The Luggage

I'll be flying down south on business later this week. I will have to bring a suit and, since I loathe checking my bags, it will have to go in my carry-on. While the suit will work with my current bag, a samsonite fold-over garment model, the following will not:

• I'm flying Delta. They are notorious carry-on bigots. My garment bag, though large, will fit perfectly in the overhead. They won't care.
• I'm going through Atlanta. If you have never been, you do not want to lug a bag on your shoulder across the breadth of that installation. Trust me, I did it in January coming back from Sarasota.

So last night led me to the mall in a quest for a new carry-on bag. I wanted wheels, small size to keep Delta happy, and capable of packing a suit. I also wanted inexpensive but not cheap. I still have a little suitcase my mom bought me when I was five. I use it for the occassional overnight to visit Amy.

Oh and sapient pearwood would be nice too, but I'm not holding out for it.

It quickly became apparent to me that this wasn't going to be easy. Specifically, the inexpensive models rarely had a trifold area for packing a suit. I hit Strawbridges and Macy's with no luck. I could either get a $50 POS, an $80 with no way to pack a a suit, or a $130 suiter than was more than I wanted to spend. Finally I found something at Penney's. They have a generic house brand called "Ricardo" which is $80, has a trifold compartment to pack a suit, and seemed sturdy enough. Huzzah!

So I paid for it at the nearest register (which was actually in lingerie). As I was about to wheel away from the counter, the eagle eyes of the sales clerk noticed I didn't have any locks. A trip to the luggage department, an even exchange, and now I have locks. Real locks that take an actual key, not those worthless skeleton key padlocks on most bags. Well hey I'm pretty happy.

However wheeling a carry-on bag through the mall is strange. An airport or train station? Ok. A mall? I feel like someone is going to think I'm either a tourist or a vagrant. Especially when I stopped in the food court to pick up a sandwich at Arby's.

So I get home happy. I eat my sandwich. I start clearing all the tissue paper out of the suitcase so that I can pack clothes into it. What do I discover inside but a second bag, one of those little travel totes. But it's a second bag with a second price tag.

Now some people of a particular moral persuasion would think, "Hey free bag! Sweet!" I am not one of those people. As Amybear likes to say, I am Captain America. So tonight I take my precious time go to return free stuff.

UPDATE: I took the bag back and called first to make things easier. The reaction of the employees was "Wow your really honest!" Yeah yeah. If it happens again anytime soon I will probably be less honest. I don't like spending over an hour of my time to fix someone else's screw up. An hour of my time is worth more than that bag was.