Macbook Procases

Hi Branch28,

Thanks for coming to Apple Support Communities for help today.

Apple sells many cases and sleeves on their site. Any of them should work fine with your MacBook Pro. Please see: Cases & Protection.

Also see: About fans and fan noise in your Apple product.

Note: "Some Apple products have vents that let fans bring in cool air and expel hot air. Make sure that the vents aren't blocked to allow your device to perform at its best. 

Use your device on a hard, flat surface like a table or desk for optimal temperature control. If you use your device on a soft surface like a couch, pillow, bed, or your lap, its fans might run more."

Have a fantastic day!

Some Macbook Pros breathe in through vents between the chassis and the case bottom:

Other Macbook Pros , mostly 13-inch models, take cooling air through the keyboard—"keyboard covers bad!''

All Macbook Pros exhaust hot air through the hinge area. Blocking the exhaust flow is as bad as blocking the intake.

I routinely would use the Mac by just opening the travel case and leaving it situated in the travel case. Is that part of the reason it died on me, potentially?

That gets my vote. It is likely that leaving the Macbook Pro in the case while using it blocked the exhaust. Obviously we cannot say for sure in this no-see, no-touch forum setting, but that best fits the way you describe using the computer if the failure was heat-related. It may have been something else.