Travel Luggage: When the Wheels Come Off

I've always been a fan of the old fashioned canvas and leather travel bag. You know, like the bag Peter O'Toole carried in Lawrence of Arabia.

The only trouble is, Lawrence never slogged his bag through a modern airport, or down the cracked sidewalks of Manhattan. Those bags look so rustic, durable, manly, etc, and they even look better when they get older… but they're just not practical for the modern traveler.

For modern use, I've sung the praises of TravelPro in the past, and they do make a quality bag. Recently though, the wheels have fallen off (literally) when it comes to my recommendation of them. The wheels on my TravelPro rolling laptop case threw a bearing. I was walking through conference rooms with a "WubbaWubbaWubbaWubba" noise screaming from my bag. These things can happen, so I called TravelPro. They took down my model number and sent me some replacement wheels… trouble was, they didn't fit! Two phone calls and a week later, they eventually sent me a brand new bag and 9 weeks after that; the "Wubba" was back.

So, I'm done with TravelPro. I went searching, and I didn't go online this time. I went to Luggage World in the Twin Cites and talked to a luggage expert. I learned some things. Tumi, (for example) is all show, no substance. They have farmed out their production to China and you're paying big dollars for a brand that is substandard quality… sort of like the difference between the original Humvee and the Hummer 3. I test drove a ton of luggage that day, I can tell you; and everyone seems to agree that Briggs and Riley is definitely the way to go when it comes to luggage.

To be clear, we're not talking about the luggage you take to your Grandma's for thanksgiving here, folks, we're talking about the luggage that travel warriors check into airline baggage assembly and sorting lines on a weekly basis. This is luggage that will be dragged through muddy train stations, pushed over snow and ice covered sidewalks, pulled over the curbs and cracks of sidewalks in Manhattan, and bounced over the cobblestoned streets of Boston.

Briggs and Riley make such bags. Their warranty is called, "Simple as that." It means, you call them and tell them what happened to your bag… and they replace it immediately. Simple as that. The workers at Luggage World echoed that sentiment. They told me, "We love to call them because they just send us all the replacement pieces we need, then they ask how the bag broke so they can re-engineer it for the next customer." I love that!

No, Briggs and Riley aren't sending me checks and truthfully; I can't tell you from personal experience just how good their bags are. I can tell you that I adore the one I bought! Everything seems to be overbuilt. Everything from the snaps and zippers to the fit and finish are just top notch and very rugged. I think they're definitely worth the money.

eBags customers who've purchased Briggs & Riley products have submitted unbiased ratings, displayed below. You can't argue with these numbers:

Overall 9.0

Appearance 9.3

Durability 9.3

Organization 9.0

EXTRA: If you have questions for Ken regarding business travel, hotels, airplanes, etc, please call 1-877-49-EXPERT. Your questions will be recorded and Ken will answer the best ones in an upcoming regular podcast that will be linked to this page!