- Thread starter joselowe
- Start date
Luggage at SDQ airport
I have been going to DR through SDQ since 1975 - I've never had anything stolen from my luggage. Just don't put anything valuable in there.
That is the key, surely you don't want to put a laptop and an expensive camera in your checked baggage. That will probably get stolen in the states before it gets to SDQ.
I regularly travel back and forth (for work in the US) to SDQ. Most of the time I bring back one large bag, which I check in, that is full of stuff for my kids and for the house, sometimes I have brought back two bags worth of stuff. I keep thinking that something will get taken, because I have heard the same stories, but nothing has ever gone missing. At times, I have seen a TSA pamphlet in the bag, showing that it was opened and inspected, but nothing missing.
I have made many trips to SDQ and have never lost anything. I don't put the really expensive stuff in my luggage, but I have brought a 19" flatscreen TV and a DVD player in checked bags.
This can be a problem anywhere... PHL had a big problem a few years ago.
Never happened to me.......... amywhere
Never happened to me.......... amywhere
I've had several items stolen and my luggage typically gets rummaged if it is not Saran wrapped :/ my suegra is a Dominicana told me not to put matching pair of shoes in the same luggage. Left shoe in carry on Right shoe in luggage.
I would say that it is simply bad luck if your stuff gets stolen. If you really want to prevent it, you can get the bag saran wrapped. This costs money and takes extra time to get put on and get off. Odds are the cost of wrapping your luggage 10 times would be more than the value of what they might steal once. Most people have their luggage wrapped going into Havana, but I think the DR is safer.
If you put one of those rainbow colored bands around your bag, it will take more time to get off and a prospective thief might pass your bag by and try someone else's. It also makes your luggage easy to spot when you pick it up off the carrousel. Expensive designer luggage is probably a BAD idea. If I was a thief, I would get into the Louis Vuitton bag rather than the mamasan nondescript Chinese made bag.
I buy my luggage suitably scuffed for under $15 in yard sales. They are not ugly, but they do not look like they belonged to Paris Hilton, either.
I liked the comment about the shoes. Right shoe in the carryon, left shoe in the checked bag. Ideal especially if you have Gucci loafers or Nike $150
Michael Jordan autographed special hightops.
...it doesn't do a bit of good against thieves. I saw a YouTube video where just using the blunt end of a writing pen you can pop open the zipper on soft sided luggage. Once it is popped open you continue to unzip the zipper by hand.
Search through the luggage and once finished use the zipper tab to reclose it. One I saw that video five years ago I never bothered to lock my luggage again.
TSA will normally leave a notice inside your luggage to tell you it was searched so that TSA lock is not even needed to let you know TSA was in your luggage.
It would be wrong to assume that all luggage thieves know how to pop open locks. I cannot imagine how one might be able to do this with just a pen in such a way that you could zip it back up. I am not saying it can't be done, just that most thieves would not know the trick.
The TSA lock and a belly band will slow down a prospective thief, so he might be more tempted by someone else's luggage.
The TSA lock and a belly band will slow down a prospective thief, so he might be more tempted by someone else's luggage.
LOL, Thanks Bronxboy, I owe you a cold one...............
Another thing to keep in mind if you have halfway decent luggage, TravelPro is one, the inner liner there is a hidden zipper tab that can unzip the liner. You can hide small items underneath the liner. Even if a thief is aware of this they would have to remove everything from your luggage to get to anything hidden under the liner.
You might get your valubles stolen in the USA: Hidden cameras show airport workers stealing from bags - CNN.com
I have probably gone through Las Americas Airport a couple hundred times as a passenger (and more as a crew member) and never had my bags molested in the D.R. I put a couple tie wraps through the zipper tabs with the idea that a thief wants to act quickly and would rather not take the extra few seconds it takes to undo them. The TSA folks won't put the tie wraps back when they choose to paw through my stuff. In the D.R. the baggage handlers seem to be no nonsense and do a pretty good job. They won't let you out of the baggage claim area and through customs unless you can show them your numbered baggage claim stub so you don't really need to look out for the crooks until you get to the front of the terminal. My worst experience with luggage was when I entrusted it to United Airlines on my return to the states.