Is Your Luggage Really Secure?

Many travelers are oblivious to how easy it is to break into their luggage, without leaving any evidence of a break-in.  Here is a brief video that demonstrates how easy it is to breach your luggage – to steal valuables, or worse, to plant something nefarious.

Disturbing, isn’t it?  So the standard zippers and locks (as demonstrated in the video) really just keeps out the honest people.  If someone is determined to break into your luggage, it can be done, without you ever knowing that it happened.

So what is a traveler to do? ​

To prevent theft, I strongly recommend never packing valuables or letting luggage containing valuables out of your site for even a nanosecond.  To prevent having something PUT IN your luggage, again you need to keep your luggage in your possession and line of sight at all times (don’t turn your back or close your eyes for a few minutes).

The best thing that you can do is to get new luggage.  Our personal preference is hard sided structured luggage with no zippers.  But in researching luggage recently, it appears that no-zipper structured luggage is becoming harder to find.  A viable option is zippered luggage with integrated locks (pictures below).  With integrated locks it is still possible to break into luggage, but not undetected (as show in the video with standard zippers & lock).

Here are some other luggage related tips that we’ve collected over the years:

Never advertise your home address on or inside the luggage.  Either use your destination address or a work address on luggage tags.
Leave the valuables at home (jewelry, tablets, laptops, etc.).  If you don’t absolutely NEED it on your trip, leave it at home.
Don’t use expensive looking luggage, but do use structurally sound and sturdy luggage.
Put a copy of your itinerary and contact information inside your luggage (in case it gets lost).  Again, do not give your home address or phone number for contact information.
Photograph the contents of your luggage, and keep receipts of anything of value (in the event that you have to file an insurance claim).