New Luggage - Best Brand?

[drpeperlvr]

We are looking at purchasing new luggage. We are looking for suggestions on brands that are lightweight rolling luggage.

 

Thanks for your help!

Steven

[balanceok]

We love our Skyway. Check out ebags website for pricing and other models.

[crisp1]

Not sure about your area, but you can find great buys in places like Marshalls, TJMax, even on sets in Wallmart. I don't use the 29" peice anymore- it's too easy to have show up heavy and cost you extra $$. I just got a 2 peice set thru a 'door buster' sale at Macy's for $24. The last time I bought a 'good' set it was damaged the first time I travelled. I now go for the cheaper sets or peices and replace them every so often. I also recommend colors other than black or grey- too many of them out there- go for the red or blue.

[SharleneinTexas]

I really love our Samsonite and it comes with a great warranty.......bought it on HSN as a set and have since added pieces we needed from HSN and from Ebay

 

 

Sharlene

[LARGIN]

Travel Pro is my choice..

[wtevrfltsurbt]

I purchase disposable luggage for all my trips. I had "good" luggage which was bashed and trashed, and the airlines are just too much of a pain to deal with for replacements, so I buy cheap sets and if they survive, great! if they don't, no big deal.

[Lemarier]

We love our Pathfinder (bought at Filenes but they sell everywhere) - it has a LIFETIME warranty

[TrentS]

I think I've had almost all the brands and DELSEY has lasted the longest. They seem to take the abuse better than any of the others... http://www.delsey.com/

[DesrtDrmr]

I agree with the Delsey recommendation.

I bought a couple of pieces of Travelpro, and spent a fortune. They are supposed to be almost indestructible. The first flight, the corners got all "scrubbed", and the threads were loose. The zipper pulls broke.......they were broken in half, or missing on most of the zippers. The carryon was fine. I love the organization of the bag, but have gone back to others. I tend to agree with the above posters about "disposable" luggage. In my mind, there is no reason to buy "good" luggage any longer.............I just try to find fairly sturdy bags.

My husband travels often on business..........gone about 200 days last year, and still uses his Delsey. This is his second bag, and he has used Delsey for the last 15 years. The first bag had only to be repaired once, and the current bag has never had to be repaired. The lock mechanism seem to get worn out after about eight years of heavy use.

[Bill S]

We've been VERY disappointed with our TravelPro luggage-2 hardshell suitcases which did not hold up well even for one cruise-cracked, split, etc-now the finish is wearing off. On the other hand, I purchased Sharper Image luggage on sale and it has been excellent-extremely durable. The only down side is that it comes only in one color-a dark taupe.

[geoherb]

My Samsonite rolling duffel has held up well for the past five years. I had a cheap off-brand one before that did not. The fabric on it wore through and the zipper had problems.

[jcanino]

Travel Pro is my choice..

 

Make that two votes for Travel Pro!

[LARGIN]

I agree with the Delsey recommendation.

I bought a couple of pieces of Travelpro, and spent a fortune. They are supposed to be almost indestructible. The first flight, the corners got all "scrubbed", and the threads were loose. The zipper pulls broke.......they were broken in half, or missing on most of the zippers. The carryon was fine. I love the organization of the bag, but have gone back to others. .

 

Interesting. I have had my Travel Pros for years with no problems. Did you have yours repaired/replaced? My Travel Pro Platinum's came with a lifetime warrenty.

[beachin']

Just a note on overweight luggage (as Crisp1 eluded to): Be wary of the weight restrictions on check-in luggage - max is 50 lbs. each vs. previously 70 lbs. each, and it is very easy to go over the max with large suitcases. We recently flew out of Ft. Lauderdale on our return trip home after the Easter holiday, and the lines were absolutely horrendous. After waiting in line outside for about 2 hours to do curbside check-in, the people in front of us found out that they had overweight luggage and were told they don't accept overweight luggage at curbside, so they needed to wait on line indoors (which had far longer lines than curbside, so they franctically rearranged the contents of their luggage amongst their other bags).

[kelleya]

Another vote for Travel Pro; I also use their Platinum collection. (Travel Pro has a couple of different collections)

[mii]

I can suggest that no matter what luggage you choose get a different color than black, dark green, grey. You go and pick up your luggage at disembarkation and there is a sea of black, dr. green and gray.:(

 

Marilyn

[jayscore]

I was shopping ALL over and wound up buying mine from...KMart! Thy're American Tourister, but made only for KMart. The model is Naples III. I bought the 30''and the 26', so one would fit into the other. They're made of 1200 Denier and seem to be built just as good as the other AT stuff at any other store or sight, at 2/3 the price. A little Scotchguard on them works well, also.

