Level8 Captain Review: A Worthy Sub-$1000 Rimowa Aluminum Alternative

Over 80 countries in, I’ve traveled the world, often times with the freedom of just a backpack. But somewhere along the way, my back and I started to appreciate the simple luxury of being able to roll a carry-on suitcase rather than haul my life from one country to the next country. 

At one point, I finally made the decision to invest in some serious luggage upgrade and get a true piece you buy once. And for years, the honor of that temptation went to Rimowa’s Classic Cabin, one of the most iconic suitcases in the world.

I had my reservations, not least of which was spending more than $1,500 for a carry-on, but also that an empty aluminum suitcase can weigh more than 10 pounds before I’ve packed anything. Practically, it doesn’t make sense, except for vanity sake.

My Away Bigger Carry-On had served me perfectly well for years. It was lighter, more durable, and generous by carry-on standards, with 49 liters of capacity compared to the 36 liters you get with a Rimowa Cabin. If all I cared about was practicality, I should have stopped there and never thought about aluminum again.

Update: From June 15 – 26, LEVEL8 has an ANNIVERSARY EVENT sale so everything is 20% off. It’s meant to coincide with Amazon Prime Week, so you can even get all Level8 products discounted THERE as well.

And yet, weight and price tag be damned, I still wanted that aviation-inspired aluminum look, something from a bygone era of silver planes and slow travel, that makes luggage feel less like a storage vessel and more a ritual of travel itself. I’m also quite particular about what I acquire, especially when it comes to gear.

Spoiler: I didn’t buy a Rimowa.

Instead, after long research, I spent even more and grabbed Sterling Pacific’s 40L Cabin. It is one of the favorite things I own, and not just because it looks stunning rolled across an airport.

You can read my full review of THE Sterling Pacific 40L Carry On Case.

My sister has the Rimowa Original Cabin, and while I still think it’s a beautiful suitcase, the Sterling Pacific’s design and aerospace build quality is superior in almost every way – probably because they don’t carry the same name, legacy, or prestige as Rimowa. 

But I digress, and the Rimowa alternative I’m referring to is actually another aluminum suitcase altogether and not even one I got for myself.

Let’s talk about the Level8 Captain Aluminum Pro Carry-On I picked up for my partner, who travels almost as much as I do, but as a tech consultant, some of her trips are less romantic and more a demanding cycle of airport, client site, hotel, repeat.

TL;DR Summary

I promise its worth getting to the end, but in case you hate reading, here’s a high level summary of the Captain Aluminum Pro Carry-On.

Favorite Features: Completely flat top with telescoping handle that disappears flush, wide handle design for extra stability and no raised channel on the inside, ultra-smooth wheels, and zipperless clamshell enclosure with single combination lock.

Downside: Weighs 10.8 lbs empty. Heavier than polycarbonate suitcases by around 3-4 lbs. All the typical downsides of aluminum suitcases, which includes inevitable denting and scratches.

Price Value: Just $1000 (with 10% off using code WANDER10) or even less when there’s a sale, but still less $600-$1000 less than Rimowa and Sterling Pacific. Sweet spot price point and good value for the functional design elements. Alternatively, the Gibraltar also from Level8 gives up a few features, but comes in at under $500.

Worth It Scale: 9/10. Once you accept spending around $1000 on a carry-on suitcase, it’s a looker that doesn’t trade away capacity and function, like a lot of other aluminum suitcases do, including the Rimowa.

The Rabbit Hole And The Captain

For work, my partner usually flies out twice a month for 3-4 day trips, usually with our Away Bigger Carry-On. Unironically, she feels like it’s a bit too big and bulky for her needs. She loves how my Sterling Pacific looks, but it was also a bit too heavy for her.

I wanted something that looked good, and was also functional for her, as an anniversary gift.

I first found Level8’s other aluminum carry-on, the Gibraltar, which was priced at around $460 and was similar to Monos’ hybrid carry-on. That Monos weighed a little less, but wasn’t full aluminum and the interior didn’t seem practical. The Quince aluminum model was quite a lot lower at $275, but digging through Reddit, I found a few people who complained that the aluminum was quite thin and really got banged up.

I nearly pulled the trigger on the Gibraltar, but I saw the Captain, and had to look closer at why it cost nearly double.

Don’t get me wrong. If you’re looking at aluminum luggage in the first place, it’s mostly about the look. But once you get going down the rabbit hole, you start paying attention to the overlooked details that separate a well-designed case from one that’s just trying to mimic the look of a luxury product. I also did this with my espresso machine setup, but don’t even get me started.

