Another great thing to get is a luggage weigher. Ours is small and has a hook on it so you can hoist up your packed bag and see how much it weighs (English or metric). Then we just pack it so we can use it again for the all important return flight!
I first found it at a travel store and then ordered more on Amazon. Who knows? TJ Maxx might have it around too.
Yes, I have two of those travel scales. I personally rarely even come close to the 50 pound United limit, but when I was traveling with a colleague, she would often push or pass the limit.
As I said before, one advantage for us in packing with the small 20-22" rolling suitcases is it really forces you to carefully plan what you pack and unless you are packing a lot of books, it is tough to put much more than 30-40#s in it. When we weigh our fully packed bags, they are generally 32-35 pounds, including gifts, all our clothing, medical equipment, etc.
Over the course of a few decades we’ve gone from hard sided suitcases (with the combo locks) to soft sided zippered suitcases, to rolling duffles, to two compartment rolling duffles and to soft sided double or quad wheel suitcases. Some were of great quality (remember the gorilla ad for American Tourister), some seemed to barely make it thru a handful of adventures.
We went thru the ‘black is beautiful’ phase…where we added yet several more indistinguishably uniform pieces to the luggage conveyor belts where we joined the jet lagged multitudes in the ‘hey…that one’s ours…no…wait, it’s not…look at the tag…no, no, don’t pull it off the belt until we’ve chased if for a few feet to make SURE it’s ours’ game. Then we played the ‘add cute little pieces of fabric from long forgotten craft project to the handles’ game in an attempt to make them somewhat unique.
Over the past year I’ve cobbled together a variety of light weight pieces from TJ Maxx and Marshall’s. I fondly call them the collection of the worlds ugliest luggage. Brand name - IT -. Very light weight and some of the most crazy butt ugly designs and colors imaginable. Think white with what looks like a kindergarten fingerpainting project for the pattern. Or, pinkish/purple with the Eiffel Tower and small European vehicles splattered all over. Oh…then there is the blue camouflage one. They seem to be working very well. One piece is rather large and we’ll nest a smaller one inside. This way if we do wind up with extra stuff gathered along the way we have an extra suitcase. Absolutely NO problem finding them at the luggage carousel.
It’s funny…I’ve had a number of ‘what the heck were you thinking’ looks and about the same number of ‘oh my gosh that is brilliant’ responses. Come to think of it, they are really no uglier than some of the fabric from the above mentioned craft projects.
Love the travel scales.
This is how we estimate the weight of luggage.
We stand on a typical weighter, one time with the luggage and another time without the luggage and record the weights. The difference between these two weights should be the estimate of the weight of the luggage.
This estimate seems to be good enough for our purpose almost every time. Also, we take with us a large garbage bag, which could be put into either the check-in luggage or the carry-on luggage in advance, before leaving home. If the luggage is too heavy, we remove some items from the luggage and put it into our carry-on luggage, at the ticket counter (We needed to do this only one time in the past 10 years or so – probably because we were too lazy to weigh the luggage at that time.)
My wife used to purchase a small scale to weigh the “care package.” (which could sometimes be a large box.) Later years, after DS had complained about receiving too much stuff, her care package became smaller so she used the “fixed sized” and fixed priced USPS package which could be of any weight.
Ful rolling duffel bags are really indestructible. My bag has visited Hawaii, Boston, Central Asia, Switzerland - multiple times! - and is now parked in a small Eastern European country. When Costco had them on the shelf a month ago, I bought another one. Smart move, because they are gone now.
@BunsenBurner
Yes, that is it! The brand I bought at Target is “Ful”. I couldn’t remember the name. Great value!
@mcat2
It’s easy to weigh luggage using a regular scale at home. The portable travel scale is to use in your hotel room when you’re packing your bags with all the goodies you bought on your trip. I keep one always in my rollaboard.
Rather than use a garbage bag for weight “overflow”, I always also keep in my rollaboard this lightweight, foldable spare travel bag:
http://www.americantourister.com.au/foldable-travelbag.html
This has been so useful that I got one for everyone in the family. It’ll hold the entire contents of a rollaboard. For its weight, the fabric is surpringly strong.
I use it regularly when I’m traveling with only my rollaboard and pick up wine on the way home. I shove my dirty clothes in the portable bag and stash the liquid prize in my rollaboard to check it. 
I used to do the same thing using a giant XL Ziploc storage bag, but another poster on CC shamed me out of it when they pointed out coworkers might see my dirty underwear circling the baggage carousel.
As much as I don’t like Kohl’s, they have some great luggage sales. You have to watch as their prices change frequently. You can look on line at the prices and then also use additional coupons either that come in the mail or can be printed from the web. One s likes a 4 wheel role and the other a 2 (it has more room to pack stuff). Recently bought each a new bag. Ended up with samsonite S, as the 4 wheel has a new “sphere” wheel that is great and doesn’t break off, and the 2 wheel had a lot of space inside. It was originally listed for around $199. I paid $70, shipped and delivered to DS’s door.
Costco also has its own Kirkland brand. Several years ago they had a great carryon but it was just s smidge too big for some airline overheads. DH loved his but had a hassle a time or two, and we returned it, after many uses, due to the size issue. They (Costco) got a lot of bad press for that size issue and redesigned that bag. But we had by then bought elsewhere. Have also bought from TJ Maxx, Ebags and duffels from LL Bean.
Travel pro has an on-line site. MCAT, take a look at their sale items.
I am fortunate that I live near a travelpro store. A few times a year they have a warehouse sale, where they bring in new, last year models, etc. I shop for my little cousins and my family. After all these years, the managers recognize me, and lead me straight towards the best stuff. Last time, it took 3 trips to bring everything home or to my cousin’s house.
At airport right now
Costco samasonite carry on meeting spirit specs
Also using travelopro bought tjmaxx
Wheels on Costco seem much better, smoother, easier to use and they are approximately 1 year old
Travelpro pulling to right ever so slightly
The black Kirkland 22" that was really over 23" in the photos here is the one DH had and returned. I bought a different one, not from Costco, to replace it http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-products/1134813-kirkland-22-carry-new-design.html
Another Delsey fan here. My bag has been overseas several times and is in great shape. And their sizes are true.
Take a tape measure with you when you go shopping–way too many manufacturers don’t include wheels in their measurements.
Also have an IT bag–it is made of parachute cloth (or similar). Not sure I’d want it to be checked but for carry-on it is great. SUPER lightweight. It has wheels but half the time I just carry it. Those pounds you save in luggage weight lets you stuff in more clothes.
With four wheels you don’t carry any weight of the bag, with two wheels you are carrying a good portion of the weight–especially if you set a tote bag on top of it.