We’ve been tying ribbons on suitcases at the airport to identify them for years. Your employees warn it’s a bad idea

“If they cannot be scanned automatically, they may end up in manual processing,” he warns

I do. And you probably do too. A look at the check-in area of ​​any airport in the world reveals that there are many of us who tie ribbons, scarves or cords to our suitcases to make them stand out. A brightly coloured scarf. An old bracelet. A name tag. It doesn’t matter. The idea is to clearly identify our suitcase from the rest of the passengers’ suitcases. Mark it in a clear way (or so we think) so that as soon as it appears on the conveyor belt we know it’s ours.

Turns out this isn’t as good an idea as it sounds.

Good on paper… But not so much in practice. Although there are many of us who attach ribbons to our Trolleys Billed to identify them at a glance, that device has its weak points. And the funniest thing is that the airport staff themselves are warning about it.

Hanging a ribbon or scarf from the handle may help you find your suitcase and speed up check-in, but it can be a real complication for the staff in charge of handling luggage. This makes the security check of your suitcase longer … and affects you Plan travel.

“This could cause problems”. This warning was recently issued by John, a baggage handler at Dublin Airport, a huge infrastructure through which about 32 million passengers passed last year alone. Of course, with their own suitcases. Speaking to the Irish magazine RSVP MagazineAirport staff warn that, at least in some cases, the signs we use to distinguish our checked luggage complicate controls.

The ribbons people tie to their suitcases to help them identify them could cause problems when scanning them in the baggage room, a Dublin employee explained, warning: “If the suitcase can’t be scanned automatically it could end up in manual processing, which means I don’t fly.” The result? A trick that attempts to speed up travel and avoid damage at the airport will eventually become the opposite: a big problem.

Add advice and follow it. This is not the only advice that Dublin Terminal staff leave. So that the passage through the airfields is as comfortable, fast and quiet as possible RVSP Magazine

Three other ideas are left that are almost as easy to implement as untying the shackles we have hung upon ourselves Trolleys. The first is actually very simple: remove stickers from old flights as well. “They can cause confusion in the scanning process,” John reveals.

The second is to place the suitcase wheels facing upwards to avoid damage when handling. And the third, somewhat more picturesque but just as important: avoid marzipan in travel bags, no matter how fond you are of these almond-based sweets. The reason? “Its density is similar to that of some explosives, so they will remove the suitcase and get you off the plane.”

Traveling with luggage…and tricks. John’s advice about airports and luggage is not the first. He is also not the first to try to speed up the tedious process of waiting for our suitcases to arrive on the conveyor belt.

newspaper a year ago Sun I published two other tips for making sure your suitcases and other packages are the first to show up in the baggage claim room: The first is to put a sticker that identifies them as “Fragile,” which will help them be one of the first to be unloaded; the second is to check in And invoice as late as possible. The latter, of course, is not for the faint of heart… and can cause more than one scare if the traveler does not calculate the time well.

Images | Gary Bembridge (Flickr) and friend JAD (Flickr)

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