I even picked up the closest Rimowa dupe on Amazon. It looked good, but it wasn’t worth keeping, for me at least, since only the frame was aluminum and the rest was aluminum-looking polycarbonate. Again, a mimic.

The Feature That Sold Me: A Flat Top That’s Useful

The highlight feature on the Captain that jumped out was the one that might sound a bit head-scratching on paper: its flat top.

Practically every carry-on has a telescoping handle that retracts into the middle of the case and a top handle for easy carry.

The Captain instead uses a wide telescoping handle that disappears flush into the top of the suitcase.

The top is ridged so you can prop up a phone or tablet while you’re waiting at the gate.

But more importantly, the flat surface is a makeshift laptop desk, which sounds a bit ridiculous as a suitcase feature, until you’re waiting out a delay or need to do some work at the gate.

It’s my partner’s favorite feature too. In general, everything is as flush as possible from the handles to the locks. From a design perspective, it saves precious dimension for meeting airline standards without compromising space inside.

Coincidentally, it also turns out to be perfect for pushing your niece and nephew around the airport.

Not a sentence I expected to write in a luggage review, but here we are. I borrowed the Captain from my partner to put it through a proper trip myself with family to Jackson Hole and Yellowstone.

I forgot to photograph my niece and nephew riding on it, because I was too busy enjoying their laughter, but I did note how stable and smooth it was with a kid on it. I never felt like it was going to tip over, which might have hurt my case for world’s best uncle.

Oddly enough, it’s this small design element and a few others that collectively makes the suitcase even worth writing about in the first place.

Update: Level8 reached out and offered me a reader discount code, so you can use code WANDER10 to get 10% off

A Wider Handle For Stability

The flush, wide-handle has distinctive look, but functionally, it actually has two real advantages.

The first is inside the suitcase. Because the handle rails don’t run straight down the middle in the usual way, you get two completely flat packing sides.

On most suitcases, the telescoping handle hardware intrudes into the interior and creates those awkward raised channels you have to pack around. It’s not a dealbreaker, but the Captain avoids that, and it’s much appreciated.

You can see the raised part from the handle here on the inside of my Sterling Pacific.

In practice, I find that a luggage’s true capacity is as more about how efficiently you can pack things than the manufacturer’s listed volume.

The Captain (21.3” x 14.72” x 8.46”) is slightly smaller externally than Rimowa’s Classic Cabin (21.7” x 15.8” x 9.1”), yet it somehow squeezes 37 liters to Rimowa’s 36 liters while feeling much easier to pack simply because the flat walls do not have the raised channels I mentioned earlier.

The second benefit is stability.

That wider handle gives the case a more grounded, controlled feel when you’re pushing or pulling it, especially with the 360 free-spinning wheels that are some of the smoothest I’ve ever used.

It rolls quietly, tracks well, and there’s less vibration compared to your average four wheeled carry-ons. Most importantly, even loaded up, I can move it comfortably with one hand.

To solve the problem of not having a separate top handle, the telescoping handle opens with a push button and locks out in 4 positions. The first is about 3” up, which allows you to use it as a top handle. The other three give you different heights options for normal use.

The only weird design flaw I found is that other three positions require you to first pull the handle to the halfway point, and then press the button again to lock into one of the three set positions.

Smaller Than Away, Easier Than Sterling Pacific

Size wise, it is a particularly sweet spot for my partner.

An inch here or there isn’t a big deal on paper, but sometimes things just feel right. And that’s what I wanted for her.

The whole thing feels more compact than both the Away and Sterling Pacific. The latter is quite a beast, so the Captain, despite being a comparable aluminum carry-on, actually appears small next to it. It’s only 1 lb lighter, but the difference is noticeable, and makes handling slightly easier, especially for my partner.

Yet, on our week-long family road trip to Yellowstone, I had no problem fitting in all my clothes, toiletries, a couple pairs of shoes, my laptop, and even hiking poles for my dad. There was still room to spare for the dirty laundry and gifts I picked up along the way.

We stacked it with the other suitcases and moved it in and out several times that week, and it managed the rough handling pretty well with hardly a scratch. There was no need for babying it.

The Compression System Is Different

Inside, the Captain is fairly simple and standard. There are no extra compartments, other than a separate leather tablet/document sleeve, which I would have appreciated. My Wandrd HEXAD (now discontinued and replaced by the Transit 35L) is king when it comes to a carry-on with compartments, but alas, it’s not wheeled.

One side of the clamshell is zippered. The other is a compression sleeve with a clear plastic-lined zippered pocket.

This side cleverly uses a small elastic clip system rather than the usual cinch straps and buckle setup.

