Good luggage for use with airlines?

[John Hollister]

Pelican. Period.

I got tired of buying luggage every few trips.

I use both the 1650 (wheeled) case for luggage and the 1490 for my laptop.

 

[Lurker]

I dropped the Pathfinder suitcase off at the local "Shoe and Luggage Repair Shop" (which is a Pathfinder-authorized repair center) last Saturday and they promised to have it ready on Monday, 2 days later. When I picked it up today, the old zipper had been repaired by hand-sewing the tooth coil back onto the cloth base of the zipper. The repair looks weak and I am disappointed with it, but only time will tell if it will actually hold.

The cost was covered by the store's filing of a warranty claim on my behalf. I suspect that the store's decision to file this as a warranty claim was based on a subjective decision that stretched the terms of the written warranty a bit, so my experience may not indicate how another customer might be treated at a different shop. Maybe there is an unwritten policy at Pathfinder to cover these repairs when reasonable, but it doesn't seem to be an enforceable part of the written warranty.

I'm glad that they "fixed" the case because when I proposed a hardside to my wife as a possible replacement, she seemed pretty reluctant. She said she prefers soft luggage because "you can stuff more into it", but I think a big part of her preference has to do with fashion.

My confidence in that suitcase is now shaken and while my wife might use it, it would make me nervous to use it myself.

If the zipper had been completely removed and replaced with a new one, I would have been happy. Maybe if/when it breaks again I will try to insist on that type of repair and see if I can get it done under warranty. I undersand that replacing a zipper is almost cost-prohibitive, but I didn't get a quote on it because it was very difficult to communicate with the person I dealt with at the shop.

The bitch of this is that the next time it breaks it will probably be out of town and the case will have to be replaced urgently with whatever is conveniently available wherever I am.

 

[Sundsvall]

Forget the old busted luggage unless you want to collect loose articles of clothing off the conveyer belt.

BTW, find out which pathfinder luggage you have. It is wrong to condemn a brand which produces high and low quality goods.

It is like saying all Hyundai's are bad cars. They do have a budget minded cars that are not too rugged, but their top end ones are really solid.

Pathfinder makes a low-end line named the "AVENGER" series and a higher-end line named "TX" or "TX2".

I do not work for Pathfinder, nor sell their products.

 

[Lurker]

Sundsvall, I don't have a problem with Pathfinder, nor do I condemn their luggage. I don't know which model my bag is and I don't know how to find out. I also don't think it matters. I think the bag held up as well as any soft-sided luggage could have under the same conditions. The repair, such as it was, was over and above what is promised in the Pathfinder warranty or the warranty of any other luggage I am familiar with. The zipper failed, but the rest of the bag is fine.

I question the basic design of virtually all soft-sided luggage because all the ones I've seen have a zipper positioned around the edge of the bag where it is most exposed to abuse.

 

[Sid Post]

Lurker,

I understand your position regarding the Pathfinder brand and the basic design issues with all soft sided luggage but, Sundsvall has a valid point.

Most of us have used cheap gym bags and later got one that was significantly better and built out of quality materials. The same appears to be true with soft sided luggage in general. Sure, anything will fail when subjected to enough abuse. The question is how much abuse does it take for failure? Even hard sided luggage with the 50/50 seams have a "design flaw" and will fail at some rate that may be better or worse then soft sided luggage. That is surely not true of the better hard sided luggage.

In my shopping at various retail establishments, I found some soft sided and hard sided luggage that, frankly, I wouldn't put in the belly of an airplane if I had a choice. I also found some at "moderate" pricepoints that showed significantly better quality of construction and as such, should be expected to hold up much better then their cheaper counterparts.

If weight was not an issue, I think we all would carry very solid hard bags you could air drop out of a C130 without a parachute. With weight and size restrictions on commercial flights today, some middle ground must be sought for most of us or flying is just cost prohibitive.

FWIW, I just heard a newsroom tidbit on the TV saying Northwest airlines was limiting bag weight to 50 pounds. Over that and surcharges start to hit you pretty hard. My last experience with British Airways at Heathrow made me a believer. Don't expect leeway or a customer first service policy. Flying, even in business class, is almost an adverseral process in some places. Those of you who have flown intra-Europe probably understand this better then anyone else. American Airlines international was darn good but, those intra-Europe flights rivaled the cattle cars I've been on in the USA with even worse gate service. With this thought in mind, I am shopping for lightweight high quality bags that won't draw the attention of the gate nazi's shaking everyone down so that I can hopefully board the airplane unscathed.