I'm glad to see all the B&R recommendations. I have a B&R tote bag that I bought late last year which I love for its functionality, but I haven't had it long enough or used it enough to comment on its durability. It was also half the cost of the Tumi totebag which was almost identical to it. I may have to rethink on the next rollaboard purchase

B&R is a good idea.... or my solution is to get the absolute ugliest piece of junk you can find. I have a neon-green and blue garment bag... basic as you can get and not a lot of good organizational convieniences. It's got several hundreds of thousand miles on it, never gets lost, never gets damaged, and on those occasions where I check it, it's amazingly easy to spot. Hell... I can sit in the terminal or on the plane and spot it in the stack of baggage on the truck loading it all up.... in the deep dark of night during blizzard conditions.

I do want to upgrade, but I'd really prefer to find something every bit as ugly. :D

D.

Totally! Each time I go back to Hong Kong, I bought one of those "red white blue" nylon bag back. US$1 each, and they are big, foldable, like a shopping bag, and waterproof. I use them at home when I move or drag big items around. These bags are the ugliest piece of crap I've ever used, but they're good. They're so durable, they'll probably last through a nuclear bomb. :)

I call them my HK Louis Vuitton. :D

I love my Delsey hard-sided case. It has great swivel casters, and is just barely small enough to get onboard most flights (I've had to check it just once--for a KLM flight LHR-AMS). Unfortunately, the size I use is not sold in the US--I can only find them in France.

Luggage
 

I have use military duffle bags. They are now almost 30 years old. One has a slight tear but I just patched it with duck tape. They are inexpensive, durable and long lasting. I think you can buy them at surplus stores for less than $20.

Samsonite and Louis Vuitton are my choices and I travel with the same luggage since 1991. Many scratches but no damage whatsoever ^

Tumi for me. Not the girly colored stuff, but the good old ballistic nylon black line.

I've been using the same roller since 1999 and it has travelled over 2 million miles with me without so much as a squeek from the wheels, and I REALLY treat it badly (pull it down stairs etc...)

:) Thanks so much for all the feedback, I'll do my research!