Evening all, I need some new wheeled luggage for an up coming trip overseas. Needs to be pretty big (100+ ltr) as it will be used for everything from skiing trips to family holidays. It will mostly be plane to car holidays rather than public transport stuff (I have some nice Mountain Equipment duffel bag for that).

I’ve seens some nice Eastpak stuff (Transfer L) and also some nice Samsonite stuff which looked good but is a bit expensive really. The Linea stuff in House of Fraser also looked good but in honesty I don’t know what makes good or bad luggage.

Any recommendations what is good or bad? Or at least what to look for?

Thanks in advance.

I have a big Animal 120l trolley bag for that same spec. A bit like this;

Love it. Big, bulletproof and not too expensive. Also, it’s a different colour (brown) to every other bland case, meaning I can spot it more easily on the carousel.

That said, I’d never be without my Sammy the Samsonite for shorter trips. A superb piece of kit. Their big stuff is ace.

What’s your budget? Eastpak are great but, well worth also having a look at this, I’d say; http://www.ospreypacks.com/en/group/wheeled_bags/shuttle_series

If I was to replace my Animal, it would be with an Osprey.

I just bought a wheeled Musto bag, It’s a bit yachty (but then so am I) however it seems to do the job well.

Check the dimensions of the bags allowed by airlines – that should guide the size you buy. I think 62 linear inches (h+l+w) is the number for at least one airline. Couple that with the max weight (50lbs?) per bag and 100l is about your max size. Anything bigger and you might get pinged for oversize luggage, more likely in tightening margins in the aviation industry.

TooTall, my Animal has been around the world. Several times. Never had an airline problem, bar too much weight once. Flashed BA gold card. Problem solved.

Size is never an issue unless you fly with shit airlines.

Most of the places I’ve flown are well beyond the reaches of BA and their trinkets.

Don’t you find that frequent flyers are usually salesmen? I’ve found that if someone is properly important, people go to them. Gold cards are the 21st Century version of having a Ford Mondeo and driving 100,000 miles a year.

TooTall & CaptainFlasheart flex their airmile muscles…meanwhile I’ll pour myself a nightcap 😀

Samsonite and Delsey is for business travellers whose company pays for the luggage, it’s fantastic stuff but takes up a lot of space at home in storage. That foldable one pictured above looks a better idea for an occasional traveller as it will squash down and if part-filled the contents won’t rattle around.

flippin – normally I can cope with him cocking his snook at the common people, but every now and again he just manages to get a nip from me. Believe me, I believe flying to be a cruel and unusual torture and avoid it as much as possible.

Cap’n – that animal is a bit vulgar looking though, I expected more from you 🙁
Looks like something Elbry would use.

A while ago I needed a big suitcase and I thought “I’ll get the same as flight crew have, since they travel all the time, it must be good”. So I bought a hard shell Samsonite case. And first time I used it, the frame got bent and it has never closed properly since 🙁

If you live in the NW there’s the Antler factory shop in Bury where you can get all kinds of bargains.

Thanks all, much appreciated.

I have a Dakine Split Roller which I think is great as, as the name suggests, it can split into two bags.

This is useful for airlines that try to charge you for having a single heavy bag but allow you to have two lighter ones, and then other airlines that try to charge you for having more than one bag.

The split also helps keep things more organised, although it does limit the vertical height of anything – for example a ski helmet would be a problem.

The North Face do a few nice roller bags with hidden straps to convert them to rucksacks if required, they go pretty large too.

I don’t know if they are still doing it, but John Lewis used to sell a line of luggage branded Saturn.

The sales bloke reckoned it was the budget line of Samsonite, but a lot of the parts were actual Samsonite components. Upon comparing a suit carrier & carry on case to the equivalent Samsonite stuff, they did indeed appear almost identical. Seems to have lasted well, whether the salesman spiel was true or not…

The budget version of Samsonite is American Tourister. Samsonite cases are generally worth the money and don’t forget a lot of the cheaper cases are heavy so count to your weight allowance.