Ensuring Your Baggage Arrives With You & Intact

Web: www.fishfotoworldwide.com — E-Mail: fish@fishfoto.com

07/04/2008 – Ensuring Your Baggage Arrives With You & Intact

There are two questions I receive with some regularity regarding traveling with checked baggage. These questions are “How can I ensure my baggage doesn’t get lost?” and ” What can I do to make sure my bags are not damaged?”

If I had the answer to either of these two questions I’d be a millionaire right now.

In short, once your checked luggage receives it’s baggage tag with your name, your flight info and the three letter airport code it is headed for, it’s destiny is out of your hands. I have written about making the locating of lost bags easier in my post entitled “Don’t Let The Airlines Lose Your Bags ………Or If They Do, Get Reunited Quicker!” , but making sure they get properly routed is out of your hands.

How do you make sure your bags arrive intact? This has many factors, the first one depending on what you packed in your checked baggage. Packing photographic equipment is vastly different than packing some swim trunks, a few shirts and your socks. Overall, just make sure you have decent luggage. If your packing camera gear look into the Pelican Cases or Tenba Air Cases, for everything else decent luggage does not need to be costly. Look into brands such as L.L. Bean that are not only affordable, but also well built and guaranteed for life , and LL Bean means it! If any LL Bean product ever does not live up your expectation for any reason they will replace it or refund it …… for life!

There is one way to possibly ensure your baggage is treated better than the other bags coming off the baggage cart, by showing some appreciation! That’s right, we all know the ramp handlers work in sub-zero temperatures, 100f+/38c+ temperatures, in the rain, the snow, and handle bags weighing nearly 100lbs, it’s a tough job. Being a baggage handler is not a job that gets a pat on the back or a smile from the customer, it’s behind the scenes, day in, day out no matter the conditions.

So how can you show your appreciation? Simple…..show them you care! Brookstone now sells oversized luggage tags that proudly read “I Love Baggage Handlers.” There is no guarantee this will work, but I am sure it will bring a smile the baggage handlers who are loading your bags onto your next flight.

Check out this tag of Baggage Handler appreciation out on Brookstone’s web site at:
http://ILoveBaggageHandlersTag.notlong.com

Happy Flying!

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