Anyone fancy finding me the ultimate airplane bag ... ?

[Whitney168]

Am searching (and failing) for a fabulous flight bag, with the following criteria - has anyone seen anything that might fit the bill?:

• Real leather (maybe suede)
• Tote/shopper style, probably, for size
• Nice as well as functional, must go comfortably on shoulders or cross-body
• Fairly but not ridiculously big, needs to fit under seat in front rather than need to go in lockers up top (so probably not too structured as won't squish)
• Zips/fastens at top
• Ideally a pocket on outside for passports
• Some sort of divisions inside, or at the very least a couple of decent size outside pockets
• Very unlikely to be black, definitely not brown/beige tones - ideal would be red/grey probably.

Reading that lot, I'm not surprised I've not found anything LOL.

This Kurt Geiger one is about the closest I've got so far, but it's a bit 'structured'.

I'd rather it cost less than the KG, but if I found the perfect thing I'd go to that sort of level. I don't want obvious branding, can live with the level on that one.

If anyone has seen anything that might fit work, would love to see it.

I have a bag that I absolutely adore, but it's not leather. On purpose - airplanes are filthy and do you want to stuff a real leather bag under the seat? Mine is wipe clean. See here, I have Zalia, but they have other interesting options.
And it has a strap for suitcase handle, which is brilliant.
www.samsonite.co.uk/shopping-bags/

MiaTui - I’m looking at the moment too and these keep coming up in my FB feed. I can’t decide if they look a bit cheap. Link miatui.com/collections/travel-bags.

The Zalia is absolutely what I should want, extremely practical - I'm just not sensible enough to be practical LOL.

The Jennie on MiaTui is about spot on what I want in shape and size - if that were leather, I'd have it like a shot and gladly pay the price. I might do fabric of some sort if I found the perfect one (although rather not), but I won't do 'faux leather', I find they all just look crap after a few uses.

Maybe try Fossil? They have various tote bags but not sure if they're big enough. This is a burgundy-ish one.

www.fossil.com/uk/en/products/campbell-tote-sku-zb7641503c.html

Excellent, hammering - Fossil one of the few I'd not investigated, and they had several possibilities.

Emma tote in forest green ordered!

www.fossil.com/uk/en/products/emma-tote-sku-zb6844p.html

Sorry, meant to type thank you in there!

Excellent choice, I have the emma in tan. No inside compartments though.
I also got the Mia Tui Jennie but it's HUGE and stank so much it was totally unusable even after airing it outside for several days. Can't recommend.

Few inside pockets at least though - fingers crossed its as nice as it looks.

Ooh following.

OP, if the new bag is perfect except for lack of pockets, you can use make-up bags to organise your cutter. I've got loads of freebie ones from buying cosmetics (a bit like this ) which are perfect for the job. I use a couple in my work bag to keep all the fiddly little bits and bobs together.

Came to say longchamp le pliage in leather but saw you got a Fossil

I love my fossil bags - they've never failed me and I often buy them secondhand

Tkmaxx do some nice make up bags that you can use as internal organisers - I picked some up for sun team etc for my take to the pool bag

Longchamp are great for travel bags (like pp I don't want to smush any of my lovely leather or suede bags under the seat on the airplane floor. Yuck!) Long handles for shoulder use, spacious, wipe clean...and pack down flat. I stow my nice handbag(s) in my luggage then switch over on arrival.

Cross-post, sorry!

www.kipling.com/uk-en/catalogsearch/result/?q=leather

Maybe something here would be suitable.

Fossil bags are amazing!

Agree re Fossil. They have some amazing stuff.

I have a Village England bag that is great for travel ... called the Stanian I think - bought because I'm a sucker for big external pockets! No internal dividers though.

Smythson are GREAT for travel bags but cost a pretty penny!

You could get an internal organiser with lots of pockets for storing your stuff.

www.amazon.co.uk/Bag-Organisers/b?node=2732108031&tag=mumsnetforum-21&ie=UTF8

The Fossil didn't have the outside pocket, but did have a few inside ones at least. Have gone for one of those Amazon organisers too, good idea!

I hadn’t focused on the MiaTui being faux leather. And it’s not good that they smell! Yuck.

I use a le pliage usually. Hold a lot and are light themselves.

Liked quite a few on the Fossil website though.

I too have lots of cosmetic bags for organising stuff. And like the look of the bag organisers.

I’m flying to Australia in a couple of weeks and want to be organised rather than hunting around in my bag all the time.

What I love about the samsonite one is that it's very practical as travel bag, but you can go straight into meetings, as it looks like a proper handbag.
In any case, I can't recommend the luggage strap enough. I travel a lot, sometimes several flights per week. Such a difference if you can secure the bag to your suitcase and not worry about it flapping around or falling down when you're running though airports.

Bag arrived today, lovely - just the job. Good colour and there IS a pocket on outside (some colours seemed to have it on website, others didn't).

Thank you for tip!