I expected to dislike this, but I was so wrong.

Traditional compression straps are familiar, effective, and hard to mess up. Level8’s simple hook system did not look like it would offer much compression at all.

But in practice, it works much faster than the buckle system and offers enough compression for everything to just fit.

It’s easy to clip on and has enough give to accommodate bulkier items.

It doesn’t compress as much as a proper cinch strap. But with the zipperless aluminum clamshell design, it didn’t matter. I found the rigid shell does most of the work if you put a bit of weight on it to close the suitcase. It’s nothing revolutionary, but it’s smart and these things count a lot when it comes to finding good gear.

It Still Has All The Downsides Of Aluminum, But My Favorite Upside

Don’t take my praise to mean you can enjoy aluminum luggage without aluminum luggage problems.

It is still heavier than a good polycarbonate carry-on. At around 10.8 pounds empty, it’s not outrageously heavy for an aluminum case, but still a meaningful amount of weight before you’ve packed anything. Size wise, it will clear as a carry-on for practically every airline, domestic or international.

You’d only have a potential problem if you’re flying on airlines that imposes a weight limit (sometime that’s quite common for budget airlines in Asia).

Both my Sterling Pacific 40L and my Away Bigger Carry-On are technically too big for most European and Asian airlines. I can get away with it sometimes, but I run the risk of it getting gate-checked.

That’s happened twice in Canada, and the rough handling left my pristine aluminum exterior unnecessarily dented and scratched on the Sterling Pacific.

But that’s just something you should be prepared to accept or even embrace when you own an aluminum suitcase.

Aluminum looks fantastic when you first get it, but scuffs, scratches, and the occasional dent are part of the game if you do any real traveling.

Rimowa even markets dents and scratches as part of the character, scars, and stories from your travels. I mostly agree, but I also just love how it looks NOT damaged.

Structurally, the corners are reinforced and the plastic side feet give you something to protect the body when you lay it out. All said, it does ease some of that anxiety.

But my favorite upside is the zipperless locking enclosure that is more commonly found on high end suitcases. IYKYK, doesn’t matter if you have a lock on your suitcase, it just takes a pen to pry open any zippered suitcase.

The Captain uses two flat metal locking plates that are released with a central TSA-approved push-to-release combination lock. Saves a bit of time compared to a separate combination for each plate like on other designs, but arguably slightly less secure.

It’s satisfying to open and close, and you know when it clicks that everything is secured and sealed in because of the rubber o-ring seal.

Is Level8’s Captain Aluminum Carry-On Worth It?

At full price, the Captain sits at around $1,100, which is still a lot of money for a carry-on. No one really needs an aluminum suitcase, and there are excellent polycarbonate carry-ons for a fraction of the price, if that’s what you care about.

Update: Right now, the Captain is discounted to $880 and the Gibraltar is discounted to $368.

But people also spend thousands on luxury bags and easily as much for holidays and other travels. A few nights at a decent place in Santorini or Tokyo has cost me the same. So for me, I don’t mind investing the money on something that I’ll buy once and hopefully use for my lifetime, especially when there’s a lifetime warranty.

I kind of wish I had bought the Sterling Pacific or even the Rimowa years earlier.

Compared to Sterling Pacific, the Captain costs roughly half as much while offering a lot of the same premium appeal and arguably better day-to-day practicality. Compared to Rimowa, you’re getting a better designed product. Rimowa’s warranty is pretty well known, and I don’t have experience with Level8 or Sterling Pacific’s warranty yet, so I can’t speak to that.

There’s definitely not the same brand recognition when compared to Rimowa, but ultimately, it comes down to whether you value the name or the product.

None of this makes it any more affordable if you’re on a budget, but I do consider these products an investment.

Update: Level8 reached out and offered me a reader discount code, so you can use code WANDER10 to get 10% off to get below $1000.

Final Thoughts

Honest thoughts here if you’ve made it to the end. I’m skeptical of internet companies that spend prioritizes marketing over product design. And more so companies that try to imitate other products at a lower price point.

I don’t think Level8 is one of those since their products are quite distinctive. Some better than others. I was actually surprised enough by the quality of the Captain that I ended up getting this minimalist trunk suitcase, also by them, to replace my check-in suitcase that is on its last leg.

Now, the last and best endorsement I can possibly give. The Captain suitcase looks better in person than any of the photos on their website. As a photographer, that’s saying something.

You can only get the Captain directly on their site, but their other products including the Gibraltar and a very reasonably priced and lighter hybrid aluminum suitcase can be found on Amazon.

Updated on June 24, 2026