Delsey Chatillon Luggage Review: Vibrant and Lightweight

With a bright blue exterior, 4 spinner wheels and a convenient laptop compartment, Delsey has made the Chatillon a great option for vacationers, globetrotters and even business travelers.

Among the mundane black suitcases, the Chatillon stands out. It would take a lot of effort, or a severe case of color vision deficiency to miss the Chatillon carry-on in the baggage claim. Thankfully for the color blind, the Delsey Chatillon measures at 21″ – within carry on restrictions – meaning you’ll never have to wait for it at the luggage claim.

I’ve been testing the Delsey Chatillon spinner for around a month and here are my thoughts:

Pros:

• Very lightweight, 4.6 lbs
• Front laptop compartment holds laptops up to 14 inches
• Spinner, easy to maneuver around the airport
• Great color – easy to spot at the airport
• Durable exterior
• Expandable – use the red zipper pull to give the Chatillon some extra capacity
• Reasonably priced, $130 on Amazon.com

Weight:

The Delsey Chatillon luggage weighs 4.6 pounds when empty. 4.6 pounds is lighter than your average carry-on, and about as light as it gets while maintaining necessary features. The Chatillon is a full 3 pounds lighter than the Loudmouth Luggage, 2.5 pounds lighter than the Victorinox Spectra 21″ and about 2 pounds lighter than the Hedgren Traction carry-on.

It’s not uncommon to see carry-on suitcases that weigh around 4 pounds, and some suitcases, like the like the IT Luggage (which weighs only 3.6 pounds and costs under $50! (but isn’t the best quality)) weigh even less than that.

Unlike suitcases like the Victorinox Spectra and the Hedgren Traction, the Chatillon does not have a built in luggage lock. You’ll have to buy your own TSA approved lock.

Read more: 7 Best Luggage Locks for Travelers

Durability:

The Delsey Chatillon is a soft-sided suitcase. It’s made of a durable ‘Dura-Tec’ material, which I presume is a type of ripstop polyester.

It’s a whole lot easier to crack a sheet of polycarbonate (the material which most hardshell suitcases are made of) than it is to tear a sheet of thick ripstop polyester.

The Delsey’s protracting handle is quite thin and a little shaky. In spite of my apprehension of it’s feeble appearance, it’s proven to be deceptively robust. While testing protracting and retracting the handle, it was smooth and dependable.

As I’ll go into more detail in the Cons section, the wheels on the Chatillon aren’t the most durable.

The entire layout and hardware used (i.e. handles, zippers, etc.) in this suitcase are entirely predictable and standard, so I’d rate the durability as a 7/10, average for most suitcases.

Interior and Organization:

One of the ramifications of airport security is the need to remove your laptop. The Chatillon has a useful feature to make the security process a little more convenient: a padded laptop pocket.

The pocket is located in the exterior of the front of the bag and can hold laptops up to 14 inches. Honestly, I haven’t seen very many 14 inch laptops (most tend to be either 13″ or 15″), but the pocket fits my MacBook Pro 13″ perfectly. When trying to put my 13″ MacBook along with my Case Logic sleeve it was a tight fit.

With the laptop pocket, you’ll easily be able to store your laptop in your carry-on and easily access it when going through TSA security checks without having to dig through your main compartment. Unfortunately, there’s no way to lock the laptop pocket, making it a bit less useful.

In addition to the laptop compartment, there’s a small pocket on the exterior of the suitcase possibly for holding your charger or any small items that didn’t fit in the main compartment.

The main compartment has a standard layout with an elastic strap for cinching down your clothes or gear and two small pockets for holding items like socks and toiletries.

When traveling with this bag and all suitcases in general, I recommend using packing cubes. Packing cubes are like portable drawers and make it a lot easier and less of a hassle to organize your clothes. You can read more about the pros and cons of packing cubes.

Cons:

• If you place a heavy laptop in the laptop compartment and the main compartment isn’t heavy/balanced, the suitcase can tip over
• The laptop compartment isn’t lockable
• The wheels could be improved

The wheels are smooth and make it easy to maneuver the suitcase, but they aren’t the most durable. Compared to those on other suitcases I’ve tested, the Chatillon’s wheels are tiny.

In my experiences with the Delsey Helium Shadow suitcase, an earlier Delsey luggage model, I had some issues with the wheels. The wheels got stuck and then were worn down unevenly. They ended up breaking after a few uses. Unfortunately the Chatillon luggage uses the same exact wheels.

I’ve noticed when testing and comparing several suitcases the 2 wheel per corner design almost always works better than the 1 wheel per corner design. See the diagram below:

The two wheel design tends to be smoother and handle bumps better than the current 1 wheel per corner design that the Delsey Chatillon luggage employs.

The Verdict:

The Delsey Chatillon blends convenience and good design into a lightweight package. It loses to other in terms of the wheels, but is a great choice if you’re looking for a lightweight soft-sided spinner. At $130, it’s reasonably priced as well.

Where to Get It:

• You can find the Delsey Chatillon 21 inch on Amazon.com
• Also at shop.delsey.us

What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below.

The Delsey Chatillon Luggage was provided for this review. As always, this Delsey Chatillon Luggage review contains only my honest views and opinions. 🙂 Find out more about me and this site here.