Two AIs, one carry-on question.
We asked ChatGPT and Perplexity the same buying question. Both answers turned on one product detail.
Written by: SlateCreated on: 15 October 2026 · 2 min read
On 15 October 2026 we asked ChatGPT and Perplexity the same buying question, logged out, from the United States: What’s the best carry-on suitcase for a week in Europe?
Here’s what came back, and what it says about product pages.
What ChatGPT said
ChatGPT picked the Travelpro Platinum Elite International Carry-On Spinner as its top choice and named Away as the alternative for anyone who wants a hard shell. It then showed four products as cards, each with a price, a star rating, a review count and a link to buy: two from Travelpro’s own store, two through Nordstrom.
Under the cards it gave advice, citing a travel site, and ended with four follow-up questions to narrow the choice: budget, hard or soft shell, planes or trains, and which airlines.
What Perplexity said
Perplexity gave one recommendation, the Travelpro Maxlite 5 International Carry-On, with a size attached: about 55 × 40 × 20 cm. It listed ten sources, Travelpro’s own site among them.
What stood out
- Both answers named the same brand. Different products, same maker. Travelpro’s own pages were among the sources in both.
- Size decided the answer. Perplexity quoted dimensions. ChatGPT told the shopper to check the exact size,
including wheels and handles
, before buying. That’s a number a product page either publishes or doesn’t. - A vague spec became a warning. ChatGPT noted that expanding one of its picks may push it past an airline’s carry-on limit. When a page leaves a detail open, the answer fills the gap with a caveat, and a caveat works against you.
- The cards needed data. Every product card carried a price, a rating and a review count. Our read: a product without those details published somewhere has nothing to fill a card with.
What we’d take from it
If you sell luggage, the question shoppers ask is about fit. So the page needs the full dimensions with wheels and handles included, the weight, and which cabin limits it fits, written in plain text. The same pattern holds in most categories: find the detail the buying decision turns on, and make sure your page states it plainly.
