rolling travel suitcase advice

[Lenny_Goofoff]

Hard or semi-hard, not sure about exact volume, but old one was 30-40" high. Haliburton aluminium cases look nice, but expensive. Is there a reliable plastic cases around, priced $200, 300 tops?

 

[Gollnick]

Several years ago, I bought a nested pair of Ricardo of Hollywood suitcases at Costco. There's a big one that, when expanded, is just shy of the maximum permissible checked bag (without paying extra)*. The smaller one is carry-on-able. They have carbon-fiber shells. They are what are called "spinners" and they roll and move extremely well. I've just never had a suitcase that was so effortless to move and handle. The quality of the shell and zippers, wheels, handles, etc. is good. I've probably flown 25 or so trips with the big one now and it's holding up quite well. It still looks great. I don't use the small one a lot; I'm a bit of an over-packer and that little one is maybe enough for a weekend for me... assuming that I don't need a suit. One thing I like about these two is that they don't have a lot of over-thought internal "organizing features" that tend to be variously non-functional, useless, or quickly-broken. I seem to recall paying about $120 for the pair. I'm very pleased.

If you're a Costco member, take a look at what they've got. And, otherwise, I would encourage you to look at Ricardo of Hollywood.


* Keep in mind that airlines are often being very rigorous about weight limits these days. So, a big suitcase isn't always a good idea. And activating the "expansion" zipper feature can be an easy way to end up paying an excess baggage fee.

Also, Costco got into a bit of hot water with customers a few years ago when they sold a suitcase that, when you opened the "expansion" zipper, went over the maximum airline size thus forcing an oversized bag fee. The suitcase in question was, when not expanded, just about exactly the maximum size and some customers complained about being charged oversize fees simply because the ticket agent did a sloppy job of measuring. The large Ricardo suitcase I have remains comfortably below maximum permitted size even when expanded.

 

[Gollnick]

Oh, and those Haliburton Zero aluminium cases look great... in the showroom. But they look like crap after just a few trips through commercial baggage handling. And they're really very heavy... which is a problem with the airlines being pedantic about weight these days. In their day, the aluminum Zero cases were quite light. But, today's advanced materials make them clunkers.

Fifty pounds is the limit. The large Zero suitcase weights about 22 pounds empty leaving you only 28 pounds for payload and that's actually not much. A pair of dress shoes weighs three to five pounds. A pair of good slacks are 1-2 pounds. Four or five pairs underwear are a pound... and socks add up even faster. So, you really need to watch the weight of your suitcase itself.

Those fancy Zero cases? Those are for people whose luggage is not weighed and is handled with white gloves... because they own the plane and employ the crew.

 

[macdo]

I have a couple of hard Samsonites that have held up over 20 years travel including coming off a car roofrack at 80mph on a wet stormy night and landing in roadside fields after a few bounces. I've had some pretty fragile items (art, ceramics etc) in there, carefully packed and never worried about them. But... they are heavy and probably overkill if all that is in there is clothes and a toothbrush.
My wife bought a Delsey spinner recently. Thinner, much lighter and very easy to handle but still hard side and with a double zip system which is reassuring. I've had zips come unravelled at the wrong end or in the middle and don't entirely trust one to keep my case closed.

 

[Lenny_Goofoff]

wow, good point on these Al cases ))) I will check out those Rikardos
Had Samsonite laptop case some years ago and quality good, newer models look worse
thanks

 

[Gollnick]

I was looking at Samsonite briefcases last night. I found them to be apparently-well-built, but quite thick. They have three or four compartments with padded walls between them and so empty they are four inches thick.