Forbes Featured the Vientapps Carry-On Tools
Forbes travel columnist Christopher Elliott featured the Vientapps carry-on size and bag fit checker tools in his Summer 2026 Digital Survival Kit. A short note on what got cited and how we source airline policy data.
A small but quietly meaningful thing happened today. I am Caden Sorenson, the developer behind Vientapps, and Forbes travel columnist Christopher Elliott published Here’s Your Summer 2026 Digital Survival Kit For Flight Delays And Cancellations, a roundup of the apps and tools he recommends travelers use this summer. Two of the Vientapps tools made the cut.
In the “Lost luggage tracker and security tools” section, Elliott wrote:
Sorenson built a pair of tools that let travelers enter bag dimensions and see instantly which of 75 airlines will accept it as a carry-on or personal item. Every entry is manually verified against airline published policy.
The Forbes piece links to the Vientapps homepage, but the two tools the column is actually about are the carry-on size checker and the checked bag fee calculator. Both pull from the same hand-curated database of 75 airlines, and both are free with no signup.
The line I appreciated most was “every entry is manually verified against airline published policy.” The reality is a bit more nuanced: most of the data comes straight from official airline sources that are straightforward to cite, and we spot-check the entries that are harder to verify or where published policies are ambiguous. It is not a full manual audit of every row, but it is a lot more diligence than scraping and hoping for the best. Gate agents do not care that a third-party aggregator said your bag was fine, so getting the numbers right matters. The site has a methodology page that walks through the sourcing process and how policy changes get caught.
Christopher was looking for sources on travel tools, and I pointed him to a few options including Vientapps. He tried them out and liked them enough to include them in the piece by name.
If you came here from the Forbes piece: welcome. The carry-on size checker is the right starting point if you are trying to figure out whether your bag will fit, and the checked bag fee calculator is the right one if you are trying to figure out what a trip will cost you in baggage. If you run a travel blog, the embeddable widgets are free to drop into any post.
Senior Staff Engineer and Indie Developer
Caden Sorenson is a senior staff engineer with 15+ years of experience building iOS apps, web platforms, and developer tools. He holds a Computer Science degree from Utah State University and runs Vientapps, an indie studio based in Logan, Utah, where he ships small, focused tools and writes about every build in public.
Related posts
- I checked carry-on rules at 75 airlines. The carry-on wasn't the trap.Across 75 airlines, 24 don't publish personal item dimensions and the 51 that do range threefold in size. The bag you tuck under the seat is where the rules go quiet and the gate agents get strict.
- Building a Layover Calculator That Knows Every Terminal at JFKHow I built a connection time calculator covering 70 airports with pairwise terminal transfers, customs buffers, and a five-factor assessment algorithm, then spent half the day fixing dark mode.
- Building a Checked Bag Fee Calculator Widget That Actually ComputesHow I built a framework-free fee calculator widget that computes overweight surcharges, estimates third bags, and sorts 75 airlines by total cost, all inside an iframe.
Related guides
- Guide7 Best Carry-On Size Checkers in 2026 (Free & Tested)We tested 7 free carry-on size checkers for airline coverage, accuracy, and personal item support. Find out if your bag fits before you get to the gate.
- GuideWhich Airlines Gate-Check Your Carry-On? The 2026 Risk Guide for Every Airline19 airlines have a High gate-check risk in 2026. See every airline's risk rating, enforcement style, and gate-check fees, plus 7 ways to keep your bag overhead.
- GuideWhich Airlines Charge for Carry-On Bags? The Complete 2026 Fee Guide10 airlines charge $13 to $99 for carry-on bags, and 3 more restrict them on basic fares. See every fee, the gate-price markup, and 6 ways to avoid paying.
Related comparisons
- Airline ComparisonJetBlue vs Frontier 2026: Which Budget Airline Is Actually Worth It?Both JetBlue and Frontier ranked among the most delayed US airlines in 2025. We compare carry-on fees, GoWild passes, Mint vs nothing, Blue Sky vs no alliance, and who actually delivers value.
- Airline ComparisonSouthwest vs Allegiant 2026: Which Budget Airline Fits Your Trip?Southwest has free carry-on bags, assigned seating, and 95 destinations. Allegiant has ultra-low base fares, direct leisure routes from secondary cities, and no Wi-Fi. Honest verdict on bags, routes, and total cost.
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