I had one of these bags before (same model) and it worked wel;l despite getting beat up pretty quickly, it did the job and took many international plane rides with no real problem.  I loved the side pockets and how spacious it is, so decided to ignore the other bad reviews, specially about the smell.  Well, that was a mistake!  The smell was intense and no amount of airing it out made it go away so it has been returned.  The smell is sort of like that musty/wet carpet/moldy smell one finds in old houses that have humidity problems.  In fact we didn't immediately know the smell was emanating from this duffel bag and searched all corners of our house for a wet carpet or some mold.  When we discovered the culprit we put it out to air out.  Then I stored it in a closed room -- when I came down in the morning the smell had permeated the whole first floor of our home!  It's a nice shaped bag and very tempting but I strongly recommend passing on this one -- no way you'll want to put your clothes in there!