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 do not spend a lot of money on luggage. The airlines, cruise lines etc do not take any better care of your $1000 suitcase than they take care of a $50 suitcase.

My friends bought a $1500 Louis Vuitton garment bag only to have the cruise line practically destroy it. They worst part is that the liability insurance was $500 per bag.

I also would not spend alot of money on luggage. We generally do carry-on only so, of course, we are easier on our luggage than the airlines would be. I've used the same $20 carry-on from Walmart for about a dozen trips to Europe. No sign of wear yet.

Carry On, Travel Pro is very good.

If you're checking luggage though, best to get something good, but cheaper....it's life expectancy will vary greatly.

If I were buying new, I'd shop for the lightest weight suitcase I could find. Victornox are quite heavy. I'd rather have a no-name brand that is extremely lightweight, than a designer clunker. I've never paid more than $50 on sale for mine and they last for years.

I'll cast a vote for TravelPro. They are well thought out and well made. Plus, the lifetime guarantee is true! Well worth the money.

A few years ago, the seam was coming undone. I took it to the nearest authorized repair shop which sent it to the factory. Apparently they had another model on the line so they just shipped us a brand new one! The more current model had better design features too.

One caveat, depending on your use/size/travel preferences, etc. Consider which size to buy before you get it. We have a medium and large and I wished we'd gotten 2 meds instead. However, it was our first luggage we'd bought so didn't know better.

Enjoy-la!

Unlike many others (who do carry-on only), I actually do check luggage, 1 piece on wheels. I purchased TravelPro about a year and a half-2 years ago. So far I am happy with it and the airlines and cruise lines have not damaged it. And it has been getting used :) I do not think TravelPro is terribly high priced for the quality. The same manufacturer also makes Atlantic, which I used prior to this set. I like the way TravelPro does the edges better than the Atlantic set I had been using. I used the Atlantic set for probabaly 10+ years. The wear mainly on the edges was apparent after that long, so I treated myself to the new set.

All my luggage is from LLBean. Excellent quality and price. Best of all, there are color options that make it far easier to find your bag.

There are a lot of choices besides brand. We just bought some new luggage - went to a Samsonite discount store. We were able to look at all their lines and see the variation in materials and design by price level. We got an exceptionally good price for a discontinued line.

Weight is really important. Then there's hard shell versus soft. Some of the Samsonites are hard bottomed, soft top. Most of the soft bags expand 2 inches. Size is obviously critical. (The people in the store recommended we stay away from the largest as they can be stuffed over the weight limit). Some now have four wheels on a single piece instead of two. You have to make sure they are securely attached and decide if this is important to you. Lots of choices out there.

These are answers to a lot of questions you didn't ask. I don't know about the difference between brands, which is what you did ask. We've had Samsonite for years (along with other brands) and most of our bags have held up okay. My husband actually bought aluminum bags (Halliburton), thinking they would survive abuse as he travels a lot. The latches broke several times as they were not recessed. The damage was not covered under the warranty. They are extremely heavy and always inspected, so I have avoided using them. I have been using an American Tourister bag (hard side) that is bashed in in the front and the latches are damaged. Plus the inside piece that holds the things in the top back is broken off. I'd watch for the fastenings of those inside pieces as we've had problems with that with most of our luggage.

Well, that's my 10 cents worth on this topic. Good luck! Let us know what you get!

Tumi is a great brand but expensive. I'd just get a good carry-on with wheels by Tumi and a cheaper 24" size if I needed to check.
TJMaxx has just has some new Tumi items in at about half retail price ($130 for 21'roller).

Best advice is get something you like that's lightweight, medium sized, maybe a 'different' color..like orange and affordable as you might need to replace it in a couple of years.

My expensive luggage I rarely check.

My large bag that I do check is Victorinox by Swiss Army.

It has held up better than any other peice of luggage I've owned.

I think I paid $50 for it at TJMaxx.

They actually cover any damages the airlines cause.

