Suitcase Advice That You Should Contemplate

The boring old suitcase, I never thought I would be writing an article on something so unexciting and trivial. A few months ago I flew on a UK internal flight, from Aberdeen to Heathrow. Nothing too different during this journey, the usual BMI delay at the start of the flight.

The fun began when it was time to collect the luggage, all i can say is that someone working within the baggage handling at Heathrow must have been annoyed about something! As I was patiently waiting for my bag, I couldn’t help but notice there were not one but three suitcases that had been busted open and all the contents were coming along the conveyor belt. Another guy was almost in tears as he discussed the damage that had been done to his new very expensive hard silver Samsonite suitcase on its first journey.

I personally had a bad suitcase experience last year, when I was flying back from Barbados. A suitcase owned by some bright spark, had at some point during my suitcases journey started to leak on to mine. It was a disgusting and stinking liquid that had penetrated my bag, which may well have been from fish. Some paper documents which were in the suitcase, had been destroyed, luckily I had copies held online. My suitcase was obviously not water proof.

So what is the best kind of suitcase to travel with? A hard one, or one of those fabric ones, with wheels or without wheels?

The good thing about hard suitcases is that they are obviously waterproof and the contents shouldn’t get too squashed during the journey. The downside to hard suitcases is that they seem to get scratched, knocked and are more easily damaged. They also generally don’t stand up to wear and tear as good as fabric ones. I must admit I have in the past owned a hard suitcase which was damaged beyond repair during a flight.

Fabric suitcases are generally longer lasting and harder wearing in comparison to hard suitcases, but most of them, if any, are not waterproof, but you can get ones with a vinyl like zip able interior, which may keep the rain off your belongings for a short period of time. Your contents in a fabric suitcase will of course get extremely squashed, during any flight. They can also get slashed open if they somehow get caught up in something they shouldn’t, believe me it occasionally happens, you know how careful baggage handlers are!

You would have to be either cheap or stupid not to buy a suitcase that comes with wheels and a sturdy pulling handle. I hear the voices of dissent, but you get luggage trolleys at either end of the airport. Do you get trolleys at your house? do you get them when you leave the airport? do you get them at your hotel? do they go up escalators? There will be countless occasions when you will wish you had wheels on your luggage bags. I have witnessed numerous people struggling like crazy with wheelless bags at airports and in the street.

As you can see, there are pro’s and con’s to both, fabric and hard suitcases. I think it just come down to luck at the end of the day whether your suitcase survives a journey. If you are using a fabric one and your carrying valuable paper documents, put them in a waterproof holder. One of my friends had their wedding License destroyed when something leaked on to their baggage during a flight back home from Barbados.

Weight is also a factor when traveling nowadays, I was recently traveling on UK internal fight, and as you know the luggage allowance is not very good, and nowadays they will charge you extra without blinking, if you go over your baggage allowance weights! Before I packed my very pretty looking and I may also say, fairly expensive suitcase, I weighed it without anything in it, and it weighed an unbelievable amount, almost 5kg. Needless to say that suitcase is now history!

When buying a suitcase, put a little bit of effort into the process, test it out, pull it along the shop floor and get a feel for it, make sure that it does what it is supposed to do. My wife bought a new suitcase not so long ago, and the trolley handle is too short, which makes it very difficult to pull along the ground, she is only 5,4 and she struggles with it!

All I would recommend is that you must have a wheeled suitcase with a sturdy pulling handle, and don’t make extra work for yourself by buying one of those massive suitcases that look as big as a bed. You could spend all day at your destination upon arrival waiting for a taxi that it will fit in!

My advise to you is, chose your suitcase wisely, do not become the next victim of a second rate, unsuitable and useless suitcase!

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