Hi JC in PA -

Nice thorough report. I found the Ricardo specifications informative, and am glad to read that you are indeed happy with your purchase. And all at a good value price.

When I first saw your photo of the blue clamshell case, I thought it was a Rimowa. The colour and the Rillen, or grooves used to stiffen the case in the polycarbonate construction, and alu assembly.

Reading on, I also noticed the reference to the interior of the Rimowa Salsa, versus your Ricardo. Actually the one mentioned is a Salsa Air or Salsa Ultralight, which is indeed the lightest in weight and most minimally engineered and constructed.

The Salsa Air case uses a single nylon divider with a zipper closure, which is not the normal configuration to the majority of the Rimowa luggage cases. The majority of the Rimowa cases use a nylon alu framed mesh divider, with a Velcro cinching attachment.

Your Ricardo case does have a good internal packing features. I have an Lufthansa Rimowa case from 1994 which uses the identical internal configuration, and it does work well to keep your items in place, and more importantly to keep your case from being over-packed and then bulging and blowing out. I still use it on short business trips now and then in Europe.

I note your comments on domestic US flying versus International, and they are accurate. As you say one needs to pack for the flight and location at hand. There is no " one size fits all " luggage between the two flying destinations, any more than the difference packing between a business and vacation flying agenda.

I look forward to hearing back on your experience with this case in 6 months. Happy Flying !