Travel
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Hard-sided Luggage- Pros and Cons?
It is time to replace my old luggage set. I found a Heys set that I liked but I've never had hard-sided luggage so I wasn't sure if I should go for it or not. I wondered if the shell scratched easily, if it would be harder to stuff in the trunk/luggage hold, the pros and cons, etc. Please share your opinion of or experience with hard-sided luggage. TIA!
Re: Hard-sided Luggage- Pros and Cons?
I am looking forward to seeing the responses to this question.
I remember hardsided luggage from when I was a kid. I remember my mother making me sit on it so that we could get it to close before a trip. For me, the lack of flexibility and extendibility (for all of those treasures you have collected on the trip) make hard-sided luggage impractical for me.
But I might be wrong...
I have this hard-sided Samsonite Spinner. I like that since it's hard, it makes it less likely that anything inside will get smushed and/or broken. It also still looks nice, despite being sent all over the world.
However, those are pretty much the only positives. It's heavy even without anything in it, but the worst thing is that it's hard to latch -- you need to get the top part lined up exactly so with the bottom part. Sometimes it looks like it has closed and latched correctly, but then you pick it up and opens on you. I'm always worried that it will become unlatched while the airport security guys are throwing it around, and my stuff will go everywhere. Personally, I'd prefer a zipper -- I know they can break, but at least you can be reasonably sure that when they're closed, they'll stay closed.
An American Girl's Travels
I have had a hard sided samsonite for years and I love it, keeps everything nice & safe
biggest problem is like pp said - it's heavy even without anything in it
so the last few years I haven't really used it as I wanted to weight my bag down with the stuff inside rather than just the suitcase itself!
also like pp said they do sometimes pop open easily - I had a big strap around mine just in case this happened - which it did!
When I was shopping for a new bag last fall, I was looking for something ultra-light, and I actually found that some of the new hard-sided models are lighter than soft-sided bags. It seems like it's difficult/more expensive to make the frames on the soft bags lightweight, while some of the hard-sided bags can be made of lightweight materials, and since the entire case is hard, it doesn't need a rigid frame. If weight is your primary concern, I'd definitely still look at them, because they were a lot less expensive than my lightweight soft-sided bag!
The reasons I went with a soft-sided bag were:
The biggest reason may be kind of silly, but I don't like opening my bag flat to pack it. I prefer to unzip the top flap and load everything into the base instead of doing half on each side like most of the hard-sided cases I've seen. I think this is because we don't usually stay in large hotel rooms, so it's a lot more convenient to leave my bag on the luggage rack or in a small spot on the floor and just prop the lid against the wall while I have it open. (In the end, I still chose the wrong bag because the "lid" of my bag has a lot of storage space and is difficult to prop up vertically. It bugs me to no end, but the bag was super expensive, so I avoid complaining in front of DH.)
I feel more confident in the zippers than the hard-sided latches. I haven't used a hard-sided bag since I was in high school, but I just worry about the latches. I would probably use a luggage strap just to feel sure that it wouldn't pop open.
I know that a lot of bags are designed to let you use your own luggage locks, but some still have built in locks. Aside from making sure the locks are TSA-approved, I just like knowing that I can use any lock I want, especially since we travel to some places where you need to lock your luggage.