Flight attendant Megan Homme shared her top tips for selecting the perfect suitcase for your travels – and it’s all about keeping your belongings safe in the hold.
A flight attendant has shared her top tips for choosing the ideal suitcase for your next holiday to guarantee your possessions remain secure in the aircraft’s cargo hold.
Megan Homme, who works for an American airline and shares clips on TikTok under the handle @meganhomme, has gained 360,500 followers thanks to her popular travel advice.
In a recent clip, she detailed her own luggage selection process after being compelled to “learn the hard way” through various blunders she’s experienced previously.
The initial consideration is your suitcase’s construction material. Whilst soft-shell cases might be simpler to handle, they can create difficulties if another passenger’s luggage spills or splits open in the cargo area.
“You never know what is going to be in someone else’s bag, or what is going to be underneath the plane, and what could leak on your bag,” Megan explained.
Baggage handlers have previously disclosed that travellers frequently pack liquids in their carry-ons, which can lead to complications.
Writing on a Reddit forum, the unnamed baggage handler stated: “Please don’t pack food or drinks in your bag. They rot, break, leak, open. It smells. Especially alcohol. Then I smell all day after picking up a bag that leaked on me.”
However, it’s not merely liquid spillage you should consider when choosing luggage – colour represents another crucial factor.
Megan suggested opting for a dark coloured case to reduce the likelihood of visible damage when it reappears from the hold.
“If your bag is going under the plane it is going to be scuffed up very quickly. I learned that the hard way.”
The third consideration is ensuring your suitcase has wheels. Another baggage handler also took to Reddit, according to Express.co.uk, to explain why having four wheels is crucial to prevent your bag being hurled into the hold by staff.
If your luggage has at least two, but ideally four functioning wheels, this means handlers can wheel it down into the hold which will keep your belongings secure.
If you lack wheels, then your bag will almost certainly need to be lobbed into the hold. The baggage handler said their “absolute least favourite” bags to load were ones with wheels that had jammed up.