Is a £££ suitcase just asking to be robbed?

[CrazyPavedLife]

I need to buy both a cabin and hold suitcase. I really like the Brics brand (£500+) and have also seen a fabric one I like but I’m wondering about durability.

I haven’t flown in donkey’s years so I’ve no idea how it all works these days but I’ve been horrified at the amount of friends and social media accounts I follow posting about lost, damaged and rifled through luggage.

Am I right in thinking that if you’re going to either spend a lot on a case or get a fabric one, that that should be your cabin case that you keep nearby and that any hold luggage need to be a hard and unassuming case with padlocks?

Any advice/brand recs appreciated.

I personally dislike hard cases for the amount of space they take up in hotel rooms, so prefer soft cases. Mine have been through rain and snow and never had an issue with stuff getting wet.
And hard cases do get battered around. DHs hard case is the same age as my soft one, but looks banged up and scruffy now.
Samsonite or Antler shops in outlet malls are worth finding. Big discounts and unusual colours!

I buy lightweight hard shell Samsonite - I don’t like the aesthetic of fabric.

I probably take about 30-40 flights a year (most between two European cities). They last about 2-3 years, before a bang to the corner causes a crack. BA have always paid for replacements although you have to be insistent that you want like for like - they contract the replacement service out to a sales team who try to encourage you to accept a random alternative.

I’ve never permanently lost luggage but frequently been without for a few days at a time.

Maybe take a look at Delsey luggage as well. Tends to be decent quality, not hugely expensive and fairly unassuming.

Get one of these op.

DH bought a Samsonite hard case - 30 years ago. That thing is still going strong despite being used 2x a year long haul.

We also have two soft cases from Samsonite, one is 18 years old, the other only 5 but replaced a 15 year old which was used twice a month.

DH travels for work a lot and I did as well for 5 years and neither of us ever had issues with robbery or vandalism.

In my opinion, you get what you pay for. The really old one is teal and yes, a lot easier to spot. The other ones are blue and black but we got colourful ties to make them visiable.

The only time I have had luggage completely disappear was the one time I had spent £150 on a case 20 years ago so I have not done it again

The Tripp hard bodied cases we got a couple of years ago are really lightweight…as opposed to the (can’t remember the brand) but hard bodied ones we had 20 years ago they were about 5kg before you put a pair of knickers in!

On the colour issue I suspect at least some of the lost baggage is due to a simple mix up. My elderly parents did the classic stunt of picking up someone else's bag whilst checking out at a hotel in France and didn't discover the mix up until they had arrived at their next destination......

Just came back from holiday and one of my IT cases is wrecked , collected case and crushed and has holes in it, god knows what happened to it as was fine when checked in and was only a 4 hr flight , no delays etc . But now need a new one

Also was my newer of the IT cases i have so just bad luck I Guess as the other ones were fine
Also on arrival several of our parties suitcases were wet

I’ve never understood the appeal of hard cases- why do people buy them? They just remove the ability to squish a bit more in and have the case stretch around it. I always go for whichever soft case in TK Maxx seems to have the sturdiest wheels and handle. And buy brightly coloured straps to identify them.

For the one goes into hold, sturdier the better. So expensive ones tend to last longer, but it will get damaged too, it won't stay immaculate. They will be tossed around etc.
For the baggage you take on board, whatever is fine, because you are handling it yourself.

@Heistonabike That is absolute gold!!!

Thanks everyone for all the useful experiences and suggestions. I’m going to spend the evening looking at them all and making a decision.

@worriedatthistime This is the kind of damage I’ve seen posted on SM. I can’t even imagine what happened to cause that level of damage.

@Daisytomhope That’s really helpful, thanks. I had no idea an extra carry-on was allowed so will definitely look into that.

There’s so much extra stuff to consider but I hope with practise, it’ll become easier each time.