How are thieves stealing luggage at US airports..?

[hollydolly]

Bear in mind, @hollydolly, that until 9-11, US public passenger airports were completely open to the public from parking lots all the way through to arrival/departure gates (other than for people who needed to clear customs).

Over 2.5 million people pass through US-based TSA each day (commercial flights through commercial airports) on over 20,000 flights.

.58% of bags were mishandled, so one in 200, and many of those were lost rather than stolen. Not a big enough number for airports to start reconfiguring baggage handling.

American travelers are endlessly cautioned to not pack anything urgent (meds), expensive, not easily or quickly replaced (wedding gowns), or important (documents) in checked luggage because, well, sh!t happens. Even when bad actors aren't involved.

Lots of planes, lots of passengers, lots of baggage handlers, lots of opportunities for innocent slip-ups somewhere along the line.

https://www.transportation.gov/brie...eport-march-2023-and-1st-quarter-2023-numbers

Star... our airports are just as busy if not busier.. Heathrow alone has 61 million passengers PA... not to mention the other London airports and the rest of the UK... there are 40 major airports throughout the UK some of which are the busiest in all of Europe.. ... if there was no security at Baggage claim there would be horrendous thefts..

ETA...just discovered that the UK has 225 Million passengers going through our airports every year...

 

[Buckeye]

Star... our airports are just as busy if not busier.. Heathrow alone has 61 million passengers PA... not to mention the other London airports and the rest of the UK... there are 40 major airports throughout the UK some of which are the busiest in all of Europe.. ... if there was no security at Baggage claim there would be horrendous thefts..

ETA...just discovered that the UK has 225 Million passengers going through our airports every year...

Based strictly on your posts and concerns in this thread, I can only conclude the folks in the UK and Europe are much more likely to be a thief than here in the Colonies. Wonder why that is...

Our airport traffic is, of course, a lot higher than in the UK.
US Airline Traffic

 

[StarSong]

if there was no security at Baggage claim there would be horrendous thefts..

It's just not a big problem here. People are cautioned about not packing valuables in checked luggage, which might explain the rarity of thefts. Big risk for not much reward. Thieves are interested in greener pastures than used suitcases, apparel that might need laundering and half-gone tubes of toothpaste.

 

[HoneyNut]

My suitcase is a blinding neon blue that hurts the eyes to look at. It's so ugly NOBODY is going to steal it.

That's funny!

When my daughter was young, she had a pink suitcase that she'd drawn all over, so her's was easy to spot too.

Mine are boring colors (except one swirly purple backpack that is a hand-me-down from my daughter) and I have to use colorful luggage pom poms to be able to find mine.

 

[OneEyedDiva]

yes but our carry one allowances at most European airports are too small to contain laptops, and tech equipment along with our jewellery, mobile phone, kindle et al.. .. and as someone else said.. many times when we get there, we're told that there's no space left for carry-on and it has to go in the hold.. However most people don't just carry t-shirts and shorts in their hold luggage, if they did the thieves wouldn't be bothering to steal it..

There's no room for carry ons under the seats, if necessary? If not, the space issue is inconvenient, but it certainly seems that Europe and the UK's baggage claim system makes more sense than ours.

 

[hollydolly]

There's no room for carry ons under the seats, if necessary? If not, the space issue is inconvenient, but it certainly seems that Europe and the UK's baggage claim system makes more sense than ours.

No we can't store luggage under the seats it either has to go. above or if there's no space left, it has to go in the hold regardless of what you might have in them,