Purchasing luggage

[Watersports]

Hi,

 

I need to purchase some luggage so my father, Sister, and brother-in-law can come on the cruise with me, and not bring a paper sac or 6 shopping bags. :D

 

I was wondering if anyone knows of a good place to order luggage from on the internet.

 

I don't want anything top of the line, because they usually only go on car vacations. This is the first time they are all flying, so I think mid-low range priced pieces or sets.

 

I currently have a hardshell Samsonite overseas piece of luggage, I think it is 30". I used this to go to europe for a month once, so I don't think they need such a big one. :confused:

 

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[LARGIN]

EBAGS or EBAY should have some good deals on the net.

[BaumD]

Maybe you should look for some "used" luggage at a local second hand store or at someones garage sale.

[Ta421sBtrHalf]

Last week at Target they had a set of luggage for $44.00 that consisted of a 30", 27", and 20" rolling uprights, a 24" rolling duffle, a 15" tote and a toiletry case. It was marked $59.00 regular. It is a good quality suitcase so we bought it because we seem to need more luggage for a 7 day cruise.

 

Jenn

[Watersports]

:) Thanks for the tips.

 

Now this thought comes to mind, I know Samsonite and the big names, but can anyone give me horor stories of any parti cular "BRAND".

 

I have never bought low-mid quality luggage before. Most of what I see is garbage.

 

Thanks again,

I would hate for the suitcase fall apart on thier first trip.

[Ellya]

I don't know if you have a Costco in your area, but in August they are offering a 5 piece set (Ricardo) for $79 through their coupon book. We bought this same set a number of years ago and it is holding up just fine. I would highly recommend it! The price is fantastic.

[bUU]

I just got a great 5-piece set through jcpenney.com of all places, $79.

[JanetMarie]

This is one of those topics that's "on the fence." If you purchase a set of luggage at a low price, then you run the risk of it being damaged or ripped from the airline handling, from the weight of other pieces being placed on top of it, etc.

If you opt to buy Samsonite, then you pay big bucks. Paradox, isn't it?

My suggestion would be to access a search engine, like Google, and put "luggage" in the string. I'm looking for luggage for DH and I, to replace our old Samsonite, and I've come across some nice sites selling Samsonite and other brands at a good price. I was told the reason you can pick up a name brand piece on these sites is because that "style" :eek: is no longer manufactured. To me, it doesn't matter that my luggage may be out of "style," because I don't know how luggage can be so!!!

So, that's what DH and I are going to do. Pick up a couple of pieces from one of the sites I've tapped into. Good luck!;)

[jonesmen]

We needed to supplement our luggage for our cruise last Feb. We ordered from LuggageOnline and were able to get top quality luggage for about 75% off its original price since it was a closeout. They have a large range, ship free over a certain amount, and often have deals where you can get a small piece free if you buy a certain amount/piece. We have the Travelpro Crew series which is what many professional flight attendants/pilots use, and have been really satisfied, and it didn't cost us much more than a less expensive set at BJs.

 

Hope this helps-

 

Bobbi

[Happy ks]

Good quality and cheap should not be in the same sentence. We were going to borrow my BIL's large Costco suitcase a few years ago, it had only been on 3 - 4 trips. Already, the zipper was broken and the case showed quite a bit of wear. We then purchased our first piece of quality luggage, it still looks brand new and we have added to it over the years piece by piece.

 

If you shop carefully, you can find good prices on quality luggage. I have purchased from ebags, but you can find better deals from luggage and department stores. I really prefer to check out the whole piece before purchasing, everyone has their own priorities with features.

 

I would not recommend using the 30" suitcase for a domestic flight, it's hard to keep a smaller case under the weight limit.

[bUU]

I used to feel the same way. I was a frequent business traveller (on the road 200 days per year; sometimes 3 or 4 cities each week) and I wouldn't have traded my TravelPro and Briggs & Reiley for anything. However, as a leisure traveler, it almost works out to be less expensive to buy new luggage for every trip than to invest in gold-standard luggage. And of course, there is no need, since most of the cheaper luggage will, if by nothing other than chance, last two or three trips.

