My Next Two Giveaways — Great New Luggage from Briggs & Riley

by Gary Leff

I’m a Briggs & Riley luggage fan. My standard carry on currently is their Baseline CX — an improvement over the 20″ baseline I was carrying previously because it’s lighter and has a new compression system — basically a design-assisted way to scrunch down the bag (the modern equivalent of putting it on the bed and sitting on it) in order to shove in more stuff. Which frankly is a key component of what I’m looking for in a carry on.

Briggs & Riley bags are high quality. They have a lifetime guarantee that the reports I’ve seen are of it really being honored. I’ve never had occasion to test it, since my bags haven’t been destroyed (I did have a throwaway off-brand bag eaten once by Alaska Airlines’ baggage system in Seattle, but no such damage to my Briggs & Riley bags). That’s actually the most important test, in a way — that they offer a lifetime guarantee that’s actually honored is a pretty good testament to build quality since it must mean they don’t expect to need to honor it very often.

But the bag I carry isn’t all that sexy, it’s a two-wheel upright and I do occasionally glance over at the Rimowa Salsa bags I see dancing through the terminal.

I haven’t tried it myself yet, but Briggs & Riley has come out with new bags. They don’t compensate me in any way to share the opportunity but since I hear from just about every travel company’s PR folks every week when there’s a brand I like a lot sometimes I hit them up to see if they want to give stuff away to my readers. And Briggs & Riley was amenable.

Briggs & Riley‘s new TORQ bags offer the sort of cool hard shell that I think looks really great, an extra wide wheel base to prevent tipping no matter how much you shove in, and four spinner wheels that let you pull the bag tilted or wheel it upright.

The hard shell is reinforced to prevent damage. I’d expect the wheels to eat lots of damage but this is a manufacturer that stands behind their products 100% so it seems a good bet.

Of course Briggs & Riley is all about functional luggage, as much as I like the look of the new bags their bread and butter is the business market epitomized by their @work line.

Now, these are not inexpensive bags. Not the most expensive by any means but you need to be a serious traveler to make them worthwhile. Part of me is still the $25 bag picked up on Nathan Road kinda guy. Run a carry-on into the ground, toss it, replace. But I’m past the point where I want a bag that doesn’t balance well or where the handle is inconvenient to pop up. So I do like a better bag.

With these two bags together Briggs & Riley says they “have your business and leisure covered… Don’t sweat it this summer, Briggs & Riley has thought of it for you.”

That’s a strong claim, and my past experience with their bags support it. I admit I’d love to give these a try myself but my commitment is to do giveaways of pretty much anything I can get access to rather than keeping merchandise for myself. Hopefully the winners will return here and let me know their experiences!

I’ll be giving away one bag from each line.

  • Come back this afternoon and I’ll post the TORQ giveaway. Winner picks the color.

  • Then next week I’ll post the @work giveaway.

Stay tuned!

(Disclosure: I do not receive anything from Briggs & Riley in exchange for this giveaway. I’m not even getting product samples. I just try to bring available merchandise that I’m a fan of to my readers whenever possible.)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

More articles by Gary Leff »

Pingbacks

Comments

  1. I have one to send back that didn’t wear well, so I switched to Tumi, but if I win one, I’m quite willing to give it a try 🙂

  2. @Kevin-if your B&R luggage didn’t wear well, they’ll fix it forever or give you a new one. Tumi won’t do that.

  4. My wife worked for a luggage and leather shop for four years during undergrad. Of all the brands they sold, the one she recommended was the B&R. People did beat the bags to death and the warranty was honored consistently. Very impressive service and durable products — would love to take one for free, too!

  5. I have two bags that I have sent back at least 6 times each, and they have repaired them for free every time. I will not travel with anything else.

  8. I love Briggs bags! My family has about 7 or 8 in our house — big suitcases, roller bags, and work briefcases. We have sent a few back for repairs and they’ve always done the repair very quickly, no questions asked.

  10. Wow…. I would LOVE to drive one of these suckers around. after 25 years in the military and now 7 years a corporate relative road warrior I have had to deep six MANY “nathan road” bags as well as a stack of samsonite/travelpro/swiss army bags! If these are all they’re cracked up to be it would rock!

  14. Looking forward to the giveaways. Always looking to add to my B&R family of bags (26,24,22,20 expandable rollers, medium clamshell backpack and medium rolling brief).

    Any damage over the years has been repaired free of charge by B&R and since I’m pretty close to an authorized repair shop(Kovacs in Pasadena, CA), they just fix it there and I get my bag back even faster.

    Definitely the way to go if you don’t want to be constantly replacing luggage or worse, buying a new bag while on the road (or at the airport) because your bag just broke.

  21. B&R makes a great product and the guarantee makes it worth the price. I went from being a Tumi guy to B&R due to the guarantee and haven’t looked back. Glad to see them going to a hard case line too.

  23. Awesome looking luggage – and seemingly durable, too. I might have to look into that to replace my standard backpack.

  25. Gary – B&R is a great product. Awesome of you to do these sorts of things giveaways.

  26. I had taken a 20″ B&R to an authorized repair shop once and it came back like new. Broken handle and zipper were replaced no questions asked. I was impressed with their warranty service.

  33. A good bag is essential.

    Some years ago my wife and I went to Mexico City and were booked in for a night at a cheap place in one of the suburbs near where we wanted to see some sights around where Frida Kahlo used to live. We arrived at night and I decided I wanted to take the cheap metro rather than a taxi so my wife (reluctantly) agreed. We had to make 2 changes and one was a couple of blocks underground with escalators not working … and about halfway through the maze of tunnels and stairs my over-packed bag’s zip broke and spilled all my clothes out. What a nightmare!

  38. Can’t wait for the details of the giveaway. I LOVE my B&R bag. I’ve had it for about 15 years and have sent it back to B&R several times for repairs (usually due to airline mishandling.) The bag has ALWAYS come back as good as new. This is the ONLY company I know that truly, truly stands behind its product.

  40. This could finally replace my somewhat worn Aldi’s bag! (grin) Thanks for the opportunity!

  42. Would love to try this after the airline ripped the wheel off my current luggage!

  43. I do not have different bags for different seasons per se.

    I use a few different bags for business and pleasure. I did get rid of my cheap junky bags but O don’t have anything high end either. What I finally realize is that less is more. I pack a lot less than I used to and that has nothing to do with costs of checked baggage since I always get that for free or carry on. On overseas travel I take a lot less than I used to as well. I find hotel rooms especially in Europe can be small and bellmen are weak. Cabs have small trunks often. In Japan I paid a few bucks and my bag was shipped to my next hotel and that was a great system.

  44. @Jane I like your comment about TJMAX. I got some from there but they were decent bags mostly for carry on baggage.

  47. Please throw my name into the hopper. I use different bags for different seasons and different bags for business and pleasure trips.

  49. Sister has B&R and loves it for her travel. I’ve enjoyed my Eagle Creek travel products.

Comments are closed.