The Best Carry-On Luggage for Sun Country

The roomiest box in the table

Sun Country publishes a carry-on maximum of 24 × 16 × 11 in. Multiply that out and it is 69.2 L of geometry, against 45.4 L for the 22 × 14 × 9 in box that seven of the eleven US carriers we track publish. It is roomier than Frontier and Southwest, both at 24 × 16 × 10 in, and the only published US box with 11 in of depth.

Of the bags in our ledger with published dimensions, 21 clear it. So the interesting question on Sun Country is not what fits. It is what the bag weighs and whether you are paying for the bin at all. Sun Country’s published rules has the fare-level detail.

Why this page ranks on weight

A published weight cap counts the suitcase. Sun Country publishes 35 lb — the same figure Frontier and Breeze publish, and ten pounds more generous than Hawaiian’s 25 lb. Most US carriers publish no cabin weight limit at all, which is exactly why the ones that do deserve a different shopping list.

Six pounds separates the top and bottom rows — roughly a week of shirts. On a carrier that publishes a cap and sells you the bin, that is the difference worth optimizing.

What 11 inches of depth is actually for

Depth is the dimension most carriers are stingiest about, and the one that swallows shoes, rolled layers and anything with a fixed shape. Sun Country publishing 11 in means two things in practice:

• Soft bags stop being a risk. A stuffed pack gains depth exactly where a sizer is tightest. With two inches of headroom over the standard box, that stops mattering.
• Expandable cases can actually be expanded. Several hardsides in our ledger publish an expansion of an inch or more that is unusable at the 9 in standard. Here it fits.
• It is a trap if you fly anyone else. A bag bought to fill this box is over the limit at eight of the eleven carriers we track. The bags that clear the strict box is the safer list for mixed flying.

The bin is a paid extra

Sun Country publishes the overhead bag as a purchase rather than an inclusion, and the free bag is the personal item at a published 17 × 13 × 9 in — 32.6 L of geometry, which is about three quarters of a standard carry-on and more than most daypacks hold.

For a two or three night trip that is genuinely enough. Which carriers charge for the bin puts Sun Country alongside Frontier, Allegiant, Breeze and Ryanair, and the bags built to a personal-item box is the shelf to shop if you would rather not pay.

The picks

• Best overall → Osprey Farpoint 40. A published 3.27 lb for 40 L is the best carry efficiency on this site at 0.08 lb per liter, it leaves 31.7 lb of the cap, and the All Mighty Guarantee publishes no end date.
• Best wheeled bag → Travelpro Maxlite 5, a published 5.4 lb and the lightest wheeled case we track. Its 23 in published height is over the standard box elsewhere but comfortably inside this one.
• Cheapest that fits → American Tourister Stratum 2.0 at a published $89.99, with a 10 year warranty term.
• If you want the expansion → Samsonite Freeform at 23 × 15 × 10 in published, a case whose depth only makes sense on a carrier publishing a box this deep.

Before you buy

Weigh the packed bag at home. A 35 lb cabin cap is close enough to a normal packed weight that guessing is a genuinely bad idea, and a luggage scale costs about ten dollars — the ones we track publish their own accuracy tolerances.

And check what else you fly. If Sun Country is one carrier on a calendar that also includes Delta or American, buy for the 22 × 14 × 9 in box and treat this one as the bonus. Every published limit is in one table.