| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Value for money | Calpak |
| Capacity | Béis Weekender |
| Number of pockets | Calpak (9 vs. 7) |
| Aesthetics / Colors | Tie (different styles) |
| Durability (user reports) | Calpak (edge) |
| Customer service | Inconclusive |
| Best personal item | Calpak Luka |
| Best weekender bag | Béis Weekender |
The 30-Second Answer
If you want a lightweight personal item that slides under the seat in front of you, buy the Calpak Luka Duffel ($128). It holds 22 liters, has nine pockets, comes in 18 colors, and fits under the seat on most major US airlines. If you want a structured weekend bag with real capacity for a 4–5 day trip - one you'll put in the overhead bin - buy the Béis Weekender ($108). It holds 49 liters and has an expandable bottom compartment for shoes, toiletries, or dirty laundry.
The most important thing to understand before you read another word: these are not the same bag. The Calpak is a personal item. The Béis is a weekender. A lot of online confusion exists because they're priced similarly and marketed to the same Instagram-adjacent buyer - but the 22L vs. 49L capacity gap means they serve fundamentally different travel scenarios. If you're new to the distinction, our carry-on vs. personal item guide explains what each category means for airline rules.
Brand Overview: Calpak vs. Béis
Calpak has been around since 1989, starting as a handbag company before expanding into travel bags, hard-sided luggage, and accessories. It's carved out a position as stylish-but-affordable, with wide color ranges and practical features at prices most travelers can justify. Béis launched in 2018, founded by actress Shay Mitchell, and exploded on Instagram and TikTok almost immediately. It now sells a full line of bags and luggage, all with a more structured, design-forward aesthetic.
Both brands target the same buyer: a style-conscious traveler who wants something that looks good without spending $500. Both went viral on social media. Both sit in the $100–$250 range for their flagship soft bags. That's why the comparison makes sense - and why the question of whether Béis justifies its positioning as a "celebrity brand" is worth asking honestly.
Calpak Luka Duffel vs. Béis Weekender: Head-to-Head
These are the two flagship soft bags from each brand - and the comparison that dominates this keyword online. Here's everything you need to know.
Specs Side-by-Side
| Spec | Calpak Luka Duffel | Béis Weekender |
|---|---|---|
| Dimensions | 12" × 16" × 7" | 19" × 9.8" × 15.7" |
| Capacity | 22L | 49L |
| Compartments / Pockets | 9 | 7 |
| Price | $128 | $108 |
| Trolley Sleeve | Yes | Yes |
| Detachable Strap | Yes | Yes |
| Color Options | 18 | 8 |
| Best Use | Personal item / under-seat | Weekender / overhead bin |
Specs sourced from published editorial testing and brand sites. Verify current specs and prices against brand sites before purchasing.
The capacity difference is the headline number here. At 22 liters, the Calpak is sized for a personal item - it fits under the seat, holds 2–3 days of essentials with careful packing, and compresses easily when not full. At 49 liters, the Béis is more than twice the volume - a true weekend bag that belongs in the overhead bin. On price, Béis is actually $20 cheaper at list, which surprises a lot of people who assume the celebrity branding adds a premium.
Organization and Pockets
The Calpak Luka has nine compartments - both zippered and open - plus a built-in shoe compartment, a detachable long strap, and a trolley sleeve for attaching to a rolling suitcase. In practice, the nine pockets are genuinely useful and the bag stays organized even when packed quickly. The shoe compartment is optional; if you don't use it, it adds a bit of bulk on one side, which some travelers find annoying.
The Béis Weekender has seven compartments, with a wire-frame opening on the main compartment that lets you prop it open and see everything inside - a feature that owners genuinely like. Its signature feature is the expandable zippered bottom compartment, which can hold shoes, a toiletry bag, or dirty laundry separately from the main section. That said, travelers in luggage communities have noted a real trade-off: when you don't fill the bottom compartment, the structure collapses inward and makes the bag look misshapen. One owner described it directly - "if I wasn't using the shoe compartment, that space became unusable and collapsed into itself when I only packed the top compartment." It's a design trade-off worth knowing about, not a defect.
Capacity - Understanding the Size Difference
Think of 22 liters as a long weekend bag if you pack efficiently, or a day bag that actually holds something. You can fit a change of clothes, a laptop, toiletries, and a layer - but you're making choices. That's a feature for some travelers and a constraint for others.
At 49 liters, the Béis Weekender is more forgiving. You can pack shoes, a few outfit changes, toiletries, and extras without rationing. It's comfortably sized for a 4–5 day trip. The practical implication is simple: if you're flying and need your bag under the seat, take the Calpak. If you're doing a weekend trip with flexibility on overhead bin use, the Béis makes more sense.
