Virgin Atlantic allows a cabin bag of 56 × 36 × 23 cm — 22 × 14.2 × 9 inches — and weighs it at 10 kg (22 lb), which most US carriers never do. Virgin Atlantic publishes no personal item dimensions.
Fare class: Allowance varies by cabin rather than by Economy fare tier.
Virgin describes the personal item only qualitatively — a handbag or small rucksack “as you would normally use it” — and publishes no dimensions. Lower confidence: every current Virgin hand-baggage page we tried was JavaScript-rendered or returned a 404, so these figures come from a Virgin-hosted PDF scoped to bookings before December 2019. They match Virgin’s long-standing policy but we could not confirm them against a live page.
Measure the outside, wheels and handles included — that’s what they measure at the gate.
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Exactly 22 × 14 × 9 overall — genuinely legal with the wheels counted, which almost no other "20-inch" bag can claim. Lightest in this group, and it expands two inches.
Built to maximum-legal geometry on purpose. The flat 22 × 14 × 8 box wastes almost no sizer volume, and it’s the only backpack here strictly inside 22 × 14 × 9 on all three axes.
A pound and a half for 45 litres inside a legal carry-on footprint, and it converts to a backpack. Nothing else here comes close on weight.
A ripstop bomber duffel with lockable zips and stowable backpack straps that packs down into itself. The durability pick.
The reference point for one-bag travel. Suspended mesh backpanel, stowaway harness, a proper hipbelt, clamshell opening.
9.1" depth is a hair over the nine-inch box, but it’s soft and compresses. Legacy S/M and M/L versions still circulate with different specs.
The women’s-fit sibling to the Farpoint. Identical outer dimensions, different harness and torso geometry.
56 × 36 × 23 cm, which is 22 × 14.2 × 9 inches, up to 10 kg (22 lb).
Virgin Atlantic publishes no dimensions for a personal item. A small bag is described but not measured, so there is no number to check against.
Yes. A standard American 22 × 14 × 9 inch carry-on clears Virgin Atlantic’s 22 × 14.2 × 9 inch limit, though the 10 kg weight limit is the more likely problem.
Allowance varies by cabin rather than by Economy fare tier.
Of the bags we track, 6 of 16 carry-ons fit the cabin limit. All of them are under the weight limit empty.
Manufacturers publish dimensions inconsistently, and a “20-inch” spinner is almost never 20 inches once you count the wheels. Where a brand states dimensions including wheels and handles, that’s the number we use. Where it only publishes the case, we say so on the card. Airlines measure the outside of your bag — wheels, handles, straps and all. Anything marked borderline is down to the gate agent, and remember that a soft bag squashes into a sizer while a hard shell won’t.
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Limits verified August 2026 against each carrier’s published policy. Airlines change these without notice — always confirm before you fly. Spirit Airlines ceased operations on 2 May 2026 and is no longer listed.
Airline Bag Size Checker v1.0.15 · last updated 2026-08-12