Originally Posted by
mspreh
How does B&R have Tumi on this one?
Percentage of bags needing repair due to defect in the first 1 year, 2 years, or 3 years? Nope Tumi wins hands down, less than 1/3 the number of bags needed repair in 2014, and Tumi sells about 26 bags for every 1 B&R sells.
Especially when you consider the handle is on the outside of the bag making it bigger. This will make the B&R less likely to meet your needs and concerns if it goes in a sizer!
Tell me what I am missing?
Style or Design? That's a personal choice, and if you like the way the B&R looks over the Tumi, then it wins on that.
Weight, the B&R is a little lighter.
Suiter portion: No contest Tumi smokes anything B&R has.
Expandable. It's about the same, biggest difference is the rigid form factor that expansion is with B&R. If you use the expansion, good luck stuffing into an overhead or sizer. So the winner again is Tumi.
Casters: The wheel system is so much smoother on the Tumi. Comparison B&R old horse drawn carriage, take the Tumi you will feel like your driving a Maybach.
Other than weight and what your personal take on style is, Tumi wins the rest of the competition. Especially if you are concerned about being able to actually bring it on board.
Whoa whoa whoa, wait a minute my friend.
Tumi is in NO way superior to BR. The weight, the build quality, options, and warranty.
Let's compare the 21" wide-body (21" x 15" x 9") from BR Baseline and the Tumi Kirtland 22" (22" x 16" x 9").
The Tumi is smaller off the hop (38L), whilst having slightly better organization by utilizing a hard-shelled style of having a 50/50 split. Which is odd for a soft-sided peice of luggage.
BR is 44L with one packing area and the lid having a tri-fold garment bag (last fold is removable to turn the garment bag into a large lid pocket).
You mentioned expansion? The rigid frame expansion from BR is called the CX expansion, and it blows standard zippered expansions out of the water. The idea is to pack your bag with the expansion UP at first. then, once you've packed what you want to take, you zip the lid shut and push down on either end of the bag. The ratchet system in the bag then compresses your clothes and brings the bag back down to the necessary 9". (This is also available in the 19" international carry on (19" x 14" x 9")).
To expand the Tumi, you use a standard zip. To compress it, you basically have to sit on the bag and wrench the zipper shut. Which is EXTREMELY bad for a nylon coil zipper.
As for warranty, BR does NOT need to go right back to them!! It can go to any authorized luggage repair shop, and warranty is honored (No shipping charges). Airline damage, accidental, intentional, stupidity, they cover it all (I have see them literally run over, dragged three blocks and replaced). The rule is, if it can't be fixed then it's replaced at no charge to the customer. (Source: I work in luggage repair). They send the parts directly to repair centers for a quick turn around, and this warranty can be accessed globally and without a receipt. Every BR bag has a serial number and bar-code on a metal plate inside of it. If a bag is replaced, the metal plate has to be taken out, to insure no one pulls the broken bag out of the dump to get it replaced (this could easily happen if a plate was left in).
Tumi will NOT send parts to luggage repair centers, and luggage repair centers can NOT bill Tumi for repair, thus their warranty is not covered everywhere. (Example, Tumi bags in Canada need to go to Tumi in Calgary.) They also got rid of their lifetime warranty and only offer a 5 year LIMITED warranty, only the first year covers airline damage as well. Be wary of the word "LIMITED", Heys and Samsonite say the same thing.
Volume of sales does not actually show whats better. It may even show that Tumi is having customers need to purchase replacements because their bag ran out of warranty.
All in all, it doesn't matter how much you spend, or how tough it is. You can spend 100$ on a bag and have it last 8 years, or 800$ and lose a wheel the first trip. -Warranty - That's what you look at.
Quick tips:
# year limited warranty - Bag is covered for man. fac. defects for # years.
Lifetime Limited warranty - Bag is covered for man. fac. defects for the life of the BAG.
Simple as That, No Matter What warranty (BR and Eagle Creek) - All damage, no matter what causes the damage is covered.
Simple as that.