Design and Aesthetics
Calpak offers 18 color options, which is a genuine advantage if you care about color. The silhouette is softer and squishier - it conforms to available space, compresses easily for storage at home, and the fabric tends to clean well. Travelers who've used Calpak bags for 2+ years describe the look as holding up reasonably: some handle wear over time, but the overall look stays presentable.
Béis offers 8 color options and a more structured, refined silhouette. It sits upright on its own, has metal feet on the base to keep the bottom clean, and has the kind of polished look that reads as "put together" at an airport. The downside: lighter-colored Béis bags can be hard to keep clean. Owners in travel communities have flagged that the material in lighter colorways shows dirt quickly and doesn't wipe down as easily as Calpak's fabric.
Overall, Béis is more Instagram-forward - the bag looks great on camera. Calpak is more everyday-versatile, with more color choice and fabric that ages a bit better in real use.
Comfort and Carry
Both bags have short top handles, a detachable long strap, and a trolley sleeve for attaching to a rolling suitcase - the carry features are largely equivalent. The Calpak's padded exterior makes it comfortable against the body, and its squishy shape adapts when you sling it over a shoulder. The Béis is more structured, which means it sits cleanly but doesn't mold to your body; and because it can hold so much, there's a temptation to overpack it, which makes the carry heavier than it needs to be. An independent editorial tester who carried both bags on two separate two-week international trips rated each 20/20 for comfort - so neither is notably worse in this category.
Durability: What Real Users Report After 2+ Years
Most editorial reviews cover one bag over a handful of trips. Travelers in online luggage communities have longer data sets, and the Calpak vs. Béis durability question has come up repeatedly in those discussions.
Calpak gets mostly positive long-term reports. Multiple owners describe using Calpak totes and duffels for 2+ years - for work and travel - with only expected cosmetic wear: handle fraying on totes, some scuffing, but the structure holding up. The Calpak Luka duffel specifically has been called out in these communities as a "winner" among personal item bags, with owners praising that it's "easy to clean" and "very spacious" even with normal wear visible after extended use.
Béis generates a different pattern. The most explicit long-term feedback skews negative relative to expectations - owners who "had a couple of Béis bags and weren't a fan of the quality." A recurring criticism is that the brand carries what travelers have called a "social media and celebrity tax": you're partly paying for the aesthetic and the influencer association, and the product doesn't always live up to that premium perception. That said, this is a selective sample from forums where people go when they have opinions, and Béis has many satisfied owners. It's also worth noting that neither brand is premium luggage - both are mid-range $100–$250 products where some wear after 2 years is expected.
Verdict on durability: Calpak has a documented edge in long-term user reports. Béis has more question marks relative to its brand positioning. If durability is your top priority and you want to see how both compare against harder-wearing options, our top durable carry-ons guide covers bags with longer track records.
Customer Service and Return Policies
This is a topic no other Calpak vs. Béis article covers, and it matters if something goes wrong after you buy.
Calpak has documented customer service issues in travel communities. In mid-2023, multiple owners reported that Calpak's CS promised a 3–5 day email response but went quiet - chat didn't respond and the phone system hung up when callers tried to leave a message. More recently, in early 2025, owners warned others about Calpak's exchange policy: Calpak does not do direct exchanges. If you buy the wrong color or receive something defective, you have to initiate a full return and re-purchase. One owner described it as "having to return and buy another" - a process that frustrated them. Calpak does offer a 1-year limited warranty for manufacturing defects, and some owners have successfully used it for handle issues, but the process has reportedly been slow.
Béis customer service doesn't appear in travel community discussions with the same frequency - there are no equivalent horror-story threads about CS response times or exchange policy problems. Whether that's because Béis handles it better or simply because fewer owners have run into issues is hard to say with certainty from the available data.
Customer service policies can change. Contact each brand before purchasing to confirm current policies, especially regarding exchanges and warranty claims.
Which Is Better for Air Travel?
For flying, the Calpak Luka Duffel (22L, 12" × 16" × 7") is the clear choice between these two bags. It's designed to slide under the seat in front of you and functions as a personal item on most major US carriers. Editorial testing confirms it fits comfortably under the seat on multiple airlines, including on international routes - the smaller footprint is the reason you'd choose it over the Béis for a flight.
The Béis Weekender (49L, 19" × 9.8" × 15.7") is an overhead bin bag. At nearly twice the Calpak's volume and 5 inches taller, it's too large to reliably fit under the seat on most aircraft. That doesn't make it a bad choice for flying - plenty of travelers use it as a carry-on in the overhead bin - but if your goal is a personal item that avoids the overhead bin competition on a full flight, the Calpak is the right pick.
Exact underseat clearance varies by airline and aircraft type, so check the requirements for your specific carrier before you travel. You can find airline-specific carry-on size requirements on our airline requirements guide.
