Price point $519 for a bag that statistically is more than 500 times as likely to need a repair than the bag that is $589, oh yeah they are just so high in price compared to the much more reasonably priced B&R bag. Too funny, that's comparing signature models of the 22" Roll-a-board bags for each brand.

Yet Tumi's warranty is better than B&R's for the 1st year, when more than 99% of failures happen due to workmanship, material, or design flaws. After year one, it is still superior in every way other than if the airline damages the bag.

With B&R you are responsible for freight to them if the local repair center can't fix the bag. Which they can't do more than 1/3 of the time, and 100% on their hard-sided luggage lines.

Glad you emotionally tie that to being a craptastic warranty though! lol

Tumi has had fewer total warranty claims for bags within the first year of purchase each of the past 3 years than B&R. Tumi sells more than 500 bags for every bag that B&R sells. Therefore you are more than 500 times as likely to have a B&R bag fail or need warranty repair in the first year of ownership (which again represents over 99% of all warranty claims), than you are with Tumi.

Tumi stores, and retailers such as Nordstrom, Neimans, and Saks all offer loaner bags if you bring in a Tumi bag that needs to be repaired. That doesn't happen with B&R.

B&R not only makes you pay the freight in, but then they charge you $10 for zipper pulls, and make you put them on yourself. A pair of zipper pulls if you buy them from the same supplier we do (and I have seen the B&R zipper pulls there as well) you get them for about $0.35 per pair when purchased in quantities of 1000 pair at a time, and that price can drop if you purchase them in quantities of greater than 5000, which I hope B&R can do, but they don't have much market share so maybe not. Packaging, shipping and zipper pulls cost them less than $1.50 going USPS.

B&R sells people on the emotional attachment to a warranty. I work in the industry and we source specialty equipment bags. One brand we source for, offers a 7 year warranty, when everyone else they compete against offers a 3 or 5 year warranty. The do it for the emotional attachment, and it works for them. Additionally most people don't make the claim on a bag after 3 years regardless, as they want the new style of bag, so the long term cost on the warranties after a few years is pretty negligible.

Emotion is a powerful thing. However the emotion generated by the no questions asked warranty that makes B&R an extra $8.50 every time someone needs new zipper pulls, and they make you put them on, is just a marketing plow to attach to peoples emotions and try to get them to buy in. Tumi will put them on for you, and Tumi has over 40 airport locations in the US alone where they can do it for you while you are traveling, and it's completely free.

Their are multiple options that are better quality than what Tumi is offering these days, however B&R is not one of them. Even though the way that warranty sounds and makes you feel as if they do.

I've said it many times. I'd rather have a bag that just works the way it was intended and holds up. I don't need a warranty for when the airline drives a tug over my bag, and the airline will compensate me for it anyway.