Originally Posted by dappel
I've been thinking about new luggage, while I have some nylon stuff from Briggs and Reily that I'm pretty happy with, but the extra protection of aluminum along with its light weight is pretty attractive. Does anyone have any comments about Zero Halliburton or Rimowa luggage?
Realize, even very good hard-sided luggage has weak points, namely the latches and the hinges. I had a piece of very good hard slided luggage which was not closed properly by the TSA goon inspecting it. As a result, one the latches was not closed properly, was damaged, and failed. Once the latch failed, an asymmetrical load on the luggage damaged one of the hinges.
Spend all you want on luggage, but consider using something inside the luggage such as zippered plastic storage bags (like Pack-Mate) to keep everything inside of the suitcase if it is opened and inspected, so nothing gets caught when the suitcase is closed.
As for me, I am giving up on traditional luggage. My next suitcase will be an industrial shipping case made by Pelican.