Yeah, sadly nothing new will last like these did it seems. My grandfather would have used his flying for work. My direct family didn't fly for work, but my dad owned a travel agency so I would say we flew more than any other leisure traveler. The gold one did have those additional newer Halliburton latches put on the side about 15 years ago as the original latches stopped holding, and while the inside has the original lining and dividers (like new still) the elastic that holds the dividers on one side eventually wore out and was replaced (no idea how the other side still has good elastic, as does the older case). My dad used the gold one as his main luggage, and I my grandfathers, until I was about 10 years old, then I used the gold one as my main luggage since then (he moved to a garment bag, and interestingly all our luggage got destroyed by mildew at some point, except these Halliburtons, I guess the gasket really works).

The Rimowa being only 0.8mm thick I think they will not hold up as well. I ended up buying a new old stock Halliburton Geo 3.0 (from the brief period they were made in the USA again) at 50% off my dad found in a store near him. I wish it didn't have wheels, especially not the 4 wheels, but I guess the rest of society disagreed with me a long time ago. It's 1.0 mm thick metal (so still much weaker than the 1.3mm of these old ones), so hopefully it holds up ok. I think the plus side to Rimowa is the after-sales support is much better, but at $625 for a 28" I'll take my chances here.