A New Bag

If you read yesterday’s post about our saving $88 on our summer 2014 Walt Disney World vacation—click here to read more—then you might be interested in knowing what we are doing with that savings!  We are purchasing new luggage.  Well, not a complete set of luggage nor a suitcase really, but a new piece of luggage—a rolling duffel bag.

After almost 30 trips in and out of Orlando International airport, along with other flights to Houston to visit family and LA to sail with Disney, our luggage has logged lots of miles.  And, has lost some wheels or has broken down sides.  Yes, they are still usable, and trust me, we still use them.  But having luggage that rolls just makes things easier.  We bought a new suitcase two summers ago, so it was time to add to our collection.

Why not a suitcase then?  Well, the boy is getting older and as he goes into middle school he will have opportunities to participate in various travel programs.  My thinking was that he would use and appreciate a large duffel bag more than a suitcase. 

Other reasons for our selection included the color—the red bag will go nicely with the rest of our luggage collection and will be easily visible at baggage claim.  Another reason, the “legs” opposite the wheels.  I had read reviews of other large, rolling duffel bags, that tip over when standing upright due to not having the additional “legs” or kickstand.  The wheel placement—embedded into the bag—was another wanted feature.  Also, this bag is 60 linear inches, just one inch short of the checked baggage allowance for most airlines. 

There were many large duffel bags featuring 65 inches or larger linear measurements.  I felt that the website needed to issue a warning on those bags that they would be over the checked bag limits and require customers to pay an additional fee.  I told the husband this and it reminded us of the time we were browsing, and eventually buying, a suitcase in TJMaxx and had looked at various suitcase features including wheels and linear measurements.  We drew other customers into our conversation and ended up helping them with their purchases.   Click here to read more.

So, our large, rolling duffel met our selection criteria and is on its way to us.  We purchased through eBags.com online as the bag was on sale and featured free shipping, but I clicked on Ebates.com first and earned 10% of our purchase back in cash!  Even more savings!  Can’t wait for our new bag to arrive as we have a new, free, Mickey shaped luggage tag to attach (how we got that is a story for another time.)