Katie Couric spotlights useful gifts, from Away’s Topside luggage to beauty and home picks

Useful gifts are the point this month

The smartest new gifts for her right now are the ones that earn a place in daily life, not the ones that look good in a cart and disappear by fall. Katie Couric Media’s May roundup leans hard into that idea, pushing readers toward fewer impulse buys and more “genuinely useful and thoughtfully designed for everyday life,” with beauty that simplifies routines, home pieces that work as well as they look, and wellness finds that feel sensible for regular human beings.

That framing makes the whole edit especially giftable for the moments coming up now: graduations, hostess visits, and early summer birthdays. Instead of leaning on novelty, the list favors launches with a clear job to do, which is exactly what you want when you are buying for someone who already has enough stuff.

Away’s Topside is the rare luggage launch that feels like a gift, not a chore

Away’s Topside collection is the standout here because it solves one of travel’s oldest annoyances: luggage that is either sturdy or easy to pack, but rarely both. The bag opens from the top, uses a polycarbonate hardshell with a softside-style layout, and includes patent-pending StopLock™ brakes, so it is designed to stay put while still feeling easy to handle. Its slimmer shape is meant to move more cleanly through cramped plane aisles and train corridors, which is exactly the kind of detail that matters once you have actually lugged a suitcase through a crowded station.

The Topside line comes in three sizes, and the pricing makes it squarely premium without drifting into absurdity. The Topside Carry-On is $378, the Topside Bigger Carry-On is $398, and the Topside Medium Trunk is $478. That makes it a strong pick for the woman who travels often, the recent graduate with a summer internship, or the friend who treats every long weekend like a packing puzzle and would rather own one bag that works than three that sort of do.

There is also a nice practical logic to the gift itself. A suitcase is one of those presents that can feel impersonal in theory, but deeply thoughtful in practice if it is the right model for the way she moves. Topside looks built for someone who appreciates clean engineering and hates wrestling a bag flat open on a hotel bed.

The Amtrak partnership gives Topside an even better reason to buy now

The launch gets extra relevance from its new Amtrak tie-in. Amtrak says Away is now its official luggage partner, and First Class Acela customers can get early access to the Topside Collection after booking. That gives the suitcase a specific kind of appeal for women who travel the Northeast corridor or make regular rail trips between cities, where a bag that opens from the top and handles tight spaces is more than just a nice idea.

The promotion window also makes the launch feel timely rather than random. First Class Acela bookings made by June 23, 2026 unlock a 15% off coupon for a first Away purchase, while Away customers receive 10% off their first Amtrak trip between May 20 and June 23, 2026. Amtrak also says most routes allow one personal item, two carry-ons, and two checked bags for free, which is a useful reminder that the right suitcase is not just about style, it is about making travel rules easier to live with.

Why the rest of the roundup matters, even without the flashiest product names

The broader beauty, wellness, fashion, home, and tech mix in this monthly guide is useful because it reflects how people are actually shopping now. The most giftable items in that world are the ones that remove friction: beauty products that shorten a routine, home pieces that are both functional and attractive, and wellness supplements that feel grounded instead of faddish. That is a much better filter than chasing whatever looked cute for 24 hours on social media.

For gifting, that matters because it takes the guesswork down a notch. A friend who is reorganizing her apartment, a sister who is trying to simplify her mornings, or a mother who would rather receive something she will use every week than something that needs explaining, all benefit from this kind of edit. The strongest gifts in this month’s mix are not showpieces, they are the objects that quietly make a life run smoother.

That is the real appeal of the roundup: it treats usefulness as a luxury, not a compromise. And in a season packed with graduations, house visits, and summer plans, that is exactly the kind of gift logic worth following.