Spinner Luggage?

[cruisemom42]

Spinners only glide well on smooth surfaces. They are a pain on carpeting and rough or bumpy surfaces.

 

Cruising is only part of my travel; I also do a lot of land-based travel. I much prefer a STURDY two-wheeled bag to the spinners. Much easier to handle on the cobblestones of Europe, for example, or getting over lots of curbs and bumps.

 

I'm partial to the Eagle Creek luggage with the sturdy wheels that have treads. They have worked very well for me over the years.

[slidergirl]

Spinners only glide well on smooth surfaces. They are a pain on carpeting and rough or bumpy surfaces.

 

Cruising is only part of my travel; I also do a lot of land-based travel. I much prefer a STURDY two-wheeled bag to the spinners. Much easier to handle on the cobblestones of Europe, for example, or getting over lots of curbs and bumps.

 

I'm partial to the Eagle Creek luggage with the sturdy wheels that have treads. They have worked very well for me over the years.

 

My cruise sista speaks the truth ;) As for weight, I always make sure that I never pack heavier than what I can lift over my head UNLESS I am going from car to plane to taxi to ship where I don't have to worry about weight. I travel solo, so I MUST be able to handle my own bags on any type of transportation and any distance.

 

My rolling carryon (when I use it) is my trusty Eagle Creek Tarmac; have had that puppy since the mid 90s and it's still rolling strong. My primary big wheelie is my Osprey Sojourn, a 25" combination roller/carry/backpack. It's gone everywhere from safari camps in Kenya to rolling from train stations to hotels in Florence. Yep, I'm over 60 and I still use a backpack option - when you gotta climb several flights of stairs to the hotel room/apartment, being able to put it on my back comes in handy!

[Bankshot]

My wife bought purple paisley luggage from a website with luggage in their name and that vendor is a real pro. She read lots of reviews of many different brands and tried out department store luggage before making a purchase. These pieces are well made and very light so she can maximize the contents. Also, the paisley print makes it easy to spot in the cruise terminal. Our favorite hotel has thick carpeting in the corridors and spinners do not like that so she has to pull the large case behind her as though it is not a spinner. But it's a breeze on a smooth surface. We are not fans of hard-side luggage because it opens like a book....both sides are the same depth. When spread open it consumes a lot of space, plus you are pulling one heavy side up to open this luggage. She took one cruise with the hard-side luggage and gave it away.

[DocF]

The big advantage of spinner cases is when one is flying on a plane that is small enough or old enough that the bags are not placed in a container (can). The baggage get thrown from the door to the pile in the baggage compartment unless the case is a spinner. Then they sit it on the wheels and give it a shove.

 

Now the hard side cases (plastic) survive unbelievable abuse by airlines and cruise lines. One of our giraffe cases arrived in Hawaii with the imprint of a structural beam in it. Yet it survived and I heated it and pretty much fixed the damage. A fabric bag would have been toast.

 

I thought I wanted a Zero Haliburton bag until I saw one arrive in Rome ripped in half. No, the top was not demounted from the bottom; both were torn in half. It was interesting, to say the least.

 

Doc:p

[GUT2407]

Looking for a new luggage for our upcoming cruise and I'm trying to decide how important the "spinner" feature is. Is it a "must have" when purchasing new luggage or just a bonus? The non-spinning kind seem a lot less expensive :rolleyes:

 

Thanks!

 

Makes it easier to wheel.

 

But if you are fit and strong do without and save $$$$$$.

[TruckerDave]

If you fly a lot, skip spinners (rough baggage handling will eventually break them). Instead, look at Travelpro's upper level stuff. Expensive (though deals come and go) . But, guaranteed forever. I've still got a couple of stowable rollaboards that are more than 20 years old (have newer pieces as well)

Next time you're at the airport, check what many of the flight crews are pulling behind them - Travelpro.

 

 

and if you have, and don't mind spending, the cash..Tumi or Briggs & Riley. :D

[jbuch02]

and if you have, and don't mind spending, the cash..Tumi or Briggs & Riley. :D

 

No question ..... great luggage but for the larger cases both of these brands can cost well over $700. The Briggs & Riley has recessed spinners to protect them and the bag itself is the best I've seen in terms of quality and usability.

