Considerations When Selecting Luggage for Air Travel
Travelling by air means that you and your luggage will be subject to a whole variety of security checks. Choosing the right luggage can help make your trip problem free.
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Considerations When Selecting Luggage for Air Travel
By Jock McCork
Scottish travel writer and lover of haggis.
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When shopping for luggage to be used on a flight these days there are many considerations that need to be borne in mind. Obviously the style, quality and cost of any baggage items need to match your personal requirements and tastes, but you need to ensure that your chosen baggage meets some constantly changing rules and regulations.
Many luggage stores will have a selection of bags that they say are suitable as hand baggage, to be carried on to the aircraft. But the rules regarding the size, capacity and style of carry on luggage vary enormously from one airline to another and many bags sold as suitable for hand luggage are actually too large.
Since there is so much variation what should you do? A good rule of thumb is to restrict yourself to carrying onto the aircraft only the items that will be essential for your flight and that you could not live without. Then get yourself a bag that is just big enough for these. Doing this will keep your hand luggage to an absolute minimum and your baggage will be as small as possible.
The downside of this approach is that you will potentially have placed more of your valuable items into your checked in baggage. Today’s increased security procedures may result in your bags being not only electronically scanned but also inspected by a person. This means that they may need to be opened. The United States Transportation Security Administration (TSA) have approved a variety of bags and brands of luggage locks that allow you and the security staff access.
The general advice is to put all your cash and most valuable items in your carry on luggage along with any fragile items. Also, keep camera film out of your checked in bags as this can be damaged by the scanning process that checked in bags are subjected too.
Another useful tip to consider is to be prepared for your baggage being lost. Ideally you should be prepared to survive for up to 48 hours without your main luggage. But this means putting even more items into your hand luggage.
A few additional luggage related tips include ensuring that your checked in bags are easily identified when on the luggage carousel and make certain that your bags will not get snagged in the baggage conveyor system by ensuring there are no protrusions or straps that could get snagged. Also, always ensure that your baggage is clearly labeled with your name, address and flight number.
If you are carrying a laptop computer you need to keep it with you as hand luggage. You will need to be prepared to open it up for inspection and it is wise to ensure that all of your vital data is backed up to a suitable backup device before you board the aircraft.
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