Hard shell or soft shell cases?

[PPM]

Originally Posted by Gabsnoot

We have a set of soft cases which have been used for 5 Florida trips and are starting to look a bit worse for wear. We over did it with the shopping last year and had to purchase an additional case when in Florida. We bought a Samsonite hard shell case in TJ Max and it is great, I’m going to try and buy some more before our next trip. The only thing I regret is buying it in black, I wish I had bought it in a brighter colour so it would stand out on the carousel.

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My old Samsonite I spoke about earlier has an identifying fluorescent orange cross sprayed on it. I didn’t mask the area, so it’s a bit of a mobile “Banksy” paint job. Looks rubbish, but helps me locate it and stops anyone taking it by mistake. 😀

[Chris106]

The only trouble with hard cases is that they don't stack well together which is probably why there always seems to be more of them damaged than soft shell on baggage conveyors , but then as mentioned soft shell run the risk of getting the contents wet if left out in rain storms ... Good quality hard shells probably the answer for Florida on balance ?

[tspill]

Soft for us. Much more flexible for packing. And large numbers seem to come off planed wrecked compared to duffles.

[windsor_hills]

We always used to have hard shell cases, but swapped to soft in recent years.

1 because they are usually lighter so we can fit more stuff in (which we need with 2 teen girls), but the main reason was about fitting four cases in our car. The hard ones won’t fit, but the soft ones do.

Having said that our brand new Tripp soft suitcase was damaged last year on first use, but the airline replaced it. So there are advantages and disadvantages for both.

[wifey]

Hard shell ones for us too! Samsonite were on offer on amazon two years ago and are quite robust. Or old cases lasted over a decade before giving up the ghost. Our new ones don’t have any liners though but that also means you don’t lose any packing space. I’m considering buying some packing cubes for next time and learning how to roll stuff like a pro to pack more efficiently. It will also be easier to unpack at the resort knowing where everything is. I’m unsure whether we’ll need hand luggage at this point but we may need garment bags for the special items we want to wear.

[sky13]

I've always had soft shell cases - currently have a couple of really nice light ones from Samsonite that have been on several trips with me and have held up pretty well.

I must admit though that I'd never even heard of luggage getting left out of the rain in thunderstorms until I read about that here! (We get thunderstorms all the time here but not heard of anyone I know living here who has ever gotten their luggage soaked at the airport here...)

[Andybear]

Soft for me.

[parkgirl]

The hard cases that have some give to them.

[JudyC]

Hard shell if travelling long haul by plane. If we are doing a road trip by car I use the soft ones to fit them in easier.

[not2old4disney]

I used to always go for the soft ones but after we bought a hard tripp case for our last Florida holiday i'd say hard cases for planes - our soft ones did not fare too well on the journey at all and we now only use them for trips that don't involve flying. I'm going to pick up another tripp case this week sometime while they're on offer in debenhams - i'd def recommend them!