 

Two years ago, I bought a set of hard sided luggage, two pieces, at discount. After the third or fourth airline trip, both of them had been pierced. I put Duck Tape over the holes. No problem. In January we cruised in Asia flying in and out of Singapore. Inbound to Singapore, one of the spinners was damaged but not severed. Outbound and back in the states, the bag had several more holes in it and two spinners completely separated. I tossed it.

 

I believe this is a huge downside to affordable light weight bags with spinners ..... unless you want to spend close to a grand on the best, none of them are going to stand up to the abuses bags take particularly form airline travel.

 

There's also significant differences in the weight and strength of the materials used in both hard and soft sided luggage. You can find hard sided luggage that in terms of size will max out what airlines will allow that weigh under 8 pounds. At least in my shopping experience, it appears you will not find anything under $400 that is going to survive any type of mishandling nor have warranties that will cover such damage.

 

I'm not sure where I'm going to go with luggage. I have one soft sided large garment bag (Atlantic) that has held up pretty well but it's smallish and it weights about 14 pounds empty. That's a lot of weight to give away.

 

Who else is dealing with luggage issues and can offer insight.

[Floridiana]

I also really really dislike that all I have seen (there might be exceptions to this) open in the middle so they fold open from the center.

 

The Heys brand opens on top. That's the one we put on the luggage rack in the hotel. The other one opens on the floor and contains the stuff we don't always use, for example the warm respectively summer clothes on a recent trip where we needed hot and cold weather clothes. It's also the one with the emergency medical kit, the dirty clothes and the extras that we thought we needed like rain gear and it never rained after all.

[halifaxcruising]

We prefer spinners especially if travelling in Europe where there are a lot of cobble stones and uneven surfaces. I find the spinners give better clearance but we don't use the overhead bins on airlines so that is not a problem.:)

[Magnum60]

There are plenty of pluses and minuses when discussing spinner luggage. For me the biggest negative is the dimensional packing space eaten up by four wheels in your cars trunk when packing multiple (all wheeled) bags when leaving home. Space issues return when you step aboard your plane. If you've made it past the dreaded carry on size test at the gate with those four wheels sticking out of your carry on you've got more space issues waiting for you just around the corner. Those four exposed wheels will eat up what little space the airline has left you for your feet under the seat in front of you as well as space in the overhead bin if you weren't boarded early while space was still available. After the joy of getting to the airport and flying is behind you spinners are wonderful.

My checked bags are two wheeled (wheels recessed into the case) and because I'm a very frequent flyer and always priority boarded my wife and I use spinner hand carry bags [that we know will pass the hand carry size test] and almost always find an empty overhead bin over our seats to store them.

After a wonderful cruise we get to run the above backwards for our trip home.

[R<3M2012]

For those who are handy you can hack your spinning luggage. I purchased 2, 28inch spinning suitcases from ebags. After our first cruise the spinners lost its bearings. I didn't want to throw the luggage away because I loved the unique color and pattern which made them super easy to spot. So my dad went to Home Depot purchased some dolly wheels and fitted them onto the luggage. 5 years and a ton of cruises, train travel and land vacations later my luggage is still spinning, it easily glides over any surface.

[TruckerDave]

No question ..... great luggage but for the larger cases both of these brands can cost well over $700. The Briggs & Riley has recessed spinners to protect them and the bag itself is the best I've seen in terms of quality and usability.

 

.

 

 

They have a perfect carry on (exactly 22x14x9)I really want and keep looking it on their website (I even looked at it in a store last year)....I just can't quite choke down the $499 price tag:eek: and click "buy" yet. :(

[janetz]

You don't need to spend a ton of money for good luggage.

After reading reviews and researching we went with Travel Pro spinners and after a few years they are as good new. ;)

[navybankerteacher]

I like spinners on larger suitcases, but not on carry on sized ones.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Spinners on a carry-on make it a lot easier to use it as a carry-on when flying -- it can be easily pushed along a plane aisle while a non spinner often cannot easily fit and must be carried to maneuver it sidewise.

[cruisemom42]

We prefer spinners especially if travelling in Europe where there are a lot of cobble stones and uneven surfaces. I find the spinners give better clearance but we don't use the overhead bins on airlines so that is not a problem.:)

 

Funny, I had exactly the opposite experience. I found the spinners very difficult to use on the cobble stones and uneven surfaces (e.g., most areas outside of airports and hotel lobbies).