So this summer’s trip to the sunny Caribbean damaged one of our suitcases, and since we’re making our Christmas trip, we needed to buy a replacement.
Ended up buying a five-piece matchign set. And because I was tried of having to peer closely at each bag on the luggage carousel, we bought these in red. THAT should make them stand out.
So we get to the airport this morning, with our red luggage, and … hey, there’s a funny coincidence, the people behind us ALSO have red luggage that looks just like ours.
And so do the next people in line.
By the time we cleared security, we were wondering if we missed “Red Luggage Day - Half Off Fares If You Don’t Dread the Red!”
In the early '70s I was traveling around with a blue-gray American Tourister luggage set which apparently everybody got as a college graduation present. (Happy travels down the road of life and all that.) After the first time I had trouble distinguishing my luggage on the carousel I tied a scarf around the handle. I don’t know that it was a particularly distinctive scarf but nobody else had a scarf tied on their luggage at all so it worked.
Now I see lots of scarves and other things tied to luggage, but it still works, because I know what my scarf looks like and other people know what their scarves look like.
The duct tape helps, too–even though I’m not the only person that has my luggage duct-taped together, I usually own the only bag that is both duct-taped and has a scarf. (And no, it’s not the original luggage set. I seem to be kind of hard on cheap luggage.)
I tie bright, sparkly, garish things to my handles. I have the standard black rolling suitcases that everyone does, and after having unknowingly watched my suitcase go by three times before picking it out as mine (Hmmm, does that scuff on the side look familar? Nah… Hmmm there’s that scuffed suitcase again, but… nah that’s not mine… Wait, let me see… Doh!) I decided I had to do something. So, I decided to do something undeniably me. Of course, the first time I tried it, mine was the last one off the carousel, but at least I didn’t have to wait an extra go-round to identify it.
LED’s are inexpensive enough today, tying a blinker on the handle might work, at least till everyone else gets the same idea. I have no idea if that would invoke the ire of security, however.
It time to paint big palm trees or something else on them. You might be able to get the elderly neighbor to knit you some luggage cossies. I bet nobody has that.
“Boss?”
“Yeah, Larry?”
“There’s something blinking in the cargo hold.”
“Uh…what’s it look like?”
“Looks like a gray box thing of some sort. With duct tape. And a blinking red light.”
:eek:
Yup! Got in yesterday. Safely ensconed in Sto. Dgo., which should help us draw the borders for our per-square-kilometer record even tighter. (Ensanche Julietta, if that helps our efforts even further. )
My parents bought a set of luggage in the '60s. It was soft-sided with (I think) wire frames to keep the shape. It was a blue and green tartan pattern. I think there were five pieces, and my sister and I got the smaller ones. I wish I could find a duplicate set. Vintage luggage would go with my vintage cars, and I’d be sure never to see another set when I fly.
If I’m ‘packing heavy’ I use a surplus ‘parachute bag’. When I use carry-on I have one of these. I had to check it last time, since I was carrying potential WMDs (i.e., shampoo and toothpaste) in it. As the bags came out into the bin (the airport was too small for a carousel) I asked, ‘Does anyone see a black bag?’ (Cause, y’see, everyone has a black bag.)
I have this furry fushia yarn wrapped around all the handles so if someone picks it up they will think “hey it isn’t mine”. We had a couple pick up are luggage and take it home. Theirs was a model smaller and ours was about 25 pounds heavier. They felt really sorry after I called them and told them that I think they have our luggage before the adornments were made. Also on the back of the suitcases as most of the time luggage is brought out facing down I put with paint pen ink our initials in bright yellow. Now it is so easy to find ours and noone will take them hopefully.
I have the same black Samonsite Rolling Carryong (the bigget one you can carry on) that the rest of the world has. Because everyone has it, I had been clever and tied a little ribbon to the handle, plus I had a fairly unusual luggage tag on it.
On a trip to San Francisco we changed planes on the tarmac in Cincinatti (charming trip). My carryon has been stashed under the plane since the plane was tiny. I get off and see a woman taking my UNDERWEAR out of my suitcase and dropping it one the tarmac saying “This isn’t my underwear!” No shit, lady, its MY suitcase, therefore, its MY underwear in my suitcase. And had you bothered to look at the luggage TAG instead of unpacking it, you might have discovered it wasn’t yours before my panties hit the asphalt (thank God it was outgoing, my dirty undies hitting the asphalt would have been much more embarrassing.)
We got off a cruise and couldn’t find it. It had been grabbed by another cruiser and ended up abandoned at the Terra Haute aiirport. Delta got it back to me.
That day I went into the basement with paint and a stencil and no one is going to take my luggage ever again - or dig through my panties - accidentally at least.
I used some bright red tape, similar to electrical tape, to mark our luggage many years ago with our initials and a design. Nowadays I’d probably use colored duct tape.
My viusal recognition skills must be ok, because even though we have very ordinary-looking luggage, I always recognize it right away. I think it is like mama and baby penguins finding each other…
