PSA: Disappointed in Travelpro's "Premium" Quality and Service

[u/grayson_cooper]

I wanted to share my frustrating experience with Travelpro’s Platinum Elite luggage, which I had high hopes for as a durable, reliable investment for semi-frequent travel. I was between this and Briggs and Riley and landed here because of the praise on listicles & price difference. Unfortunately, the zipper failed after two trips (140 days into ownership), while zipping up the bag the crown / lug broken leaving the bag nearly unusable (no TSA lock, sharp edges from the zipper easy to cut).

I paid $400 for this bag, expecting premium quality and longevity, especially given its marketing as a top-tier product for frequent travelers. Travelpro’s response? They offered for me to pay to replace the zipper, but the repair will take ~3-4 weeks and won't be completed before an upcoming trip to Europe, where they suggested that I buy another bag in the meantime!

I also reached out to request a return and exchange for a more reliable model, but they declined, citing that I’m beyond their 100-day trial period—despite the minimal usage and early failure of a critical component.

I chose Travelpro for the appearing reputation for quality and customer service, but this experience has left me questioning both.

[u/blbd]

Hmm. If they are acting like that I would definitely check what the credit card company can do or hit them with a defective product lawsuit in small claims if the consumer laws in your state allow it. $400 is enough to start being worth the trouble. 

[u/grayson_cooper → u/blbd]

Interesting. I'm not actually sure what this looks like -- could you give me like the shorted overview to point me in the right direction?

[u/blbd → u/grayson_cooper]

Here's an example of what you would need to prove in the state of California. All of the states pretty much have the UCC which has implied warranties of merchantability but their laws and court decisions could vary slightly. 

https://www.justia.com/trials-litigation/docs/caci/1200/1200/

Technically you can go after anybody in the chain of commerce, retail, distribution, or manufacturer. But usually it's the third unless of a weird case where it's the first. 

[u/releasetheshutter]

Yikes, thanks for sharing.

[u/Hold_Effective]

Oh boy. I love mine - but, they’re going on 5 years & 2 years old. I wonder if their build quality is going down, too (seems to be happening with a lot of brands).

[u/grayson_cooper → u/Hold_Effective]

I've read soooo many wonderful comments like this and I wanted to be like you and have your experience!

[u/hamster_savant]

Don't flight crew also use Travelpro?

[u/grayson_cooper → u/hamster_savant]

I thought this too; however, I think that's just good marketing from travelpro. I've been looking and asking occasionally and the flight crew I've seen only uses Luggageworks & Briggs & Riley.

[u/narut072 → u/grayson_cooper]

The flight crew bags are different than the consumer version. They are exclusively available to people in the industry. https://aviation.travelpro.com/

[u/Milton__Obote → u/narut072]

Seems weird, wouldn’t they want to sell as many as possible

[u/Milton__Obote → u/narut072]

Upon further research you can get them here without identification https://crewoutfitters.com/default/luggage/travelpro-flight-crew-5.html

[u/LoveOfSpreadsheets → u/Milton__Obote]

Woah. I'm not gonna lie, if I had known that PIlot line existed, I would have ordered it instead of a B&R!

[u/karmapuhlease → u/grayson_cooper]

YMMV obviously but I will say that on my most recent flight I did see that the crew had TravelPro bags (at least the FA loading her bags into a closet near my seat).

[u/Chemical-Coconut-831]

This is exactly why I stopped buying from them and switched to replacing all my bags with B&R.

[u/Beanmachine314]

I travel frequently and have entirely switched to only using hard cases, specifically Nanuk. No zippers to break and the locking latches actually keep people out (you can pretty easily poke a hole into a zipper and open the bag that way, whether it's got a lock or not).

I recently noticed my carry on was cracked after 2 years. Sent Nanuk customer service a photo and the next day they had a new one shipped out to me. Can't say enough nice things about them and they're like half the price of those high end suitcases, waterproof as well which is important to me.

[u/Few-Passenger6461]

The lowest warranty they have is 1 year so it’s only been 100 something days? https://travelpro.com/pages/main-warranty

[u/LoveOfSpreadsheets]

I'm not really an apologist, and given the age I agree they could have done the right thing and swapped it out. But it is worth taking the perspective that they are covering the repair. It's just that there isn't a fast option. I couldn't imagine if I was cabin crew with B&R or Luggageworks and being told I needed to wait a month, but they might have suffered the same fate? The one time I used the Briggs warranty it was 2 weeks for a wheel.

[u/ImLivingThatLife]

I can only sympathize so much. They have a policy and it’s for 140 days. Many companies give you 30 if you’re lucky. You were outside of the window. It’s just the way it goes. Nothing is BIFL anymore.

[u/vigilantesd]

You can’t use a TSA lock anyway lol

[u/Village_Spinster → u/vigilantesd]

Can you point to a source for this info?

[u/vigilantesd → u/Village_Spinster]

My bad, I cannot. I’m wrong here. 

I’ve seen people post about TSA breaking their locks off though, look into it for sure.