Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought an Omni about a year and a half ago. I've used it on at least 10 trips - some driving & some flying, and it held up well. I recently noticed a small 1" crack in the polycarbonate. I took it to a nearby factory store for service & they sent it off to a contract repair service. The contractor sent the Omni back unrepaired with a note saying that they thought the crack was probably caused by a carrier and thus is not covered by Samsonite's warranty. I called Samsonite's customer service center to ask how their contractors determine if damage was caused by an airline, and more importantly, if there were any circumstances under which cracked polycarbonate would be covered by their warranty. The person I spoke to did not know, & after consultation, came back with: 1) they cannot second guess their contractor's opinions, and 2) polycarbonate cracks would be covered if and only if the suitcase was purchased with a crack or was otherwise malformed at the time of purchase. So in other words, unless you buy a malformed polycarbonate suitcase (??), any future cracks are not covered by their warranty! The lesson for me was that paying a premium for Samsonite's warranty is simply not worth the cost...there are much cheaper polycarbonate options here on Amazon (I just bought a Ricardo polycarbonate 2 piece combo for less that the price of one Samsonite). I know other warranties will likely be similarly flouted, but at least I won't have paid as much up front.