If you are deciding which suitcase to break in or steal, the expensive one is probably the more lucrative option. Checked luggage of every price range and durability is subject to the grease gun, claw hook and fire hose treatment. The luggage you check will never be beautiful after the first trip.

A majority of wheelie luggage is black. Buying the same color and style as everybody else increases the chance another traveler will claim your suitcase.

I HAD a nice piece of luggage and checked it in with Lufthansa on our flight to Germany. It took 15 days for them to finally find it and return it to me, ripped, soaking wet, with ruined clothing inside.

Did I get hassled about the price when I turned in the claim YES

I now own a reasonably priced luggage (actually 2) so that they can destroy to their leisure and I won't be upset.

I have always loved T.Anthony for my luggage. Its very durable and the large garment bags have a lot of room. My wife and I can easily share one when we travel.
www.tanthony.com

For checkin . .I have three large Oysters by Samsonite that have been around the world more than 20 times ( and maybe thru it once or twice )

Several gashes on the side, but so far, nothing has ever been damaged in any of them.

I paint a Fluorscent Orange stripe around them so I can spot them easily.

I love my 24" Expandable Mobile Traveler (Luxe) by Hartmann, it is in Apple Green with large brown polka dots! ***kim*** ((f))

For check through I'd buy the cheapest, cruddiest thing that will do the job. They lose it or wreck it anyway.

For me it is more about the configuration of the inside of the suitcase. I don't like "suiters" or a bunch of doo-dahs cluttering up the inside. Also look for maneuverability. Drag the suitcase all around the store to test them out.

My Tumi is so heavy that I invariably am over the weight limit and have to stuff some things into DH's luggage when we travel- and my bag is never full to capacity. I've also noticed that the seams on both our Tumis are tearing.

I just bought a mid-sized victorinox on Luggagepros.com and love it for short trips.

I agree with the others that a light weight but sturdy piece is key.

We use my partner's 21" Tumi a lot and love it. He's had it for at least 15 heavy use years and it is been extremely durable and seems well made. We had to replace one wheel and the retravtable handle can be fussy. If we need two bags we use my old Lark 21". It is sort of clunky, and the inside isn't the most effecient in terms of space usage, but I love it and it could survive an atomic bomb blast. Well made.

If I had to buy new stuff I'd spend the money and buy new Tumi bags.

Jennifer,
I like my Eagle Creek bags that have traveled with me everywhere over the last ten years. Lightweight, which to me is most important, they are functional and stand up to abuse. They can be $$$, but I found mine at good old TJ Maxx for what I considered a steal. I don't think that I would spend a lot of money on luggage that I check, should anything happen to my EC bags.
I've told my husband that when the time comes to buy new bags, they will be some wacky color that makes them pop out when I am searching for my luggage at the end of a flight!
Happy Travels

I recently bought my first Eagle Creek bag. Love it. It's a carry-on, probably smaller than most, it fits in the overheads on at least some of the small commuter jets.

I travel on lots of weight restricted flights in Central America, and it's nice to have such a light bag to start with.

It also has a life time guarantee.

The very fact that the airlines DON'T treat expensive luggage any differently is why I have always tried to buy high quality durable luggage.

We mainly use Eagle Creek and Briggs + Riley products and in our many trips we have never had a failure, never had a puncture or a tear, etc. with either of these.

I agree that lightweight has advantages as does shopping for things at places like Target.

Unfortunately B+R is rarely, if ever, discounted but I like the peace of mind it brings.

Try...http://www.ebags.com/ Except for hard sided luggage there hasn't been a piece I don't covet.. Our American Tourist pieces have gone all over the world and finally I've decided enough was enough.. We just bought Samsonite with the twirly wheels.. As a "q-tip" it is important for me to have a carry on that I can manage down the aisle.. As for expensive luggage.. it just reeks.. "steal something"..... You will do just as well buying luggage in the outlet stores (where I shopped and saved lots of $$) or Marshals or TJ Maxx

I use Briggs & Riley. It's durable, but is heavy compared to some other brands (at least my approx 8 yrs old pieces are heavier- can't say what the pieces they make today are like).

