Why My Grandmother Finally Gave Up Her Heavy Suitcase

My grandmother finally gave up her heavy suitcase when she was in her eighties. It took her that long, and only after the handle gave out in the middle of a train station. I did not want to wait that long myself. Two years ago, I gave up my own heavy suitcase and bought a Travelpro Maxlite 5, a 20-inch softside carry-on spinner. She taught me the lesson. This is how it happened.

My grandmother was a small woman, never more than a hundred and ten pounds, and she packed a suitcase like she was moving a house. The suitcase itself was the problem. It was a hard-sided thing from the 1960s with a handle that did not quite extend and wheels that dragged more than they rolled. I can still see her at the train station in Raleigh, hauling that bag up the steps with both hands, her face red. A man offered to help once. She told him she had it under control, which she did not. She was stubborn that way, and the suitcase was winning.

The last time she took that suitcase anywhere, the handle gave out in the middle of the concourse. The bag tipped over. Clothes spilled out. She looked at the mess, laughed, and said, 'That is the last time.' She was in her eighties by then, and she finally let my mother buy her a small bag on wheels. 'The bag is supposed to help me,' she told me. 'I spent all that energy hauling it instead.'

I thought about that sentence every time I hauled my own bag through an airport. Mine was a two-wheel roller from the 1990s, heavy even when it was empty, and it pulled my shoulder on every trip. I told myself the weight was fine. It was not fine. My knees were stiffer every year, my hands were not as strong as they used to be, and the bag was not getting any lighter. I would stand at the baggage carousel after every flight, waiting for a big hard-shell bag I had checked, and I would think of my grandmother and her train station.

So two years ago, before a trip to Denver to see my daughter, I did what my grandmother eventually did. I gave up the heavy suitcase. The Travelpro Maxlite 5 has now been with me on roughly a dozen trips, including that Denver flight and a river cruise with my sister June. It is the first suitcase I have owned that feels like it is on my side.

I have lifted this bag into the overhead bin on a dozen flights without once asking a stranger for help.

The difference showed up on the first trip. I rolled the Travelpro through the airport with one hand and held my coffee with the other. My old bag had always needed two hands and a hip check to steer. This one spins on its wheels and follows along without a fight. When I got to the gate, I lifted it into the overhead bin myself. I did not have to brace myself against the seat. I did not have to ask the young man behind me to do it for me.

The softside matters more than I expected. On a crowded flight to Denver, the bin was tight, and the bag gave a little when I pushed it in. A hard-sided bag would not have given. It also fits in the overhead bin on the smaller regional jets, which is where I used to get stuck checking my bag at the gate. I have not waited at a baggage carousel since I switched. That alone was worth the change.

My hands have mild arthritis, so zippers and handles are the first things I notice on any bag. The Travelpro zippers move without catching. The handle extends and locks with one hand, and it does not wobble when I roll the bag. The wheels are quiet, which sounds like a small thing until you have rolled a wobbly bag down a cruise ship corridor at seven in the morning and woken half the deck.

My sister June noticed on our river cruise last year. She still travels with a bigger bag that she checks, and she spent part of every port day waiting for it to come off the boat. I walked past with my one carry-on and she said, 'I am starting to understand why you switched.' I did not say I told her so. I just rolled on.

I travel with one carry-on and one personal item, and the Travelpro handles that life well. It stands upright on its own wheels, which matters more than you would think when you are digging through a hotel room or balancing on a train. The bag does not fall over the way my old roller did. It waits patiently. That sounds like a small thing. It is not a small thing at seven in the morning.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

Here is what I would say. If your suitcase is heavier than the things you packed, it is time to let it go. My grandmother waited until she was in her eighties and the handle broke in public. You do not have to wait for a public breakdown. You do not have to be strong to travel well. You need a bag that does not ask you to be strong. The Travelpro Maxlite 5 is that bag for me. One honest note: it is softside, so I wrap anything fragile and tuck it in the middle, and that is a fair trade for a bag I can lift. I say all of this as a woman who does not like change. This is the rare change I would make again tomorrow.