Rimowa Essential Check-In L

Flagship money for polycarbonate that dents exactly like budget polycarbonate once the airlines get hold of it, per the frequent-flyer consensus that checked hard shells are too easy to dent and crack. Wirecutter's top pick is almost as well-constructed and a lot less.

The shell is the same class of polycarbonate that cracks when a ramp handler throws it, and the guarantee does not cover airline damage, so ownership means babying a workhorse bag. You pay a large premium for the logo.

The most extreme luxury tax on a checked bag: nothing about checking a bag justifies flagship-luxury money, and the category's top-ranked bags from Travelpro and Briggs & Riley beat or match it on durability and organization per dollar. Buy the Briggs & Riley Baseline Large Expandable Spinner if you want the buy-it-for-life build story.

A fine polycarbonate shell, but you pay a large multiple of the Samsonite Omni PC's cost for a grooved surface and a logo, and nothing in the expert coverage ranks it near the top of the value conversation. Buy the Omni PC or the Level8 Gibraltar instead.

Experts broadly agree its polycarbonate shell performs like the Monos and Away shells around it, dents and all, so the premium buys a logo and a German address rather than more durability. It sells as the category's most expensive mainstream polycarbonate bag.

A polycarbonate shell that will dent and scuff exactly like a Samsonite or American Tourister shell, sold at several times the price for the grooves and the name. The July Checked Plus or American Tourister Stratum XLT is the rational purchase.

The expert field's own warranty analysis shows a checked polycarbonate flagship is the worst place to spend flagship money: an airline can destroy the shell in the hold and the warranty does not cover it. The Briggs & Riley Baseline's guarantee covers what Rimowa's does not.