Comments on: Damn The Spinner Bag!

By: Jude Merchant

Jude Merchant — Sat, 28 Sep 2024 19:04:34 +0000

As an ex-flight attendant, I give thought to my luggage. For longer trips, I have a Tumi duffel style suitcase with 2 wheels for pulling along. It has a retractable handle and is quite lightweight for the large size. I just came back from a week long business trip in and out of Miami where I needed a rental car. The walk to the car rental from baggage claim was inordinately long, made more challenging as the moving sidewalks were not running due to construction. I had to pull this now heavily loaded suitcase along on carpet and needed to take several breaks. (I found out on my return trip that there was a tram I might have been able to use.) I thought I was going to have a heart attack and wished I had a spinner bag, I swore I would never do this again, either the trip or with the 2 wheeled pull along suitcase. I was dreading the trip home. I found out about the tram, but it was still not pleasant to get to check in. As I really enjoyed my work in Miami, I am now shopping for a large spinner bag. I am just glad I am still alive to tell this story.

By: Elise Elderkin

Elise Elderkin — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 16:08:09 +0000

I take all of your points about spinners. But I’m an arthritic 78-year-old woman, and I like the damn thing precisely because it’s easier to haul round; I prefer to roll it to my side because that’s easier on my arthritic shoulders. But I’m always aware of the possibility of blocking someone’s passage, and I try to make my profile as narrow as I can.
Perhaps make war on inconsiderate passengers rather than on inanimate baggage?

By: PamR

PamR — Sun, 05 Apr 2020 02:20:02 +0000

As a pilot, have you had to navigate your “roll aboard” down a long, narrow aisle? As the aisles on planes have gotten narrower and narrower over the years, I finally gave up on trying to get my favorite two wheeled carry-on to my seat. Although it meets the size requirements for the overhead bin, it is too wide to roll behind me in the aisle. I can’t pick it up and carry it next to me, because myself and the bag together are definitely too wide for the aisle. That only leaves turning it, holding it off the ground, sticking out in front of me as I awkwardly make my way down a 17″ aisle. I am not strong. This is very difficult and slows everyone behind me down. So, I have finally purchased a spinner bag that I can turn sideways and roll down the aisle in front of me. So, sorry if I take up more space in an airport corridor (I actually think, walking with this next to me sideways, takes up less space than the other one), but if the airlines didn’t keep making aisles (not to mention seats and leg room) smaller and smaller, I wouldn’t have needed to have given up my very lightweight bag for one that weighs more and holds less.

By: judith Lavezzi

judith Lavezzi — Fri, 28 Feb 2020 17:01:58 +0000

Why do you correct the roll-aboard language, when you later call it a roller board…, but dislike someone calling them roller boards? Isn’t that what you were objecting to? Confusing, although I got your earlier sentiment, when you call them roller boards, you confound.

I am older – an older age woman, with arthritis. Perhaps I shouldn’t be traveling, but so long as I can, I do. The four wheel design is helpful to me, and although someone as buff and masculine as yourself might never need that extra smooth glide, it is a lifesaver to me. Just wanted to give you a little perspective on how it looks to another. I will try to elbow in, however. That point is well taken, as people traveling aren’t, so far as I can tell, burdened with excess courtesy all the time.

By: Jason Hoffman

Jason Hoffman — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 01:18:30 +0000

These people are idiots. I have a set of Samsonite bags with the 4 wheels, and when I walk with it, I lean it forwards on the casters closest to the handles and drag it along behind me. The few times I have tried to roll it upright for short distances, I’ve always encountered a crack in the floor or something uneven that results in it tipping over. I can’t imagine that it’s actually supposed to be rolled along upright like the picture shows. I wish I would have paid more attention a few weeks ago when I flew cross-country and spent more time in airports than anyone should. It seems like I would have noticed such stupidity, but the stress of the trip probably gave me tunnel vision, and I guess none of them got in my way.

Of course, the furthest I ever roll my suitcase is from where I’m dropped off to the luggage check. I surely am not lugging this thing to the gate to try to stuff it into an overhead bin. Not to mention, the most recent airline we flew charged about twice as much to bring on a carryon as they did to check the bag.

By: Waggle

Waggle — Fri, 07 Jun 2019 13:34:22 +0000

Speaking of word usage when again will momentarily mean “for a moment” instead of soon?

By: Pete Mitchell

Pete Mitchell — Fri, 29 Mar 2019 22:16:09 +0000

In reply to Roman Chodowiecki. Could not agree more. No difference between the bags, roll on bags take just as much room. Shut up and fly.

By: Maggie Pappas

Maggie Pappas — Wed, 13 Mar 2019 02:27:22 +0000

Could this be? Patrick! I just read your fastidious rant on the lazy/wrong use of “roller boards” instead of “roll-aboards”to describe spinner bags. In your last two grafs, you used “roller board” twice to describe your very own”roll-aboards:” a “smaller” one for which you rigged a hook, and a second one laden with stickers. If I let you off the hook (pun intended), I would allow you to reveal this was a test to see who would spot the double error first. Out of 61 responses, I seem to be the only one who noticed. I’ll take a copy of your book as a prize, thank you, if this WAS a test that I won. But if this was NOT a test but merely a double proofreading collapse, you need to apologize for pushing Gary Shteyngart into the “roller board” writing ditch when you jumped in right after him. As you know, I’ve been a fan since your early Salon days, so I feel somewhat esteemed to have out-proof-read you, especially with your header warning deletion of posts with grammar and spelling errors. I await your response that I won the test prize, or–even better–got your word goat. Bliss!

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 23:44:02 +0000

My 2-wheeler has worked just fine for years. IF IT AIN’T BROKE, DON’T FIX IT. I guess for some, THEY DON’T GET IT and have come up with a new awful design.

By: MATT MCDONALD

MATT MCDONALD — Thu, 07 Feb 2019 01:34:52 +0000

In reply to FGS. I think what you're missing here is that as a pilot you don't normally have to deal with wheeling your bag down a narrow aisle to rows past mid-way, especially in a regional jet. I have never seen a pilot wheeling a bag on an airplane even deadheading. But for that the two wheel has a lot of advantage, but running in the aisles the spinner is king. People can be jerks with or without a spinner, and I always wheel mine close at hand anyway.