So, I posted earlier in this thread, but I decided to wait a little longer before replacing my old luggage. Since that time there are a couple developments:
1) I decided I don't want hardside after all, since none of the hardside luggage has as good a warranty as the high-end standard stuff -- except Titan, which I checked out at Bloomingdale's and didn't like.
2) B&R is having that $50 off sale that everyone's talking about
3) Victorinox discontinued the Mobilizer NXT 4.0 collection (replacing it with 5.0), so now I'm seeing the discontinued stuff show up on closeout for almost 50% off.

When the prices in question were MSRP, I easily gave the edge to Briggs and Riley Baseline over the Mobilizer NXT 4.0 stuff, but now that I'm looking at many hundreds of dollars of savings for the pieces I want (27" upright, 20" upright carryon, rolling carryon garment bag), the picture seems a bit more muddled. Anyone have any thoughts that would justify spending the extra money for the B&R, other than "I like olive better than red"?