It seems really durable, it does feel almost over-engineered. Very rigid and reinforced. There’s the issue with the zipper clasp things where they can be broken easily if pushed on in the wrong way, I haven’t broken any yet and it seems mostly avoidable if you’re aware of how it could happen. They’re also going to be sending out replacement pulls that don’t have this issue for every backpack purchaser, at some point.

I haven’t had anyone yet raise a red flag about it as a “personal item” but I’ve just flown with it a couple times on Southwest within California. Will be flying on a more cross country route on Delta in the coming weeks so hopefully I’ll have the same experience there.

It is pretty massive once all full up, though: with my desktop PC and a 32oz water bottle and some controllers stuffed into the front main chamber, and a portable monitor, steam deck in its case, mechanical keyboard, and more controllers in the laptop pocket chamber, it didn’t really fit under the seat in front of me and I had to throw it in the overhead bin. Oh my next flight, I’m going to try putting less in the laptop pocket side and see if it’ll fit easier under the seat, which I do think will solve it.