Fundamentals of flying tips as you pack · Tips As You Pack in Fundamentals of flying
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Tips As You Pack in Fundamentals of flying
Tips As You Pack in Fundamentals of flying
For contents of your to-be-checked luggage, pack as much as possible in resealable plastic bags (2-5 gallon).
They will greatly help security inspections and repacking your luggage. And they'll protect contents if your checked luggage are exposed to the elements while waiting to be loaded or offloaded at your aircraft.
Before you seal them, thoroughly press out all air ("burp them"); otherwise, at altitude the bags will burst.
They are equally useful returning, plus they keep soiled items separate from other content.
Use burped and sealed, resealable gallon, liter or quart-size bags for bottled liquids in-case bottles leak during flight.
Place heavy items toward the bottom of any to-be-checked bag (as it stands upright), and avoid putting any heavy item in the same bag with anything fragile. Any content likely to trigger a manual inspection should be placed where it will be quickly seen as the bag is opened.
For significant liquid quantities in your checked luggage (e.g., shampoo), choose rugged screw-capped bottles with tops not designed to pop open...even if you must buy them separately and manually fill them from bottles in-use. Otherwise, use new/unopened bottles of product still sealed, and tape any pop-open cap tightly to the rest of the container as well as the opening. As above, put such bottles in separate, burped and sealed plastic bags to protect other luggage contents. If you are weight-constrained and can conveniently purchase such items at your destination, consider buying them there rather than packing them.
Never put any kind of unprocessed film in checked luggage. Any existing exposed images, and any ability of the film to be later exposed, will be completely and permanently destroyed by the x-rays used in scanning.
Place identification on both the outside and inside of your bag.
Rugged, well-attached luggage tags are crucial...at least name, address, phone.
Copies of your trip itinerary inside and in an outside pocket can be equally useful. Pertinent information should include: name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, flight number(s) and date(s) you are traveling, point of departure, aircraft changes, and all enroute/destination airports and hotel(s)/address(es) and dates/times. This information can prove crucial for airlines or others locate you or forward your luggage if the tag comes off (called a "tag off") or the luggage gets miss-routed.
If packing a box, put your name, address and phone numbers in big block letters and numbers on at least 2 opposite sides, plus an itinerary sheet inside.
If an airline loses bags, it will most often lose one or two rather than all. So distribute clothes and other necessaries for everyone in your group among all the bags you have.
As a last resort, airlines can search a worldwide database of the contents of bags that have been misdirected...based on passenger declarations of contents at lost-luggage offices. They do not catalog each item inside a bag, so declare one unique, easily-seen item in your bag to help the airline find it.
- All the more reason to place copies of your itinerary inside and outside checked bags.
You can reinforce large bags by tightly applying brightly-colored security straps. Ensure any strap-ends are well-secured/tucked-in so they won't be snagged in handling. The colors will help you claim them at flight end. Otherwise, consider customizing the outside of your checked luggage with brightly-colored tape/ribbons/etc. so bags don't look the same as hundreds of others at luggage claim.
If the number of your outbound checked bags doesn't reach the limit, and you know you'll make some purchases, consider packing a soft bag/duffle in your checked luggage. You then have it as an option to pack unbreakables in it as an extra checked bag for return.
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Fundamentals of flying Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.