Having your suitcase damaged while travelling can be a major and costly problem. But a baggage handler has taken to Reddit to disclose which type of suitcase is least likely to be mishandled.
Imagine this: you’re off on the holiday of a lifetime. You’ve landed at your dream destination and are eagerly waiting for your luggage to appear on the carousel, only to see it’s been aggressively tossed around. It’s dented, perhaps the zip is broken and you have a sinking feeling that any fragile items inside will be smashed to bits.
It’s a nightmare scenario for many travellers – but thankfully, there are measures you can take to prevent your suitcase from being mishandled by baggage handlers.
A baggage handler took to Reddit, offering to answer any queries about their job. The most popular question was “how can I make sure my precious cargo doesn’t get thrown?”
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The solution is straightforward – it’s all about the wheels. If your suitcase has at least two, ideally four functioning wheels, this means handlers can roll it into the hold, keeping your belongings safe. If you’re without wheels, then your bag will almost certainly need to be chucked into the hold, leaving plenty of room for error.
The baggage handler revealed their “absolute least favourite” bags to load were ones with jammed wheels. They added: “We try to roll it down, but it just falls over after moving six inches.”
To prevent your possessions from getting damaged, they suggest investing in a high-quality bag with four working wheels, a soft lining and a hard outer shell to cushion your belongings.
The handler confessed that fragile stickers do little to safeguard your luggage and might even encourage some workers to handle them more roughly, reports the Express.
“Some of us are tempted to treat them worse, but we never do. Having a fragile tag doesn’t really make a difference,” he explained.
Regarding how far your bags might get hurled if they lack wheels, the baggage handler revealed the greatest distance they had seen was “about five metres or so”.
A flight attendant also recently shared their advice for picking a suitcase that will guarantee all your possessions remain secure inside the aircraft’s cargo hold.
In a social media video, Megan Homme, who is employed by an American airline detailed how she selects her own luggage after being forced to “learn the hard way” from numerous errors she has made previously.
One of Megan’s top tips is choosing a dark-coloured case to reduce the chance of it appearing visibly damaged once it appears from the cargo hold. “If your bag is going under the plane it is going to be scuffed up very quickly. I learned that the hard way.”