Luggage Brands Compared

Samsonite Corporation owns American Tourister, Tumi and Hartmann. It prices each brand for a different shelf, from the discount rack to the luxury counter. Knowing which luggage brands share a parent company changes how you read a price tag.

Who owns whom

Samsonite Corporation is the largest luggage company in the world. It owns American Tourister, Tumi and Hartmann as separate labels under one roof.

American Tourister sits at the budget end. Samsonite covers the mainstream, and Tumi sits at the top with a much higher markup.

A shopper comparing American Tourister against Samsonite is often comparing bags from the same factory with different trim. That does not make either one a bad buy. It just means the logo is not telling you the whole story.

Travelpro is not part of that group. It was founded by Bob Plath, a working airline captain who built the first Rollaboard in 1987.

Measuring a bag correctly before you fly still matters more than the brand behind it. Travelpro built its name on crews who do that daily.

Travelpro’s own company history credits input from crew members who fly most of the year. Delsey, by contrast, is a French company, and its size charts lean toward tighter European and Asian cabin limits. Briggs and Riley is US owned and built its whole reputation on one promise, covered next.

What actually differs between brands

Past the name on the shell, three things separate one luggage brand from another. The first is the lock: a built in TSA recognized lock lets a screener open the case with a master key instead of cutting the zip. The Samsonite Winfield 3 DLX 20 inch carries one, and it is worth checking for on any hardside you buy.

The second is empty weight, which matters most on airlines that weigh the cabin bag at the gate rather than just measuring it. A softside case built from ripstop fabric, like the Maxlite line from Travelpro, usually beats a hardside of the same size on the scale before you pack a single shirt.

The third is how the brand treats a bag that comes back broken, and that is the warranty, covered next.

What the warranty actually promises

Most luggage brands sell a limited warranty, and the word limited matters. Delsey’s own warranty terms cover manufacturing defects in the wheels, zippers and handles for a set number of years. They name airline and hotel handling damage as an exclusion, along with normal wear and cosmetic scuffs.

That exclusion matters, since airline handling is the most common way a hardside case actually breaks. A warranty that only covers factory defects will not pay to fix a wheel a ramp crew snapped off. Read the exclusion list before you assume a claim will go through.

Briggs and Riley is the outlier among luggage brands here. Its Briggs & Riley Baseline Essential 22 inch carry-on spinner carries a guarantee the company describes as unconditional. It repairs damage from any cause, including airline handling, for as long as you own the bag.

It is also the priciest carry-on on this list. Reviewers who keep it for a decade or longer are the reason it earns that price.

Luggage brands by price tier

The table below sorts models by where they sit on price, using products this site tracks on Amazon. Class means the shell material and rough size. Best for is the traveler who should actually buy it.

The Delsey Paris Helium Aero 19 inch international carry-on deserves a separate note. Its shell is built for the tighter European carry-on size limits, not the US 22 inch box. Measure your actual airlines before buying it as an all around bag.

Which brand fits your trip

For a traveler who checks a bag twice a year and does not want to think about it, the budget tier is the right call. The American Tourister Stratum 2.0 20 inch and the Kenneth Cole Reaction Out of Bounds both come from companies that have sold that shape for a decade, so the design risk is low even if the shell is thin.

For someone who flies monthly on a mix of US and international carriers, the mid price Samsonite and Travelpro softside models earn their keep. The Samsonite Omni PC is the safest single pick, since its review count means almost every failure mode is already documented online.

For a traveler who wants to buy one carry-on and never shop for another, the premium tier is where the guarantee starts to pay for itself. The Travelpro Platinum Elite hardside is built for crews who check a bag into the overhead bin most days of the year, and Briggs and Riley backs its case for as long as you own it.

Brands you cannot buy through this site

A few luggage brands sell only through their own stores. Away, Beis and Monos each sell one carry-on shape. Each backs it with its own repair or replacement program.

Rimowa and Tumi sit at the top of the market. Tumi is worth remembering as Samsonite’s premium label, not an independent company.

If you want the look of one of those brands without the price, start with the mid price table above. A hardside spinner from Samsonite or Travelpro clears the same carry-on size limits for a fraction of the cost.

The bottom line

Buy on the warranty and the ownership, not the logo. Briggs and Riley is the only luggage brand here with a guarantee that promises to fix any damage.

The price reflects it. Skip it if you replace carry-ons every few years anyway.

If you just need a reliable case for a few trips a year, buy on price. American Tourister and Samsonite share a parent company and often the same factory line.

Before you buy, check the checked bag weight limit if you plan to check the bag. See our packing guides for how to use the space.

Buy Tumi or Rimowa only if the name is worth the premium. The materials rarely justify the gap on their own.

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