get into the Co-Pilot? Without making it bulge, we stuffed in our laptop, digital camera, smart phone, water bottle, kindle, corkscrew, pencils, a notebook, some personal toiletries and a change of clothing in it. In fact, you can see all this in our video: Tom Bihn Co-Pilot. What Can You Get in That Little Thing?

Could we travel a couple weeks with just a Co-pilot each? I've seen people do it with bags as small, but you better do it in summer.