I had an REI boarding bag for travel purposes but once filled with reusable water bottle, go lite umbrella, nook tablet, iPad and a few other things like wallet, compact brush, tissues and headphones with splitter. It was too heavy and hurt my shoulder, the strap also bothered my skin and twisted up constantly. I purchased this bag at the luggage store because I had previously looked at the smaller model and decided to go for the large bag even though I thought it was too big for what I'd want. It has security features that are nice for urban travel or foreign countries, we will be living in Japan and security isn't too much of an issue there. This bag holds all my items plus a reusable bag I keep for stores in the outer zippered pocket, fits my water bottle & go lite umbrella on other side. Fits all sorts of goodies for my daughter as well. This will be handy for our airplane trip. I even had sandwiches and snacks in the middle for a picnic walk we went on.  I am about 5'8" and the strap doesn't irritate my skin and cross body works well for me.