WE bought Rick Steves 21 inch roll ons for our trip to Europe this summer. So, we haven't used them yet, but I purchased them for the fact they are lightweight and carryon.

I recently asked the same question of a travel expert I know, who has traveled the world with her family several times. Each member of the family has a different brand of 22' rolling bag. My friend said the best of the group is the Victornox bag. We bought two of them for a recent trip to Europe for my children and they held up well. Spouse and I use Hartmann, which I love. But I didn't want to pay Hartmann prices for childrens' luggage. I think I got the kids' bags on sale for $250 each. I believe the Victornox bags have a lifetime guarantee.

Good luck!

WOW.......Thank you all!!! I appreciate it and now I am off to TJ Maxx first and other stores - I can't wait to try each piece :-)

I buy luggage at tjmaxx. my 15 year old $39.99 roller has been all over the world.

Hartman,used for 13 years very durable and easy to clean,would purchase again.

It's not really the brand, although some may be better than others, it comes down to design.

Orcas makes a good point saying that "The latches broke several times as they were not recessed."

Look for a piece that the wheels and the latches are recessed. The handles don't pop up but can lay flat against the bag.

I made the mistake of not looking at the zipper pulls of my bag. They do not make a concentric circle and some of the pulls have pulled off. The zippers are solid though but it's a hassle to open 2 of them. drat!

I love my travel pro platinum bags. My SO had Tumi's but he was a real road warrior..anywhere from 2- 8 "legs" of travel/week. It took over 10 years before he had any problem. He once borrowed a soft bag (? sampsonite) from one of the kids and destroyed it within a year. I think Tumi is well worth the price BUT ONLY if you fly that much and most of us dont.

My husband and i have Victorinox and it is the best luggage we've ever had because it is light, well balanced, holds up, is easy to push/pull/turn corners and has good space organization. We originally bought it because of it's being sturdy but VERY light. It's now been on about 8 trips across the USA and 5 trips to Italy and is still just as good as when it was new except for having a few little dirt spots...mine is red and shows the dirt, my husbands is black and you'd never know it had dirt spots!

I'm partial to Eagle Creek after the experience I posted here:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35107465

~Liz

I bought 2 red Delsey hard-side from Magellan a few years ago. The handles pull up high enough I can rest my arms on them and glide along instead of pulling. They have 4 wheels which will roll any direction. I've had many, many people stop me in the airport and ask where/how I got them. I don't remember what I paid, but they've been worth every penny. I have some bad neck disks so it's important to me that they go so easily--albeit not on carpet or cobblestones.

1. Louis Vuitton
2. Goyard

This luggage will last a lifetime.

Unless you buy it on Canal Street, sweetie darling.

Fake but true,
Thingorjus

Look at overstock.com for great prices on Travel pro. Got a 25" Crew 6 for under $100 a few weeks ago.

Carry on: Eagle Creek Hovercraft 20 or 22. Eagle Creek Tarmac Flight Bags/large or small for totes.

I have two Samsonite 29" Oysters in bright yellow (we affectionately call them the Big Bananas). Not only have they been to Europe 5 times, Hawaii 3 times and across the country; they are a cinch to spot in the sea of black bags with rainbow luggage straps coming off the carousel. I've sat on them waiting for trains and use them as storage when we aren't traveling.

Mine were in a sale from www.ebags.com, so I got both of them for around $100 about ten years ago. Best money I've ever spent. If something happened to them, I'd replace them with the same thing today.

I have two hideously ugly Samsonite Oyster 30 hardside pieces I've had for years. They've been to the UK 5 times, Hawaii twice, and all over the country. I paid $150 for the pair in about 1997 and they've held up like champs. I also got mine from www.ebags.com.

Best part? Several years ago, standing at Heathrow's behemoth luggage claim carousel, I heard the people in front of me who all had black bags picking up one wrong bag after another. When my 'bananas' came through, I heard people saying "Whoo - those are hideous!" etc. Of course, I walked right up, claimed the bananas and gave a cheery "Ta-ra!" on my way out and left them all to figure out which black bag was theirs. :)