Four Wheels or Two?

Getting sick of dragging my increasingly heavy suitcase around airports I started to look at the “spinner” carry-ons. Spinners have four wheels and instead of pulling them with two wheels you simply push them upright. It certainly seemed like just the right solution – easy on my arm and made things like walking down a plane aisle easy.

As I took it for a walk around the luggage store it seemed like the perfect solution. There weren’t a ton of options in soft sided spinners and I couldn’t find anything in the two suitcase lines I have great luck with, TravelPro or Briggs and Riley, so I ended up with a Samsonite. It looked nice on the outside but wasn’t thrilled with the inside structure but I figured the benefits of four wheels outweighed the layout inside. It also balanced another bag nicely on top which I liked because I often carry a large tote bag with me that is open at the top and when I was putting it on my two wheeler I was always looking back to make sure nothing was falling out.
Off to the airport I go in my new spinner. Very quickly I realized this was not going to be as easy as it seemed! First, the spinners don’t handle bumps well at all and in some cases if it’s a high threshold on a door or "moving sidewalks" you have to spin it around like a traditional two wheeler to get it across smoothly. But it doesn’t stop there, the moment you hit anything other than hard flat surface, like a carpet – like the miles and miles of carpet that exist at airports, hotels and offices, the suitcase becomes very sluggish on its four wheels and you are pushing it hard to just move forward.

So, where does that leave me you are asking? I am learning to move from four to two wheels on the fly and enjoying the moments when I am in “four wheel gear” and adjusting to the awkward layout inside. Would I buy one again? Not sure about that. I think so but the real test will be when I take it with me to Europe on my next biz trip in a few weeks. If I can survive European travel then I will likely be willing to say I like it. When I decide, I will let you know!