How To Measure Luggage: A Step-By-Step Guide

Here’s a scenario you don’t want to be in: you roll up to the airplane gate and they ask you to see if your carry-on fits in the measuring box. No problem. You lift your suitcase, put it in, and… oops… it doesn’t fit. You flip it over, try to shove it in, jump on top of it. There’s no way it’s going in.

“Sorry,” says the gate agent. “You’re going to have to check that bag, and you’re going to have to pay for it.”

Fortunately, you don’t ever have to be in that situation. With just a little forethought, it’s easy to look up your airline’s size limit and measure your suitcase to be sure it will fit.

And trust me, it’s much better to learn how to measure luggage ahead of time so you don’t have to pay to check a bag you weren’t planning on paying for.

So, if you want to know how to measure your luggage, you’re in the right place. Let’s get started.

What You’ll Need to Measure Luggage

Measuring luggage is actually pretty straightforward, but you are going to need something to measure with (crazy, I know). A tape measure is the best option, but a yardstick will also do the trick.

And hey, if all you have is a dinky six-inch Care Bear ruler, you can make do with that. Remember the trick of measuring six inches, marking the spot with your finger, and measuring again from there? It’s not exact, but it’ll do the job.

In addition to some sort of measuring device, it’s handy to measure in an area with a hard floor next to a wall (we’ll get into this later).

I also recommend using a book, clipboard, or some other flat surface to make sure you get an accurate measurement.

If you want to weigh your luggage (which is a great idea), you’ll also need some sort of scale. A normal bathroom scale works well, but a luggage scale is cheap, compact, and easier to use. If you travel a lot, it might be a good thing to have.

If you want to get really fancy, Samsonite has a two-in-one tape measure/luggage scale combo. It’s pretty nerdy, but I’ll admit that I want one.

How To Find Airline Size Restrictions

The first thing you need to do is find the luggage size and weight restrictions for carry-on and checked luggage for the airline(s) you’ll be flying with. That’s as easy as Googling “[fill in your airline] luggage size restrictions.”

For example, if I Google “Frontier luggage size restrictions” the first result is a convenient FAQ page that shows Frontier’s size and weight limits.

It’s also helpful to…