My first luggage was a gift from my parents for high school graduation. It was a standard hardside 3 piece set in avocado green. You can tell when I graduated from high school! That luggage served me well for over 15 years. The airlines eventually broke the large case. I was getting ready to do a lot of business travel, so I went out and bought a set of the old Delsey hard-sided luggage in charcoal grey – easier to spot in baggage claim than the standard black.
I figured it was durable, as it’s what the pilots and flight attendants picked up off the baggage carousel. That was fabulous luggage! I carried it all over the world and brought back treasures from many places. Once the large case was filled with puppets from Indonesia, another time it carried a Persian carpet. I don’t think I ever had anything break in that luggage. Indeed, the luggage was still going strong when I had to retire it when airlines required that luggage be unlocked or have TSA locks on it. That just didn’t work for hard sided luggage.
That rule changed just before a trip to Asia, so off I went to the luggage store to find some zippered soft-sided luggage. I was worried about durability, so I chose the most heavy-duty, durable luggage I could find, which was Pathfinder. I also chose to get the largest allowable suitcase, 28-inch, as well as a standard 26-inch so I could continue to bring home lots of purchases from my trips. I bought red, so I could find it easily. That worked for the first few years, then more people started buying red luggage. The Pathfinder has, indeed been durable. No zippers have broken, and there has been no damage to the material other than the usual dirt. I remember watching my luggage being loaded onto a plane in the pouring rain but nothing in the cases even got damp. 
Getting the large suitcase has been a mixed blessing. Trying to get the luggage for two of us – two of each of those cases plus a carry-on each – into a taxi is not easy.
Since I purchased that luggage, airline regulations about weight have changed. The luggage was indeed, heavy-duty and heavy. I decided I needed something lighter. And I wanted smaller cases so that traveling with them would be easier.
So today we went out and looked at luggage. There are now hard-sided luggage with zippers – what a great idea. We looked at some by International Traveler. I like the looks of it, I like the interiors, I like that it expands – what a great idea for hard sided luggage! It comes in lots of colors – most of which are too light to be practical – but there are the standard red and black (yawn). This brand also makes luggage that comes in prints – cow, giraffe and zebra, for instance.
Next we looked at some Delsey. They make a wide variety of styles of soft-sided luggage in their Helium line. All of the Helium luggage is lighter than our Pathfinder, but there is variation in weight among the many styles. The one disadvantage I found in many of their cases is the “suiter” which is not practical for my packing and just takes up space. I also don’t like the cases where half of the space is taken up with the outside pockets. Tell me what do you ever put in those outside pockets? The only thing I’ve ever put there has been the straps that can clip the suitcases together. I consider the pockets to be wasted space. But it seems impossible to find soft-sided luggage with out the pockets.
After much deliberation, I decided on the Delsey Hyperlite. It has no suiter inside, and the outside pockets don’t take up inside space. It is expandable, which is a nice feature. It comes in four colors, all of which I consider ok. So – last decision – sizes. I opted for the 22 inch expandable, which is a legal carry-on and the 25-inch expandable. Both of course have wheels and handles. I’m looking forward to my first trip with my new luggage. I won’t have to weigh my suitcases to make sure the large one isn’t over 50 pounds, and getting the cases into a taxi will be easy after years of traveling with the big suitcases. I’ll let you know how they hold up to the airline’s handling.
Links to both the International Traveler and Delsey Hyperlite.
Delsey 40274XX – Helium Hyperlite Expandable Carry On Expandable
Delsey 40277XX – Helium Hyperlite 25″ Expandable Trolley
International Traveler 24″ Wheeled Packing Case
International Traveller – Shiny Giraffe 24″ Expandable Hardside Rolling Suitcase
International Traveller – Shiny “Moo” Cow 24″ Expandable Hardside Rolling Suitcase
