Which suitcase brand is best?
 

Hello all.

We are interessted in purchasing some luggage and willing to spend some money on it. Problem - we can seeem to find any good answers on which brand is best? We have heard a lot about TravelPro and Victornox?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Jennifer

I have TravelPro Platinum series and I love it. My carry on has logged ~300K miles with me in the last few years and it's still in great shape. Little wear and tear but nothing serious.

My big roller has logged about $100K miles in the belly of the planes and after all the use and abuse it's holding up great.

TravelPro has an unconditional warranty on the Platinum series. Any structural damage due to mishandling by the airline personel or the owner will be repaired for free, no questions asked.

Before that I had Atlantic luggage, which is made by the same company. It did the job but it's not TravelPro quality. It's also about 1/2 of the cost.

ebags.com is my favorite for luggage shopping.

Briggs & Riley is another well-regarded brand, with a bulletproof warranty. I also really like some of the higher-end Samsonite pieces, and have the 22" Pro-DLX carry-on.

One thing to think about is the trade-off between ruggedness and weight. With three of the big six carriers now only allowing one free checked bag, a lighter bag means you can stuff more in it. Learned this lesson in Europe, where any wheeled carry-on risks being checked, and a rugged bag that weighs 10+ pounds takes up 25% of your checked luggage allowance.

The only bags I have seen that would likely be both pretty rugged and light would be a hard-sided piece. The lightest I have seen are the Samsonite Polycarbonite cases. But I would think any light bag will be less rugged than a similar non-light bag.

Finally, I have heard many that swear by the Costco luggage, which costs a fraction of the big brands.

I am a big fan of Tumi. They can be pricey but the quality is very high. They also have an excellent warranty.

Huge Tumi fan here...expensive but durable.

Most airline crews use the "cheapy" Travelpro as it gets a beating everyweek going all over the world including having to check it sometimes!

Eagle Creek

They have a "no what what" warranty on many of their wheeled luggage pieces.

www.eaglecreek.com

AAFrequentFlyer,

Many thanks for the eBag suggestion. I was able to replace my failing cheap bag with a high quality bag at a cost lower than that offered by the low end and remainder discount stores for off brand goods.

Jeff

I also use TravelPro bags (I have an assortment--different bags for different kinds of trips) from ebags and recommend them both.

Atlantic. Inexpensive, and well built. We tried many, and stayed with this brand.