Case study
CONSUMING INTEREST LESLIE ADRIAN
You have to have as well as be a pretty hard case to survive travel by air these days. Yet the old feeling that air travel is a luxury for the few dies hard and many people still invest in luxurious, status-giving luggage that may last a lifetime of dignified travel in the boot of a drophead coup6 or on the rack of a first-class carriage, but is likely to fall apart after a couple of treatments from the boys in the load- ing bay. Have you ever actually watched them drop-test a suitcase on the wet tarmac? Have you seen your holdall come up the conveyor belt with one of the fastenings ripped open and your underwear hanging out?
Two Italian grab bags (so called presumably because the handles stand up at the top ready to be grabbed by the first person that passes) bought at Liberty's failed me last year. The first, a tasteful number in printed red canvas, shed its plastic binding during a two-week cruise up to the Arctic when it was never so much as looked at by a porter or loader. The second, a sturdy leather job, lost a decorative but essential handle fastening at Milan airport. Being Liberty's, both were courteously accepted back, but only the second could be fixed—and then only by cannibalising another bag. Yet a very ordinary Revelation vulcanised-fibre ex- panding case, bought for £5 in 1945, is still going strong—provided, of course, I remember to oil the expanding device. But I reckon it is entitled to a little rust after twenty-odd years.
Strangely enough, Which? has never looked at luggage, yet it is an eye-catching field where its particular brand of common sense is greatly needed. However, the American Consumer Reports Buying Guide has listed the key points to watch for when shopping for your going- away containers this year (or do you borrow yours year after year?). Most important in these days of mass travel is rigidity—for the sake of the contents as well as the case itself. Look for .a strong frame that will not distort —to test this, open the case to ninety degrees and pull it about, if you have the nerve. Insist on a strong comfortable handle that will not come away if you overload the thing (as you almost certainly will) and remember that leather or plastic in contact with metal fastenings will not last. Pinch the lining to ensure that it is firmly glued to the interior, see that the hinge- cracks are covered to avoid jamming from in- side but without impeding a ninety-degree opening that stays open when you want it to.
Weigh the thing (some stores such as Self- ridge's have scales in their luggage departments, but most do not, so take a pair of air-scales with you) and get the measurements too. One of these days the international airlines are going to follow the BEA domestic-flight system of measuring your luggage rather than weighing it. For checked-in bags on internal flights the sum of the length, breadth and depth of the case must not exceed sixty-seven inches. On international flights, the only dimensional limit at present is on cabin luggage, which must not •measure more than 18 in by 14 in by 6 in—in other words, it does not really matter what it weighs so long as it fits under the seat.
The most popular suitcase makes (or so I'm told by the people who ought to know) are Revelation and Antler; both, incidentally, run their own repair department. But an outsider from Colorado with a fat advertising allotment has crossed• the Atlantic and started to breathe down their necks. Samsonite hails from Den- ver but sells here as Canadian. The twenty-five- inch Three-Suiter has the opulent executive look with its sleek vinyl cover concealing a tough polypropylene body on a magnesium frame. As the ads say, it weighs no more than 10-1 lb, takes three suits on hangers, and, care- fully packed, can hold enough clothes for a month. What's more, it can stand up for itself in the loading bay. But at f29 lOs it would be a scandal if it didn't.
I like the case, but I'm not entirely sold on their publicity. What do they mean by 'Its in- terior is planned to give you extra space'? Extra to what? Secondly, I would like to speak to the man who has actually proved that it will keep its shape for ever. And finally, what on earth is Absolite?
The only extra space I really understand is that which comes with expanding hinges— and they make for awkward opening, as well as instability, when the case is standing up, But bad and optimistic packers—which means most of us—need them, and the Revelation range is enormous and far less expensive than Sam- sonite—a thirty-inch moulded Silverline costing sixpence under f/6. But the design of some of the cheaper lines is in urgent need of a touch of the Paul Reillys.
James Bond joins the get-away set with the Antler 007, made to look like a cross between hessian and canvas but actually built of plastic. Light and inconspicuous, it seemed to be the strongest of all the soft-tops I handled, and at ten guineas a comfortable buy. However, I fancy that the old Bond (not the new Amis version yet to be met) who likes marrowbones and vodkatinis would prefer the rugged look of Boulder Hide as sold by Liberty—vital statistics: 30 in, 7 lb and £21. That is, if he had not gone for an uncrushable yak-leather colossus from mainland China big enough to take a body yet light enough to support on one finger. The only trouble is that at £11 it would have been too cheap for him. And anyhow I doubt if Selfridge's is quite his sort of store.
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