Accidents happen -- so tote cheap luggage

After living with luggage every working day for the last five years, Donna Menefee has come to believe that cheaper is just fine.

Menefee, a Delta Air Lines customer service agent, helps run its lost and damaged luggage office at Logan International Airport's Terminal A, which serves 100,000 Delta passengers a week. On an average day, she might handle a half-dozen claims of luggage damage. In her experience, accidents don't discriminate.

''The biggest thing in our office is I have people coming in and saying, 'I spent $300 for my luggage!' " Menefee said. Her standard answer: ''Well, OK, that's great. But it got damaged."

Menefee said top-of-the-line luggage sets like those made by Hartman, Tumi, and Swiss Army are ''very good bags, very good warranties -- and very expensive. Of course, it's a better-looking bag. It's got a better frame. The workmanship is a little better. Whatever they can't repair, they replace." But she said of the costliest luggage sets: ''They tear, they rip, just like Wal-Mart bags."

Luggage runs a hard obstacle course from the time passengers check in until they reclaim it at their destination, slung by time-pressed handlers onto carts and trolleys, with some of the hardest knocks coming when it slides down the chute into the carousel.

US consumers spent $8.3 billion in 2004 on luggage, sport bags, briefcases, and computer cases, according to the Travel Goods Association, a Princeton, N.J., trade group.

That was down from $9.1 billion in 2000, as travel dropped after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and low-priced imports cut retail prices.

Unless you're toting expensive cameras or high-tech equipment that warrants a reinforced case, most no-name brands available at off-price stores like Marshall's or T.J. Maxx should prove adequate, Menefee said. She bought her last set of luggage five or six years ago for around $50 a bag -- ''no particular brand name" that she can recall -- and it has worked out fine for her frequent trips.

So hard or soft cover bags? ''I'm more against hard-sided. It doesn't expand, and most people tend to overpack them. They pop, they get crushed, and there's no away to repair them," Menefee said. ''The hard cases don't rip. They just crack. You can't repair the crack. You can repair the rip."

Some other lessons: