Travelite vs Samsonite: Warranty, Dimensions and Price per Litre, Compared on Data

No, Travelite is not owned by Samsonite. The two companies have zero connection. Travelite is a family business from Hamburg, Germany, founded in 1949. Samsonite Group S.A. is headquartered in Luxembourg, trades in Hong Kong, and reported net sales of US$3,588.6 million for the 2024 financial year.

That was the easy part. The hard part is which brand deserves your money, and brand history helps with that not at all. What helps: warranty terms, shell material, outer dimensions to the centimetre, empty weight, price per litre. All checkable. All in tables below, with the source next to it.

Six cabin models, three per brand. The ones you actually end up putting in a basket.

The Six Spec Sheets, Laid Side by Side

Prices are a snapshot, so the date is on the column. What doesn't move: dimensions, weight, material.

Two cells read "not stated." That isn't sloppiness. Travelite publishes only length and volume for the Kick Off boardcase, not width and depth, and no volume figure for the Chios. Other sites fill gaps like that with estimates. I leave them empty, because an invented depth is exactly the number that fails you at the gate.

And something already jumps out. The lightest of the six is a Samsonite at 2.0 kg, the heaviest a Travelite at 2.7 kg. A 700 g gap. Against Lufthansa's 8 kg limit that's nearly 9% of your allowance, spent on the case itself before you pack anything.

Warranty: 24 to 36 Months Against 5 Years. And Both Exclude the Airline

This is where the brands separate most clearly. It's also where most comparison pages print the wrong number.

Travelite states in its own warranty terms that it "provides a 24-36-month warranty from the valid purchase date," so 2 to 3 years depending on the product. Which term applies to your model is printed on the warranty card in the product tag. Without a completed, stamped card plus proof of purchase, nothing happens.

Samsonite doesn't publish one number for everything. Its warranty FAQ points you to the warranty card or the product page. For the three cabin models here it's 5 years; the European-made C-Lite, Proxis and Nexis lines get 10.

That last column is the one that matters, and it appears in no advertisement. Samsonite explicitly excludes damage caused by carriers or transport personnel, naming airlines as the example. Travelite excludes damage from improper transport by third parties. Two wordings, one outcome.

Which means the damage a suitcase most realistically takes on a flight isn't covered by either brand. Five years against three sounds like a wide lead, but the lead applies to material and manufacturing faults, not to the wheel torn off on the baggage belt. That one is between you, the airline, and your travel insurance.

Who wins? Samsonite, clearly, on paper. Two extra years is not something you argue with. The lead is just narrower than the number suggests.

Shell Material: ABS, Polycarbonate, Polypropylene, Polyester

"Hard shell" is not a material. It's a bucket holding three plastics that behave differently, and the difference here costs €78.

ABS is what the Travelite City is made of. Stiff, cheap to mould, holds its shape, and more brittle in cold than the alternatives. It's the material that makes a sub-€80 price point possible at all.

Polypropylene is what the Samsonite Intuo uses. Less stiff, but it flexes under load and comes back. At the same wall thickness it's also the lightest of the three.

Polycarbonate is in the Samsonite Neopulse, the most expensive case in this round. Tough rather than stiff, absorbing impact by deforming. And the priciest of the three materials.

With the soft luggage it's simpler. The Base Boost is polyester outside, 300 x 300 and 450 x 450 denier. The Travelite Chios is a soft shell with no published denier figure.

Who wins? Samsonite, because Travelite doesn't sell you polycarbonate at this price. There simply is no model on the shelf. Whether that's worth €78 is a different question, and the answer depends on whether you check your case or lift it into the bin.

Sizers: Which Model Clears Which Airline

Here the comparison gets practical. And here the internet, including our own older posts, carries the most out-of-date numbers.

Ryanair changed its free bag size. Since 4 September 2025, Ryanair's own announcement puts it at 40 x 30 x 20 cm across all 235 airports, 33% larger than the 40 x 30 x 15 cm EU standard. If you still read 40 x 20 x 25, you're reading an old figure.

Three things follow from that table, and none of them is on a manufacturer's page.

One: not a single one of these six fits under the seat. Not one. All are 55 cm tall, and all three airlines cap the under-seat bag at 45 cm. If you fly Ryanair without Priority you need a second bag, whichever brand you buy. That's the most honest sentence in this whole comparison, and both brands lose it together.

Two: at Ryanair, 20 cm is a ceiling, not a target. Four of the models measure exactly 20 cm deep. Against a sizer with a 20 cm internal depth, exactly means precisely that: no room for a bulging front pocket.

Three, and this is the trap: the Base Boost and the Intuo both have an expander. The Intuo is listed as 39 L closed and 45 L expanded. Those extra 6 litres come out of the depth. At Ryanair and easyJet, both 20 cm, the zip has to stay shut. At Lufthansa you have 3 cm of slack, and there the expansion is genuinely usable. An expandable case is no advantage if you're never allowed to expand it.

The Travelite Handgepäck Trolley klein, City, 55x40x20 cm, 2,7 kg, Kratzfeste Hartschale, mit 4 Doppelrollen – Koffer passend für Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, KLM, Condor, Eurowings and the Samsonite Base Boost - Handgepäck Koffer 55 x 40 x 20 cm, Weichgepäck Kabinentrolley für die meisten Airlines geeignet, inkl. Ryanair & EasyJet, TSA-Schloss, Leicht, 39 L, Schwarz both hit Ryanair's Priority limit exactly at 55 x 40 x 20 cm. The Travelite Handgepäck Trolley klein, Chios, Weichschale, 55x39x20 cm, 2,4 kg, mit 4 Doppelrollen & Zahlenschloss – Koffer passend für Lufthansa, Swiss, Eurowings, Ryanair, easyJet sits one centimetre under on width at 55 x 39 x 20 cm, the only real buffer in this round. The Samsonite Intuo - Spinner S, Erweiterbarer Handgepäck, 55 cm, 39/45 L, Blau (Blue Nights) matches those 55 x 40 x 20 cm closed and only closed; the Samsonite Neopulse - Spinner S, Handgepäck, 55 cm, 42 L, Grau (Matt Graphite) has no expander at all, so it stays on the number permanently. For the Travelite Trolley Reisetasche mit Rollen klein, Kick Off, praktischer Boardcase Handgepäck Trolley für Urlaub und Sport, 55 cm, 44 Liter I can't tell you, because width and depth aren't published.

Every dimension sorted by airline sits in our carry-on size guide (Coming Soon), and the gate fees in the Ryanair carry-on guide.

Travelite Handgepäck Trolley klein, City, 55x40x20 cm, 2,7 kg, Kratzfeste Hartschale, mit 4 Doppelrollen – Koffer passend für Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, KLM, Condor, Eurowings

Not available in your region

The Only Independent Lab Test: Stiftung Warentest 04/2021

There is exactly one German lab test featuring both brands. It's from April 2021, and I should say up front what doesn't work about it: the full grades sit behind test.de's paywall. The test scope and the model list are free to read. The grades are not.

This much is publicly documented:

• 18 suitcases were tested: 7 four-wheel hard shells, 7 four-wheel soft shells, 4 two-wheel rolling holdalls.

• Only seven models came through the procedure well.

• Three rolling trolleys were rated "mangelhaft" (poor) for excessive levels of harmful substances.

• Best overall result: the Samsonite X'Blade 4.0 in 78 cm, grade 1.9, around €283 to €289 at the time. Its replaceable wheels and handle were singled out for praise.

• Travelite Air Base, hard shell: grade 2.7 "satisfactory," €126 to €150 then, and at 3.5 kg the lightest model in the test.

Two caveats before you draw anything from that. The Samsonite that scored 1.9 is a 78 cm checked case, not a carry-on, and winning the large class says nothing about how the Base Boost behaves at 55 cm. And the Air Base's 2.7 belongs to a model that doesn't appear in our group of six at all.

Who wins? Samsonite, holding the only documented top placing. But the lead is five years old and belongs to a different size class. Anyone looking for a grade on the models in the table above won't find one, because it doesn't exist. More on individual Hamburg models in our Travelite luggage review (Coming Soon).

Price per Litre, as of July 2026

Comparing absolute prices is unfair when the cases hold different amounts. So here's the division: price over published volume.

The cheapest Samsonite costs 35% more per litre than the priciest Travelite with a published volume. The Neopulse lands at 3.4 times the Kick Off.

Is that an argument against Samsonite? Only if volume were everything. For €2.47 per litre on the Base Boost you also get two more years of warranty and 700 g less empty weight than the City. On the Neopulse you get polycarbonate, which Travelite doesn't offer here. What you don't get is more room.

Who wins? Travelite, no argument, if you're maximising litres per euro. Under €90, Samsonite has nothing in this selection at all.

Three Axes Where the Brands Don't Separate

A comparison that finds a winner everywhere is lying in at least one place. So here are the places where there's no result.

Customer ratings. The three Travelite models sit at 4.5, 4.6 and 4.4 stars. The three Samsonite models at 4.5, 4.6 and 4.6. The gap between the brand averages is under a tenth of a star. Across 20,819 reviews combined, that's not a signal, it's noise. Anyone building you a brand winner out of star ratings is working backwards from a conclusion.

Country of origin at this price. Travelite develops in Hamburg and manufactures mostly in Asia. Samsonite does build in Europe, but only the Nexis, Proxis, C-Lite and Essens lines, in Oudenaarde in Belgium with rooftop solar and in Szekszárd in Hungary, running on 100% renewable electricity since July 2021. None of the three Samsonite models in this round is one of them. Below €200, both brands mean Asia.

The damage that actually happens. Covered above: both warranties exclude airline transport damage. On this axis both lose equally.

Who Buys Which

Short, because the tables did the work.

Travelite, if your case goes in the locker two to four times a year and you want litres for your money. Nothing from Samsonite in this selection beats €1.05 to €1.83 per litre, and 24 to 36 months covers the window in which manufacturing faults surface. If you land on the Chios you also get the only case with real buffer in the sizer.

Samsonite, if term length and weight matter more to you than volume. Five years instead of three, 2.0 kg instead of 2.7 kg, and on the Neopulse a material Travelite doesn't stock here. At more than a flight a month that adds up. At two flights a year, probably not.

And if €96 for the Base Boost makes you hesitate: American Tourister belongs to the same group and sits between the two on price. Details in our Samsonite vs American Tourister comparison (Coming Soon).