Travelling by plane can be one of the most stressful things that happen to us outside of the work environment. Forbidden products on one hand, lithium batteries on the other… Arriving at the airport on time to check in our bags, getting to the boarding gate and waiting for the hours to pass and for your flight to be decided. The stress of take-off, the stress of landing… So many things! Well, then there’s the fear of losing our suitcase, something that practically all of us feel every time we get off the plane and on the conveyor belt we see all the suitcases come out except ours… What if we told you that it’s useless to add coloured ribbons, stickers or key chains to your suitcase to identify it faster? Yes, it’s possible that, unconsciously, you’re making your luggage take longer to leave the plane’s hold.
Why can’t I put eye-catching decorations on my suitcase?
It seems like something harmless and it’s something that absolutely all of us have done every time we have to travel (especially the most absent-minded) to be able to see our suitcase from a distance and go get it. Well, now an employee at Dublin airport has shed some light on this issue, because surely you’ve put a coloured ribbon on your luggage and when it left the plane it was no longer there, right?
Well, this employee has confessed that they normally remove them because they interfere with the automatic scanners that read labels. The employee explained that the ribbons can get caught on the belt or cause problems in the baggage scanning room, so if a scanner fails to process a suitcase automatically, they will have to send it to manual inspection and it will take twice as long to process it. And there is a much higher probability that it will get lost because it doesn’t make it onto the plane!
How can I avoid my suitcase being delayed?
We all want our suitcase to be the first to leave the airport and get out of the airport quickly, but we have a few recommendations for you.
- Avoid adding ribbons and hanging objects to your suitcase.
- Remove stickers and labels from previous trips if you don’t want your suitcase to appear in Dublin when you get off the plane in New York.
- Don’t carry objects in your suitcase that may seem suspicious, for example, almond paste has a texture and density very similar to certain explosives… this could cause an alert in the airport security system, and we don’t want that.
- Place the suitcase with the wheels facing up before checking in, this way you will avoid your suitcase being damaged when it is transported.
How do I identify my suitcase then?
Since we can’t put coloured ribbons or stickers on it to identify our suitcase from a distance, we have a tip that will surely be useful: buy the tackiest suitcase you can find on the market. Bright colour? Animal print? The more colourful and different your suitcase is from the others, the better, because you won’t have to put extra tape or stickers on it to identify it from afar. Forget about black, brown and blue suitcases, of which there are thousands on every plane, choose the most colourful one there is and you’ll see that you won’t lose sight of it.
Although it seems logical to all of us to differentiate our suitcase by adding labels and things to it, we can be causing our suitcase to suffer delays, so it is best to follow the instructions of the airport staff and avoid all this. Remember: the less, the better! And have a good trip!!