Packing and Gear

All luggage seems to be on wheels today. It’s great on flat surfaces, but now we have all these new weight restrictions, and wheelers weigh seven pounds or more. Is it important to you to have wheels or to be able to carry seven more pounds of your stuff? It’s your choice.

Wheels can be an absolute liability on the steep escalators in the London underground. In downtown Oslo, on the way to the hotel from the railroad station they’re an absolute nuisance as the bag tips over every few feet on the cobblestones.

My partner, Pamela, and I decided to support the work of Earthwatch (3 Clock Tower Place, Ste. 100, Box 75, Maynard, MA 01754; phone 800/776-0188 or 978/ 461-0081, www.earthwatch.org), a wonderful organization which allows laypeople to volunteer to work with scientists on expeditions all over the world. I had participated in prior expeditions in Nepal and South Africa, and we had decided to join a research project in Botswana.

The reader’s letter “British Air and Luggage” (June ’07, pg. 75) may confuse some people, I feel. He was discussing checked baggage; however, I found that the rules on carry-on baggage in the U.K. are still strictly limited.

A passenger entering Britain can indeed have two pieces of carry-on luggage, but if he is transiting to another flight then he runs up against the one-bag rule. According to websites I checked as well as airport security personnel, this restriction is U.K.-wide and applies to all passengers.

As my wife, Jeanell, and I were planning a trip to England and Italy in October ’06 connecting with a cruise, we felt we should have medical insurance. I had read in ITN (April ’06, pg. 54 & Aug. ’06, pg. 57) about Travelex Insurance Services (Box 641070, Omaha, NE 68164-7070; 800/228-9792, www.travelex-insurance.com), so I went online and contacted the agent Alan (alan@travelinsurance center.com).

I couldn’t believe my eyes. Was the company indeed offering unclaimed luggage for sale? Its website brazenly proclaimed, “Why not stop in at Unclaimed Baggage Center (509 West Willow St., Scottsboro, AL 35768; phone 256-259-1525, www.unclaimedbaggage.com), where you’ll find thousands of lost treasures from around the world. From winter clothes and shoes for the family to electronics, jewelry and luggage, you never know what you’ll discover!”

Dear Steve, I’d like your input regarding the editor’s statement on page 2 of the February ’07 issue. He wrote that U.S. air travelers can lock their checked bags and added, “Of course, Travel Sentry® Certified locks must be used.”

That these locks must be used is not entirely true. For the past several years I’ve checked bags at both Washington, D.C., airports for international flights and used my own little padlocks.

British Air and luggage

At baggage check-in for a flight on United from Newark airport in November ’06, the agent was being “efficient” by printing out two or three sets of baggage tags at once, then summoning the travelers one by one. She asked for picture I.D. of the person next to us, looked at the I.D. (a passport) and then proceeded to attach our luggage tags to that person’s bag, thumping it down on the moving belt.

My wife, watching closely, said, “Is that our bag?”

I recently encountered an airport scam that other ITN readers might watch out for.

Nostalgically, my hands hold the genuine leather of the old travel wallet, which, for years, has held my essential travel documents. It still looks as good as it did 51 years ago, when my aunt surprised me with it as a going-away present.

I reminisce about the olden days, when friends showered you with gifts each time you left on a journey, the era when airlines cherished their passengers and when the term “cattle” applied only to animals and not travelers, the time when one didn’t have to worry about the contents of suitcases.