How to Prepare Your Luggage for a Safe Trip?

How to Prepare Your Luggage for a Safe Journey?

Theft, loss, mechanical damage... Many threats await our luggage at the airport. We may be especially concerned about checked baggage, which we lose sight of for a while. Fortunately, simply preparing your luggage properly for the trip can reduce the risk of unpleasant incidents.

Choosing the Right Suitcase

Preparations for a safe and peaceful trip can start at the stage of buying a suitcase. The material it is made of, its construction, and even its color are very important. Travel suitcases are usually divided into hard and soft types. Hard models are somewhat less flexible than soft ones, but they best protect luggage from mechanical damage. They are also harder to cut open, which prevents theft or placing unwanted items inside. Also, pay attention to the color of the suitcase, because the more intense and unusual the color, the easier it will be to spot your luggage among many others later. It’s better to choose bright pink or blue rather than black or navy. One more thing to check when buying a suitcase is the presence of security features such as locks, padlocks, or special straps that fasten around the luggage to prevent accidental opening.

Marking Your Luggage

We already mentioned buying a suitcase in a contrasting color. This is one method that makes luggage identification easier, but it’s also worth marking your suitcase in other ways. Stores offer special colorful tags that not only help mark your suitcase but also decorate it. Some have interesting patterns or funny inscriptions. Another absolutely essential step is attaching a special tag to the suitcase containing the owner’s contact details. This way, if your luggage gets lost, the finder can easily contact you. The information you should include is your full name, mailing address, email, and phone number. For even easier identification of your property, it’s also worth adding your flight number.

Securing the Suitcase (Combination Lock, Padlock)

The basis for securing a suitcase against accidental opening, theft of contents, or placing unwanted items inside is proper locking. At a minimum, a special strap protects against sudden opening and spilling of contents, but it won’t protect you from deliberate attempts to access the contents. Here, the type of lock matters most, and the best solution is to get a suitcase with a combination lock. Properly setting such a lock, as shown in the video below, will ensure that only authorized persons can open the suitcase. If the suitcase does not have a built-in combination lock, a good idea to secure the contents is to buy a special padlock. Padlocks for luggage come in both key and combination versions.

Here is the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYD_mgMiQbQ&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=WingsPoland

Wrapping Your Luggage – Is It Worth It?

Recently, more and more suitcases wrapped in film are seen at airports. Although it may look unusual, it is simply a practice to protect luggage from damage or accidental opening. The suitcase is wrapped in stretch film, and this can be done at home or at the airport before check-in. More and more airports have special luggage wrapping stations. Is it worth adopting this practice? Among the advantages of wrapping are protection against creasing, scratching, dirt, or getting wet. The film also protects tags and labels and reduces the likelihood of the suitcase getting stuck on the baggage belt. Unfortunately, wrapping can be costly, seems less eco-friendly, and takes some time to wrap the suitcase and later remove the film. However, you can wrap your luggage yourself at home using biodegradable film.