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Luggage and Suitcases


DonRocks

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3 hours ago, dcs said:

Honestly, the USB port feature is about the most useful aspect of a simple household appliance I have encountered in some time.  Every lamp should have one.

Every *suitcase* should also (and many are beginning to). I agree about nightstand lamps, too.

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So I still have some wear in my large rolling duffel bag, and will likely buy another rolling duffel upon it's demise. But anyone have any luggage duffel or other luggage they love for big trips (like 10-17 day vacation)?  Preferably light and can hold a lot of items as I normally come home with a pretty full suitcase with gifts for people, clothes, wine and etc.   I like to fly my luggage home with no extra weight to spare.  Something durable, as I travel a fair amount.  I have a piece of Hartmann luggage which is great, holds a lot and is durable, but it is too heavy to really be useful anymore.  The zippers have somewhat broken on my duffel, I forget what brand it is, we have two and Matt's older one actually has worn better and I would get the zippers repaired, but it has so much other wear I don't know that it is worth it, I will just use it with jimmy rigged zipper pulls until it dies.  I don't really need it to be smart in anyway, except knowing what it weighed without weighing it would be super useful, but I fly to a lot of different countries and would prefer not to have something that I have to remove the battery or etc, plus I pack my battery pack and etc in my personal items for charging.

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Jon Karl recommended Eagle Creek to me a few years ago (nobody travels more than Jon). I bit the bullet, and it's the best luggage I've ever used - which really isn't saying *that* much. The cool thing is that it's so compartmentalized - with Eagle Creek, you need to "Go big, or go home" - buy all the accessories: shoe bags, sock bags, folding shirt bags, etc. Then, when you open your suitcase, you can pull out each little mesh sack. This stuff is seriously durable, and designed in a way to optimize space - the way I spot it in the luggage claim is to look for the suitcase with the largest wheels (if you buy black luggage, make sure to put a colorful ribbon on it!) - this is the Hummer H2 of luggage.

This stuff isn't cheap, but compared to something like Tumi - which is, IMO, absolute crap - there's no comparison. Tumi might be okay if you're flying on a private jet, but for real-life travel, it falls apart very quickly.

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10 hours ago, DIShGo said:

Interesting read. I still love my Away bag, and I am happy I bought it. It has held up very well through a lot of recent travel. It charges my phone so quickly that I often use it instead of the outlet in my hotel because it is faster. 

I've witnessed you removing your battery at the check-in register - it takes you less than five seconds, and you throw it in your carry-on (the last time, the agent didn't even notice you had one; you remembered at the last second).

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Just FYI in China they banned this type of luggage, and I am sure you could take the battery out, but not sure how they would react still, so I would just be careful.  They were very serious about luggage searches and etc.

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I, for one, find myself liking Briggs & Riley more and more each time I acquire a piece.  Once the poor man's substitute for Tumi, they keep evolving clever improvements to their bags, from the ratcheting expansion/compression system to the tethered piggyback strap, and are arguably the innovators in the category.  Unlike Tumi, they've retained a lifetime repair policy across their line.  The bags have become significantly lighter over the years, albeit at the cost of some toughness.

If there's anything that annoys me, it's that the ratchet system cannot be rigidly locked into position to force an expanded bag to stay oversized to create airspace around fragile contents.  My earliest piece, not quite 20 years old, is a fully-framesheeted tank of a rollaboard, and so long as I'm on a carrier with no carryon weight limit, it's my go-to for getting bottles home safely.

+1 on Eagle Creek pieces.  Their bags are a bit light-duty for my tastes, but their packing cubes and suit/shirt folders are still great for internal organization.

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30 minutes ago, ol_ironstomach said:

+1 on Eagle Creek pieces.  Their bags are a bit light-duty for my tastes, but their packing cubes and suit/shirt folders are still great for internal organization.

Dave, I'm genuinely curious: What (soft-shell) line have you found that's more heavy-duty than Eagle Creek? The primary way I find my suitcase on the carousel (other than Magdelena having had put on a purple ribbon) is the size of the wheels, which are invariably the largest of the lot.

That said, in full disclosure: The handle on my penultimate-largest bag had one side snap off, and is hanging by the other side - this is my one (and only) complaint with Eagle Creek. And it's a big one, because when you pay this much for luggage, it should last for at least ten years: This is the H2 of suitcases.

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There's an old joke ("Questionable Answers for Job-Jocks") in which the interviewer asks "where do you want to be in 5 years?" and "what do you feel is most important to success in our firm?", and the newly-minted Booz Allen tyro's answer is, respectively, "in an airplane" and "a large suitcase".

Among soft-sides, the classic heavy hitters are: Tumi and Hartmann, in part for their once-formidable worldwide customer service.  I would add B&R.  You won't necessarily find larger diameter wheels in this group, but they've always used better bearings, harder wearing fabrics, and provided better seam protection and scuff protection along the roller handle and lower rear frame.

In the next tier, I'd say Travelpro, Eagle Creek, Victorinox, and many others.  Then the better generics.  Then the rest.  YMMV.

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5 minutes ago, ol_ironstomach said:

There's an old joke ("Questionable Answers for Job-Jocks") in which the interviewer asks "where do you want to be in 5 years?" and "what do you feel is most important to success in our firm?", and the newly-minted Booz Allen tyro's answer is, respectively, "in an airplane" and "a large suitcase".

Among soft-sides, the classic heavy hitters are: Tumi and Hartmann, in part for their once-formidable worldwide customer service.  I would add B&R.  You won't necessarily find larger diameter wheels in this group, but they've always used better bearings, harder wearing fabrics, and provided better seam protection and scuff protection along the roller handle and lower rear frame.

In the next tier, I'd say Travelpro, Eagle Creek, Victorinox, and many others.  Then the better generics.  Then the rest.  YMMV.

Wow, just to offer up another perspective: My Tumi suitcase was awful - lightweight, impossibly flimsy, and the darned thing broke within two years in a couple of places. I'm willing to accept that it was an anomaly, but consistency is critical here (which is why I'm struggling with my Eagle Creek having snapped on one side of the handle after, perhaps, twenty trips).

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12 minutes ago, DonRocks said:

Wow, just to offer up another perspective: My Tumi suitcase was awful - lightweight, impossibly flimsy, and the darned thing broke within two years in a couple of places. I'm willing to accept that it was an anomaly, but consistency is critical here (which is why I'm struggling with my Eagle Creek having snapped on one side of the handle after, perhaps, twenty trips).

What era/line was it from?  Pre-2000, their bags were tough.  Nowadays, I wouldn't spend the money on anything but their Alpha line, and IMHO the Briggs features are now better.  ETA: I should clarify that I'm talking about B&R's "Baseline" line; their "Transcend" offerings seem to use similar fabrics, but lighter-duty frame construction.

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7 minutes ago, ol_ironstomach said:

What era/line was it from?  Pre-2000, their bags were tough.  Nowadays, I wouldn't spend the money on anything but their Alpha line, and IMHO the Briggs features are now better. 

The Tumi bag I have (had) was from probably 2005 - there you go.

This is *exactly* why ongoing conversations about products are important <he says, while drinking a Bell'sTwo Hearted Ale, which is drinkable, but by no means "great" or even "pleasant">.

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Maybe new Hartmann's are better, mine from 2009 are too heavy, while in-destructible, the weight of the suitcase alone will easily put me overweight on most carriers with a large piece.  I find it annoying when websites don't list the weight of the suitcase empty.  Hubby and I both need new suitcases though so I will be checking it all out.  Thanks for the new posts!  I will probably go to a luggage plus and/or Bloomies etc to check stuff out then price it online.

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