CalPak - beautiful luggage that can never be checked

The wheel came off after being checked just a couple of times. 

Because I spend around 60% of my time traveling, I need reliable luggage. Unfortunately CalPak failed me and caused me a huge nightmare while I was on a multi-country business trip.

My Delsey Helium hardside luggage had served me well for close to a decade, accompanying me on countless trips across the globe without an issue. But with a new job that required me to travel extensively, I decided to treat myself to a luggage upgrade.

Not going to lie, I picked CalPak because of its beauty. As I always do, I did my dilgence and read through a bunch of reviews before making the purchase and decided to get the rose gold Ambeur set which had a near perfect rating on its website.

The carry-on served me well for several trips. I was often complimented on the beauty of the luggage. It was light and the wheels spun easier than my Delsey luggage. It seemed to fit a lot more than you would expect by looking at its compact size. I felt good about my purchase. That is, until I was on a multi-week trip during the winter and had no choice but to take the checked luggage. The first time that the luggage was checked (from New York to Madrid), the wheel cracked.

I didn’t have time to deal with it in Madrid so I checked it on my next leg from Madrid to Budapest, and by the time my bag made it to the baggage claim carousel, an entire wheel had come off with a crack on another wheel. I used the airport cart to roll it to my cab and had to have assistance at my hotel to get it up to my room. I had one more leg, to London, and had to replace my CalPak if I was going to make it. I had a weekend between work meetings in Budapest and spent all day on Saturday on the phone with the airline seeing if they could do anything (I filed a claim with Iberia which, eight months later has not been answered) and researching luggage shops. I spent all day Sunday visiting said luggage shops. Ultimately I decided to throw away the CalPak and buy a temporary piece of luggage to get me through my London leg and home because I wanted to do more research before buying a more permanent replacement. I also thought I might want a Rimowa but there wasn’t a store in Budapest.

I did a google search and found several blog posts like this one about their CalPak cracking and breaking when being checked in. I went on the CalPak website and wrote a negative review which was never posted to their website. They are definitely filtering reviews.

I will say that CalPak offered to send me new luggage (one time only, voiding the warranty) but I knew I never wanted to travel with this luggage again. What good would new luggage do me if I couldn’t trust it to travel with?

Flash forward to a month later and I was traveling to Mexico City. I hadn’t had time to buy new luggage, but grabbed my CalPak carry-on figuring it would be fine as long as I didn’t check it. While I was in Mexico City I decided to buy a bottle of Mezcal to take home, which meant checking my luggage. When I picked up my bag at baggage claim in New York, you guessed it, the wheel was cracked.

It is crazy to me that CalPak can sell such poor quality product. I will say that it is beautiful, but if you ever plan to check your luggage, look elsewhere.