The subject comes up again and again, so I figured we could compile a list of brands and/or series with unconditional, life-time warranty. By that I mean a warranty that covers any damage (not cosmetic) for as long as you own the bag. Doesn't matter if an elephant stepped on it or the airline broke the wheels off.
__________________________________________________ ________________________
First Tier:
- Briggs and Riley: afaik on all pieces but double check
- Eagle Creek: On the ES, Velocity and the HC2 series.
- Boyt: On the Mach5 series.
- Travelpro: On the Platinum series. Warranty is not as concretely worded as BR but it comes down to the same. I've used their service once and they were very good.
- Redoxx
- Costco basically has a waterproof warranty with return/replacement policy.
- Osprey as the "almighty" warranty on all their bags
- Victorinox has it for their higher end lines.
- Titan luggage has it for US bags. They are originally from Germany and much cheaper there but don't feature the super warranty there.
- L.L. Bean
- Travelsmith
- Norm Thomson
- Land's End (see discussion below for more info on the last four brands)
Second Tier:
- Delsey has an unconditional warranty but ONLY on the Elite series and ONLY for one year.
- Tumi on most lines has it also for the first year. After that you got another 4 years of normal warranty.
http://www.tumi.com/about/warranty-five-year/
- possibly Ebags on their own gear. The warranty info isn't explicit.
- Mosaic Travel Gear has it for the first three years. But not sure if they are still in business.
Disappointments:
Tom Bihn is supposed to have very good service but explicitly excludes airline damage. The same is true for Hartmann and Zero Halliburton.
__________________________________________________ _________
Note that for luggage that is always with you, the warranty is less important as you will take good care of it, presumably. Though, I have seen people totally overload their wheeled carry-ons and then drag them up and down stairs by the telescoping handles and wonder why they break. Duh!
If it has wheels and/or is checked regularly, the warranty is VERY important.
Final tip: Buy the luggage with a credit card that has a warranty extension if it doesn't have a waterproof warranty.
And a nice link for laughs:
http://www.saddlebackleather.com/17-warranty
Please add other bags to the list or correct mine if you find it faulty.
For better results and connectivity I have allowed myself to cross-post the link on OBOW and on the Practical Hacks Forum:
http://www.1bag1world.com/obow-light...um/post/989099
http://www.practicalhacks.com/forum/...warranty/#p162
I am sure both will turn up additional brands and interesting discussions.
Till