Luggage questions

[redbird]

I'm looking for advice on buying luggage: good (or bad) brands, and any other hints:

Between us, cattitude and I have one wheeled bag (just small enough to be a legal carry-on for North American flights), one backpack (ditto, if packed carefully), and some smaller backpacks (one of which I sometimes use for weekend trips, if it's not winter).

Not only would we like to have more than one bag that isn't a backpack, but both the wheeled bag and the backpack are wearing out. I've had the backpack at least since 1995, and it's well made, but I don't know whether the bags Eagle Creek is selling in 2013 are as well-made.

Comments

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Here via browngirl.

I have a pair of Samsonite Winfield hardsided spinners, one 20" (which is a legal carryon) and one 28" expanadable (which is not). There's also an intermediate size of 24", which I don't own because I consider it kinda redundant. If I have too much stuff for a carryon I'll just use the big one. (You may be able to find a deal on the complete set of 3 that makes the marginal price of the set cheaper enough over buying two separates, in which case, go for it. You may also feel differently if you find the 28" model too big.) They're red, because red ones go faster.[1] They come with heavy-duty coil zippers and TSA-approved locks.

I bought them on the recommendation of my friend awfief, who is an inveterate road warrior as part of her work and flies something like a zillion miles a year. She lent me a 20" Winfield for my 2011 trip to Amsterdam and I loved it, so I went out and bought two of my own. I've now had them for about 2 years and they've got some substantial mileage on them. I brought the larger one with me for a week in Costa Rica and again for a week in Oklahoma City. The smaller one has been to a couple of cons as well as a long weekend in Montréal and a few other trips up and down the Northeast Corridor.

It's amazing how nicely these things roll and how much nicer the hardware feels on the Samsonites as opposed to the hardware on lesser bags I've owned over the years.

The major downside is the price tag. These things are not cheap. They also violate the rule of "Don't travel with flashy luggage," but anything relatively new and nice will do that, at least until it acquires a nice patina courtesy of the baggage handlers at your local airport.

[1]Old motorcyclists' joke.