 

And my experience with Samsonite convinced me that better luggage doesn't "fail more gracefully" than cheap luggage. When good luggage fails it fails just as badly, and you need just as much duct tape to get home! :)

[jonesmen]

I agree about the comment re: 30" luggage. We had 26" suitcases, packed densely, and we were over the weight limit. We had to pay the surcharge in both cases which really added up. With a 30", you would have to be really careful.

 

From a personal perspective, we switched from Samsonite since we had real problems with zipper failure. It was really costly to have the zippers fixed. I'm sure that this is a problem with other luggage, but it happened more than once with our Samsonite.

 

Good luck!

[JanetMarie]

Bobbi ~ I check luggageonline - very nice items and great prices, too. We're still scouring the web sites before we buy. Thanks again! ;)

[LARGIN]

TravelPro.. Super luggage that will last forever.. However do not buy the 29" Rollarboard Suiter if you want to use that piece for air travel.. The H+W+D=65 inches which is 3 inches oversize for most air carriers. We live close to San Francisco and often take round trip cruises from there so no air is involved. It is easy to stuff everything into the 29 incher. :) You can often find TravelPro on sale for 50% off retail.

[MaryPoppinz]

For our checked bags for cruises lately, I've been using some inexpensive RED luggage I bought somewhere. I use one of those web wraps around the outside in case something should happen to the zipper, and so far we've been able to use it on 3 trips. I think we'll probably get that many more out of it. Red doesn't look very nice after being attacked by a million sets of black wheels on the conveyors, but it's easy to pick out of a packed terminal!

 

We have Rollaboards as well, and they are really great and worth it. And, it's not that hard to find them discounted online. If you don't mind searching through a sea of black luggage, Travelpro Rollaboards are the way to go.

[misssea]

I went to protraveler.com to purchase some Atlantic luggage to match a piece I already had. I received bigger discounts there than from any other website. I'm not sure if you can get as good of discounts if you buy sets of luggage instead of individual pieces though. One thing to look for when buying sets. At a local store, they were selling individual Atlantic luggage pieces on sale for much more than I paid online. At the same time, they were selling sets for $65, also Atlantic. But in comparing the sets to the individual bags, the individual bags were obviously made better, thus why they were more expensive.

[Watersports]

Thank you, thank you, thank you. This is the kind of information I needed. Now I will set out on my journey to find some luggage and look forward to any more posts prior to my purchase.

[JanetMarie]

Thank you! Luggageonline just got a sale!!!;)

[aldesonia]

Watersports I see you live in MI.You should see if there is KOHLS near You. They handle Atlantic Serenity2. they have 50%-60% off. This is a good quality at a good price. They have 5-6 differant brands so you will see the differance. I hope this helps.

[smudge's mom]

We bought two sets of a brand of ultra cheap softsided luggage from Penney's called Protocol - more than 15 years ago. We had Samsonite hard sided luggage, but it was cumbersome and heavy - even when empty - so decided to replace it with softsided luggage.

 

We had intended to keep this luggage for only a few years - we figured it would only last that long and then we probably would be able to afford to buy better stuff. Well, these $99 sets which each included two different sized carryons, a suit carrier, a 24" and a 26" are still around here.

 

The stuff is wearing out now. Both 24's are still in good shape. The carryons and suit bags are still very usable. However, our beloved 26 inchers are " almost dead." One of the corners is ripping out, there are a few zipper pulls missing - but get this - the zippers are still in tact, the wheels are still good. You could use them in a pinch.

 

I am very tempted to pull them back out. The new luggage we got is softsided, good quality stuff - but it's too heavy when empty - causing "weighing in" problems even when lightly packed; and it's so close to the size limit, I cannot use the outside pockets for fear it will exceed airline limits in both size and weight.

 

Yes, we purchased this beautiful luggage a few months prior to the weight restrictions becoming an airline issue.

 

Anyone want to buy some "unwanted" luggage. I'd rather go back to my Protocol.

[Ta421sBtrHalf]

That is how our cheap "Global Traveler" set from Sears is, good dependable and was a steal for $50 on clearnece. After using it about 100 times now it is still in "like new" condition. It is our every trip luggage because either just one of us goes out of town, or we are only going to a theme park for a few days. After borrowing the in-laws luggage for the past two cruises we just needed a cheap set to use for our annual week trip. Especially now that child is a pre-teen and needs to take many outfits to impress teen girls.