Rimowa Lifetime Guarantee: Coverage, Eligibility, and Claims

Rimowa’s lifetime guarantee covers all functional defects on wheeled suitcases bought new on or after July 25, 2022, with repairs or replacement done at no charge for parts or labor. Wheels, telescopic handles, locks, zippers, interior dividers, and shell integrity all qualify. Cosmetic wear, misuse, non-suitcase products, and refurbished RE-CRAFTED suitcases do not.¹²

What the Guarantee Covers

Rimowa describes the scope as “all functional aspects of your RIMOWA suitcase for the lifespan of your suitcase.”¹ The company does not publish a line-item list, but its luggage is designed so individual parts can be swapped out rather than requiring a full replacement. In practice, that means wheels, telescopic handles, locks, zippers, interior dividers, and the shell itself are treated as functional elements.³

If Rimowa accepts the claim, it will repair or replace the suitcase and pay return shipping. You pay only to send the suitcase in.⁴⁵

What’s Excluded

The guarantee does not cover cosmetic wear and tear, misuse, or abuse.¹ Rimowa’s full terms break the exclusions down further:

Scratches, dents, scuffs, and abrasion. Rimowa frames dents and scratches on aluminum suitcases as a desirable “unique patina” and tells owners to embrace them.⁶
Damage from improper use, faulty operation, or “externally occurring forces.”⁵
Leather fittings that discolor, fade, crack, or tear from skin contact, light, water, cleaning agents, dyes, or heat.⁵
Anything that is not a “suitcase with wheels.” Bags, accessories, and personal items carry a two-year manufacturer’s guarantee instead.⁵
RE-CRAFTED refurbished suitcases, which carry a two-year guarantee rather than the lifetime policy.⁵
UNIQUE customization pieces (wheels, handles, luggage tags) added to a Classic suitcase, each covered for two years. After that, replacements use standard spare parts under the suitcase’s lifetime guarantee.⁵

One point worth flagging for travelers: airline damage sits in a gray zone. Rimowa’s own terms do not use the phrase “airline damage,” but the “externally occurring forces” exclusion can apply, and the company reserves sole authority to decide whether a given defect is covered. Whether a cracked shell from a baggage belt is repaired for free often comes down to the individual assessment at a Client Care Center.⁵

Which Suitcases Qualify

Only new Rimowa suitcases with wheels bought on or after July 25, 2022, are covered by the lifetime guarantee.² Suitcases bought before that date are covered for five years if they were registered online, or two years if they weren’t. The policy is not retroactive.⁵

Everything else gets shorter coverage: bags, phone cases, and other non-suitcase products carry two years, as do RE-CRAFTED refurbished suitcases and UNIQUE customization accessories.⁵

Registration and Proof of Purchase

For qualifying suitcases, the lifetime guarantee activates automatically at purchase. You don’t have to register to be covered, but Rimowa recommends it to simplify future claims.² You can register through the “Register Your RIMOWA” section of your account, or, for suitcases bought on or after January 1, 2023, by scanning the NFC tag built into the base of the telescopic handle with your phone.⁷ Suitcases from 2023 onward also come with a digital Ownership Certificate stored on the Aura Blockchain Consortium platform, which can be saved to a phone wallet. Products bought before 2014 cannot be registered.⁸

When you file a claim, Rimowa asks for a completed certificate of guarantee or the original proof of purchase.⁴ Gift recipients can register the suitcase in their own name, so gifts are treated like direct purchases.⁹ Secondhand buyers are harder to pin down. Rimowa’s materials don’t spell out whether the guarantee transfers, and the proof-of-purchase requirement suggests a claim without documentation would be difficult, though the Ownership Certificate system does allow ownership transfers through customer service.⁸

How to File a Claim

Rimowa asks that defects be reported as soon as they’re discovered. You have two main routes:

Online. Fill out the repair request form on Rimowa’s website to speed up processing, then arrange a drop-off at a repair point.¹⁰
In store. Bring the suitcase to any Rimowa store. No appointment is needed for a repair drop-off, though you can book one through the store locator.¹¹

Rimowa operates more than one hundred Client Care Centers worldwide, and many retail stores have repair areas on site. The company says about half of all suitcases brought in are fixed on the spot.¹⁰ Customer accounts on travel forums report handle swaps and lock adjustments done in under five minutes, with mail-in repairs taking around a week.¹²

U.S. customers can reach Rimowa’s Client Care team at +1 646 558 7343, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. EST and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. EST.¹¹

If the Repair Isn’t Covered

When Rimowa decides a problem falls outside the guarantee, its Care Experts assess the suitcase and give you a cost estimate before any work begins.¹⁰ There is no published price list, but customer-reported figures from a FlyerTalk thread give a rough sense of scale: around $55 for a lock replacement, $45 for a wheel housing, $40 for frame alignment, and $45 for dent removal. These are user-reported numbers and will vary by location and complexity.¹³

For an aluminum suitcase that has reached the end of its useful life, the RE-CRAFTED program is an alternative. You can bring any authentic Rimowa aluminum suitcase with wheels, regardless of age or condition, to a participating store and receive a gift voucher of up to $300 toward a new purchase of $600 or more. Vouchers are valid for three years, are non-transferable, and the program is limited to two suitcases per household per year. It launched in the U.S. in March 2025.¹⁴

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