The most extensive P.A.C.K. Air review ever

At this point, I have traveled with Battle Foam's P.A.C.K. Air accross the Atlantic three times and in a nutshell I have to say this bag is no good for air travel although it's a supreme quality product. If you buy a competitor's product, you'll probably run into the same amount of trouble or even worse, but although the Air implies it is good for air travel, I think I will use it for surface travel in the future only.

See, the problem with the Air are its dimensions. According to Battle Foam they are

25W x 16L x 11H" (635W x 406L x 279H mm)

but in reality they are a little bit larger because of the rail, the weels, etc. Even with empty outside pockets my bag didn't fit into American Airline's carry-on sizer, so the bag with my miniatures flew as a checked bag twice in connection with the 2012 Wargames Con. Now for Battle Foam's defense I have to admit that they print this on their website:

Please check your airlines carry-on rules before travel.

which I didn't do, of course, until my last flight. I mean, when you purchase a ticket, you usually look at departure times and ticket price, but not the carry-on dimensions, right?

Well, before my last flight I did check on carry-on dimensions and found this one the AA website:

Total dimensions may not exceed 45in / 114cm (length + width + height). Length shall not exceed 22in / 56cm, width shall not exceed 14in / 35cm and height shall not exceed 9in / 23cm. The bag must fit in the baggage frames located throughout the check-in area at the airport.

So based on the AA information I would have had no chance (25/22, 16/14, 11/9) to even remotely fit my Air into the carry-on sizer. However, curious me still tried to do it and the only thing that made me fail was the rail on the Air's backside. If you somehow could unscrew/take off the rail,  you could fit it into the bag sizer.

To wrap up this part, I can say that

1. Having to check carry-on dimensions is bothersome and not reliable.
2. Using the Air for air travel is bothersome.

To be honest, my best air travel experience with a Battle Foam product was during my initial journey to the 2011 Wargames Con when I borrowed a P.A.C.K. Plus from a local colleague. Traveling with that bag was simply smooth. National flights in the USA normally feature smaller airplanes with less overhead cabin space and a flight attendant was sceptic the Plus would fit there, but it perfectly did.

Now that I rechecked Battle Foam for this article for the Plus I noticed in its product description that 

The P.A.C.K Plus was designed for airport travel and meets all FAA regulations for carryon luggage.

Heck yes! So take this advice from a fellow gamer: if you are looking for an awesome reasonably sized pack for ground travel, go for the P.A.C.K. Air. If you need something for air travel, don't let its name fool you and go for the P.A.C.K. Plus instead. The Air may work on your flight, but chances are very high it won't. With the Plus you are on the save side, though.

I for my part will definitely purchase a Plus on top of my Air. It can easily hold a large WM/H army, probably even two of them, but my 2011 experience while traveling with Blood Angels tells me that for Warhammer 40K the options are rather limiting your army list. Since I don't intend to take any competitive 40K lists to the USA anyway, I don't really care. So yes, the Plus it is.

Now let's look at the damage to my miniatures that traveled in my check Air:

On a first glance, everything is ok.

What I found really impressive was that the rods on my Stormcallers nicely stayed on. The antennas of my two Dust artillery observers got slightly bent because they were moving up and down in their compartments. (other than that, WM/H small infantry Battle Foam trays are perfect for Dust miniatures) The part that makes my heart bleed is that pEiryss lost her arm again - and so far I haven't been able to find it. Normally, broken off pieces stay in their relevant compartment, but her arm managed to slide to a place I haven't found it yet - and this happened despite the top beaing heavily covered with foam layers.

I also found very impressive, too, that the Fennblades took absolutely no damage, although their swords are oversized for their compartments. The Kriel Stone fell off, but this can be expected from such a heavy piece resting on two small joints only.

eCaine lost both his arms. Luckily I was still able to find them (unlike pEiryss' arm), but it's still kind of bad because it damages the painting job. On the other hand, eNemo's staff nicely stayed on although he suffered the same averse conditions.

Looking at the Warjacks and Warbeasts. The Fireflies and the Impalers didn't care, neither did the Stormclad (except for its banner that fell of again; it was broken before the flight already).

The Thunderhead, however, fell into all its pieces.

The Hammersmith tilted in its custom sized cut out and lost his arms/Hammers.

The Stormwall... well, I really didn't expect any damage to it because it sat so firmly in its custom foam. Obviously, that wasn't good enough. However, the big relevant parts are still intact so it's not that big of an issue especially since it's not painted yet.

So here are my big lessons learned:

1. Battle Foam makes superb products, but the P.A.C.K. Air is not meant for air travel.
2. Although I had to check the P.A.C.K. Air twice, damage to my models was very limited except for bits that I am not able to find anymore.
3. The P.A.C.K. Plus does the job well. If you travel with that bag and carry it with you for the entire journey, you can expect to see no damage at all.