Where this sits on the trip
- Stage 1Packing at Home
How much it holds
- Stage 2The Front Door
What it weighs when you pick it up
- Stage 3The Gate Sizer
Whether the whole object fits a metal frame
- Stage 4The Overhead Bin
Whether it shares a bin without a fight
- Stage 5The Baggage Belt
What survives a chute, a stack and a belt
- Stage 6The Hotel Room
Whether it opens flat in a small room
The Baggage Belt
Does it survive being thrown?
What this stage asks
Once a bag goes down the belt behind the check-in desk it stops being handled by anyone who knows what is in it. It is stacked, it goes down a chute, it is loaded by machine or by hand into a hold, and at the far end it comes around a carousel having been dropped at least once on the way.
The question this stage asks is the crudest of the six: does the thing survive. Not does it look good afterwards, but do the wheels still turn, does the zip still close, and is the handle still in one piece.
Eight listings make a durability claim of some kind. Not one of the eight names a standard, a rating or a test method, which is the difference between a claim and a measurement. Published methods for tear strength and for breaking strength exist and are easy to cite; a seller who has run one usually says so.
What the listings answer
Counted from the 47 listings gathered on this site.
- A carry-on listing and a checked listing each state a scratch-resistant surface, which is a claim about appearance rather than about structure.
- Two duffel listings state tear resistant fabric and an organizer set states anti-tearing construction, none of them with a rating.
- Two luggage cover listings state anti-scratch fabric, which is the only claim in the catalog that is actually about protecting something else.
- An organizer listing states durable, which is the broadest word available and the one with the least behind it.
What nobody states
Not a shortlist of the vague ones. These are figures that appear on no listing in the catalog at all.
- Not statedAny drop height, impact energy or number of cycles for any case in the catalog.
- Not statedAny named test method for tear strength or breaking strength on any of the eight durability claims.
- Not statedWhat happens to a telescoping handle when a loaded case lands on it, which is the most common way a case is retired.
- Not statedWhether a zip is the kind that can be nudged back onto its track, which decides whether a failure is an inconvenience or the end of the trip.
Worth being careful about
- Scratch-resistant, anti-scratch, tear resistant, anti-tearing and durable are all seller words on the listings here. None is attached to a rating or a method.
- A lock built to a service-key standard is opened by a service key, and that is what it is for. It is not a theft deterrent and we do not describe it as one.
- We give no advice about what should or should not travel in a checked bag from a security point of view.
- A luggage cover is a layer over a shell. It keeps scuffs off and it does not change what a belt does to the case underneath it.
A stated size is the size of the body. Wheels, feet and an extended telescoping handle are not usually counted inside it, and the frame at a gate counts all of them.
Where to read next
The numbers behind this stage
Where it shows up in the catalog