[love2cruiseseattle]

I can suggest that no matter what luggage you choose get a different color than black, dark green, grey. You go and pick up your luggage at disembarkation and there is a sea of black, dr. green and gray.:(

 

Marilyn

 

We only have black luggage and learned after our first cruise that it was very difficult to locate our luggage. So on our second cruise we went prepared, we put rainbow straps around each piece of luggage and have bright id holders on the handles. Our luggage is a lot more easier to find, at the airport and/or at the cruiseship terminals.

[IggleDoer]

A bit pricey but if the airlines trash the luggage, just send it back to B&R and they will fix or replace it .... free.

[pvangordon]

I love Briggs & Riley and have about 5 different pieces of their luggage. They have a great lifetime warranty, even against airline damage. I've had a few zippers busted from various travels and they fixed and delivered them at no charge. This is a brand I rave about to my friends.

[drpeperlvr]

Thanks everyone for the great thoughts and suggestions on luggage!

 

Steven

[dkort]

dear steven:

 

i just had to get my vote in here. my husband used to travel at least 6-7 times internationally per year. this also doesn't include all of the domestic travel. i was bitten by the travel bug from the time i was a little kid. between my husband and myself, we have bought every single piece of luggage out there. from the $300 plus delsey, travelpro, you name it, all the way down to the kmart brand. the cheapest piece of garbage you can buy will withstand anything you can do to it. unfortunately, i had to learn this from personal experience. at least 15 years ago, i decided to shop for a new set of luggage. i had so many mixmatched pieces, that i was pretty embarassed. so there i go out luggage shopping. and not just to any store. i picked the largest luggage store in the los angeles area for the biggest selection. i ended up purchasing, for several hundreds of dollars, a complete delsey set of luggage. a week later, i arrive at the miami airport. at the baggage carousel i noticed a couple of familiar looking disposable cameras starting to go around the belt. i said to myself, oh no. sure enough, the expensive delsey set, loaded up with stuff broke open, and all the zippers were destroyed. next thing i knew, my shoes, underwear, you name it, was all rotating around that carousel. i gathered up and waited for everything, threw them down on the floor in total disgust, and asked someone for a trashbag. this is how i took my luggage out of the airport - in a trashbag. i literally threw away the suitcases right there at the airport. as far as the warranty, i could care less - i was soooo mad. i was totally exhausted and told the cab driver, with my trash bag, to take me to the hotel. the next morning (sunday) i woke up and had to get to the airport for an international flight. luckily, i had until 3 pm ish. i went downstairs and asked for a cab. i got in the cab and asked the cab driver if there was any kind of a wal mart, kmart, target, anything. he found me a kmart. i asked the driver to wait in the cab. i ran into the store, knowing i was racking up money on the meter. i found the luggage department and bought the largest suitcases on wheels for $29 each. those suitcases lasted us through tons and tons of travel, both domestic and international. it wasn't until about a year ago that we were cleaning out our old suitcases and we decided to finally get rid of our kmart suitcases. and why did we get rid of them? because when i took them to fix the holes, the suitcase shop told me it would cost about $75. this luggage lasted for at least 15 years. and this is not my only story. one time in orlando, i took my big set of travelpro with us. sure enough, close to the same story happened again, only this time the zippers wouldn't work. luckily this occurred at the hotel, so we had time to shop. i went to international drive and found a dumpy suitcase store. $14 later, i bought what can only be termed a "body bag," since our then 4 yr old daughter climbed into it and we wheeled her around the hotel room. that $14 duffel bag is still going strong today.

 

i have NEVER had a garbage piece of luggage break. what has usually happened is after a while, they tend to get so scratched, scuffed and messed up, that i'll replace them. my latest finds have been on ebags. their $29 rolling duffel bags cannot be beat. i buy them in any color except black. i then take a sharpie pen and write on the bag all of our information.

 

the other thing you need to know is i had a baggage handler tell me one time that unscrupulous baggage handlers look for expensive luggage and then quickly go through those bags looking for whatever they might want. i pretty much travel with the "homeless looking" suitcase set, mismatched with different colors.

 

save your money for what counts - anything but expensive luggage.

what's really funny is the people that go on about lifetime warranties. for the price you'd pay for this "warranty," you could buy about 10 of the other bags. who needs a warranty then?

 

happy shopping