**Note, my rating is a cautious 4 stars as I haven't used the luggage yet. I purchased this set as a Christmas present for my mom to use for a trip to Egypt next spring, after reading most of the 2015 and 2016 reviews. The reviews here and on other sites for the same set are mostly positive for durability and my mom only flies once or twice a year. I'll update after our trip. The review is very long, but I wanted to be thorough and try to answer most of the questions I saw posted to help you decide if this set would fit your needs. I travel extensively for work (45-50 weeks per year) and I own TravelPro luggage, which is the same brand many flight attendants and pilots use. It's super durable, but crazy expensive. I originally purchased the American Tourister Pop Plus three piece luggage set in purple (available on Amazon for $134.99) because I thought a soft sided set would be more durable, but when I got them, they seemed really cheaply made and flimsy, so I sent them back. My mother prefers hard sided luggage, so I looked for a set with really good reviews on durability that wouldn't break the bank. This set met both criteria and came in a really fun purple. COLOR My mom loves purple and I thought the unusual color would make them easy to spot on the luggage carousel. The color is a pretty deep purple, leaning a little more toward plum than the picture (at least on my monitor) depicts, but it's close. The wheels, zippers and handles are black and the retractable pull bar is a sort of rose colored aluminum with a black plastic hand grip. The interior lining is grey nylon with white polka dots. There is also a grey mesh that zips to section off one side of the "shell" with elastic straps to hold down items on the other side. MATERIALS The outer shell of the cases is made of a plastic-like polycarbonate material that is very lightweight, as advertised, and VERY thin. When I opened up the package, I was dismayed at how thin and light these cases seem, however, I'm hoping that the reviews are accurate and these cases will hold up to airline mis-handling. The zippers and lining do not look terribly well made, but I would say it seems pretty good for the price. The 360 degree spinner wheels roll smoothly and seem to work as advertised. When fully extended the handle on the smallest case feels pretty flimsy, even with it empty, and another reviewer reported that after a couple of years, her handle bent, making it difficult to push it back down. However, this was after several uses. I can live with that. SPECS The measurements are as advertised (I measured), except that the wheels add approximately 2 inches (I don't know the cm conversion, sorry) to the length. The handles on all three cases retract into a molded cavity inside the bag, which should protect them from most damage in transit. On the smallest, carry-on sized bag, the pull bar telescopes to approximately twice the length of that on the larger two bags, as can be seen in the product picture. Meaning, you press the release button on the hand grip and the handle snaps out to a short length and you have to press the button again to get it to fully extend so you aren't bending over to pull the bag. Each case also has an inside, zippered pocket; a mesh flap that zips closed and bisects the case and stretchy straps with a hook closure to hold folded clothes or other items in place. The cases are VERY, VERY light, also as advertised. In fact, when the cases are unzipped, the sides bend and flex pretty easily. As I mentioned, I'm a little worried about them standing up to modern air travel, but time will tell. The cases nest, meaning the 20-inch fits inside the 24-inch which fits inside the 28-inch. They are shipped like this and with all three cases the box was still light enough for me to move on my own (I'm a not overly athletic 40-something woman) without a hand truck or dolly. These aspects, I believe, are designed to afford you as much weight as possible for your stuff without paying an airline overweight fee, and make the cases easy to ship and store when not in use. Right now, I still have them in the shipping box. BONUS My set came with three small combination locks. While these are a nice idea, since they are not TSA approved, you can't use them on checked luggage. However, they would be perfectly acceptable for your carry-on, or to use in your hotel room, although I cannot conceive of a scenario where TSA approved locks wouldn't work in these situations. Overall, I think this set was a phenomenal deal at $116.61, which is what I paid on 10/13/16. I can't wait to see how they perform in use.
