Rick Steves Luggage--is it worth the cost
 

Rick S sells a carry on that is very light but cost $100. I am wondering if it is really worth the cost. Planning on flying air france and trying to avoid checking luggage.
Thanks.

I have had a R.S.carry-on combination back-pack / suitcase for over 10 years. I have traveled throughout 24 countries with it 4 trips per year and it still looks like new. I no longer follow Rick's travel philosophy but I still love the luggage.

Larry J

If you travel 5, 6, 7 times a year or more, it's always worth purchasing good luggage, Briggs & Riley, Hartman, Tumi, etc. If not, then an inexpensive piece of luggage will do.

It sounds like Rick Steves carry-on is built to last, at least for something bought 10 years ago. Carry-on doesn’t get the abuse.

The big test for a piece of luggage is when it's checked. It takes a lot of abuse in the process. Something inexpensive may last one or two trips, but usually no more than that before it starts to show the damage.

I was just looking at that luggage today on line.
I have a very sturdy piece of Atlantic luggage carry on.
The thing that I am questioning is it worth getting a new piece like the Steves brand because it is two pounds lighter than my current piece?

I pack a rollaboard about 40-50 times a year (not always for air travel, but well over half of the trips).

The one I am currently using was one of a set of 4 pieces of "luggage" that cost about $30 at K-mart (for the entire set), as I recall; the other three pieces were a small duffel, an insulated two-6-pack cooler bag, and a canvas car-top carrier.

Best wishes,

Rex

hellokittie, I have both the carry-on convertible and the wheeled carry-on Rick Steves, which if you expand it is no longer carry on size I believe. I am very pleased with both of them. I bought the wheeled to replace a less expensive piece when the main zipper broke while I was in France. Luckily a large pin kept it useable until I got home;;)

I think Rex is very fortunate to be able to use his current piece so long. I use my Rick Steves pieces 5 to 6 times a year and seldom on direct flights. More often in the car or on the train but I'm alot more careful than the airline ground crews ;;) Deborah

For several years, I've used a Rick Steves'carry-on size suitcase that I check, and it's worked just fine. Being a weakling, I wanted the lightest-weight suitcase I could find, and at the time I bought, this was it. I have other suitcases that are more expensive and that appear to be better-made, but the Rick Steves is the one I consistently use.

<< I think Rex is very fortunate to be able to use his current piece so long.>>

I don't know - - I think that my experience is more typical than atypical.

For what it's worth, I think that the person hardest on my luggage is me - - I have a half flight of steps from the garage up into the house, and I bang the #$%@ out of it, just carrying it in or out, a lot of times (not because it's heavy, but because I am often carrying a lot of other stuff). On a related note, I have been carrying the same notebook computer around for three years now, and although it is generally always in its padded case, I am amazed at how much abuse it takes and has never failed me.

I virtually never check my rollaboard as "checked baggage" though "gate check" is at least half of my flights. I watch them load and unload those - - no more abusive than my putting into/out of the trunk of my car. Seems like virtually every time I fly (2-3 trips a month, i.e., 4-12 takeoffs and landings a month), it is either on a smaller aircraft (thus the gate check), or a "full size" airplane, and I have no problem carrying it on, together with my laptop case.

Other than bringing home my large duffel bag from Europe (containing over 12 bottles of wine, plus the entire contents of my rollaboard), I can't remember the last time I needed to use "checked baggage".

I don't know the answer to that but i'm satisfied with my 22 inch with wheels that I paid $25 for over ten years ago at the Christmas Store, and it travel once, sometimes twice a year to France.

If you go to the eBags.com web site you can see customer comments on variouas pieces and also scan quite a lot of luggage in all sizes, types, and prices.