American Tourister Meridian Lite 21-inch Upright Suticase

I have carried this bag one time now...and it looks 5 years old. The outside pocket zipper is broken...and nothing was carried in the pocket. Of course, zippers are not included in the "10 year Warranty"...that and the cost to ship it back is what prevent sme from returning the item. The suitcase was not overpacked just full. The ribbed edgings that surround the bag....and act as "bumpers" to protect the edges are what look really old...which leads me to believe that the bag does not have but about a year of life. When those edges go, they will start to detach from the bag and then the bag will rip. When I refer to a year of life, I would say 15 roundtrips of being checked with the airline. On a per trip basis that works out to about $3.50/trip and then you are done as these bags are not worth the money to repair. I really expected more from Am Tour'r. The design of the bag is OK and it holds a good amount...when expanded, it DOES NOT fit in an overhead bin on a 737...on a wide body aircraft (757 and larger), it probably would due to the larger bins. On the regionals, it must be gate-checked. It is conceivable that you could pack enough in this bag to exceed the 50 lb. weight limit so be careful when trying to stuff it full! The expansion feature adds enough additional room to be functional...some are merely an extra inch or so which is pretty worthless, but this one adds about 3". I packed my laptop in it and padded the computer...and packed other stuff and was over 40 pounds---that is why I would warn about the weight limit. All in all, I will choose differently next time. My appearance rating is based on the item new, out of the box..not after having been used.