If you want a hard-sided roller from either brand - rather than a soft bag - see the options in the next section.
Calpak vs. Béis Rollers and Full Lineup
If you want wheels instead of soft bags, both Calpak and Béis make hard-sided carry-on rollers. Here are the options available in our catalog, with verified specs:
| Product | Price | Weight | Dimensions (H × W × D) | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Béis The Small Carry-On Roller | $248 | 7.16 lbs | 21 × 13 × 9 in | Hardside |
| Béis The Mini Roller | $218 | 7.00 lbs | 17 × 16.5 × 9 in | Hardside |
| CALPAK Luka Soft-Sided Mini Carry-On | $185 | 5.30 lbs | 16 × 14.25 × 9 in | Softside |
The Béis Small Carry-On Roller (21 × 13 × 9 in, 7.16 lbs, $248) fits standard overhead bins on major US carriers and is the full-size carry-on option if you want the Béis aesthetic on wheels. At $248, it's notably more expensive than the Béis soft bags. The Béis Mini Roller (17 × 16.5 × 9 in, 7.00 lbs, $218) is a more compact option for travelers who want a smaller footprint or are flying on carriers with stricter personal item dimensions.
On the Calpak side, the CALPAK Luka Soft-Sided Mini Carry-On (16 × 14.25 × 9 in, 5.30 lbs, $185) takes the lightweight-and-organized philosophy of the Luka line and puts it on wheels. At 5.30 lbs, it's the lightest option in this group - a real advantage if you're counting carry-on weight. Note that Calpak makes additional roller styles beyond what's covered here; check the Calpak site directly for their full luggage lineup. If you're still weighing hard-shell vs. soft-shell for your next roller, our hard shell vs. soft shell carry-on guide breaks down the practical differences.
You can use our side-by-side comparison tool to stack any of these options against each other on dimensions, weight, and price.
Who Should Buy Which?
Buy the Calpak Luka Duffel if:
- You need a personal item that fits under the seat - the 22L capacity and 12" × 16" × 7" dimensions are sized for under-seat use on most major airlines
- You want more color options - 18 choices at $128 is a strong value proposition
- Long-term durability matters to you - user reports favor Calpak for 2+ year use
- Easy cleaning is a priority - the fabric wipes down without much effort
- You're tight on storage at home - it compresses easily into small spaces between trips
Buy the Béis Weekender if:
- You need more capacity - 49 liters comfortably handles a 4–5 day trip with shoes, toiletries, and extra layers (see also: best carry-ons for weekend getaways for more options in this space)
- You'll actively use the expandable bottom compartment - it genuinely works well for shoes and toiletry bags when you use it consistently
- You prefer a more structured, polished look - the Béis sits upright, has metal feet, and reads more refined
- You're fine using the overhead bin - this is an overhead bag, not an under-seat bag
Consider something else if:
- You want a hard-sided carry-on roller - see the roller comparison table above
- You need to comply with strict personal item limits on Spirit, Frontier, or Ryanair - check the airline-specific requirements before you buy anything
- You want a lifetime warranty or premium durability guarantee - neither Calpak nor Béis offers this; that's a different category of luggage entirely
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Calpak or Béis better quality?
Calpak generally outperforms Béis in long-term user reports - multiple owners describe 2+ years of regular use with only cosmetic wear. Béis receives more quality-disappointment feedback relative to its brand positioning. Both are mid-range bags in the $100–$250 range; neither is a premium luggage brand.
Which is bigger - the Calpak Luka Duffel or the Béis Weekender?
The Béis Weekender (49L, 19" × 9.8" × 15.7") is more than twice the capacity of the Calpak Luka Duffel (22L, 12" × 16" × 7"). They serve different purposes: the Calpak is a personal item, the Béis is a full weekend bag.
Does the Béis Weekender fit under the seat?
Generally, no. The Béis Weekender is sized for the overhead bin. The Calpak Luka Duffel (22L) is the under-seat option in this comparison - it fits beneath the seat on most major airlines.
Is Béis luggage worth it?
For the Weekender's 49L capacity and expandable compartment, yes - if you need that space. For the brand positioning itself, it's debatable. Travelers in carry-on communities frequently describe Béis as carrying a premium tied to its celebrity origins that the product doesn't always fully justify.
Does Calpak have a warranty?
Yes - a 1-year limited warranty for manufacturing defects. Note that Calpak's exchange policy is restrictive: they require a full return and re-purchase rather than a direct exchange. Verify the current policy with Calpak before buying.
Which has better customer service - Calpak or Béis?
Calpak has documented complaints in travel communities about slow CS response times and a no-exchange policy, with reports as recent as early 2025. Béis customer service isn't widely discussed in those same communities. Contact both brands directly to confirm current policies before purchasing.