It prevents/discourage luggage tampering. If the saran wrap is torn when the luggage reaches its destination then you know someone had gone through your belongings.

I don't know how the saran wrap works if security personnel needs to open up your wrapped luggage for hand inspection though.

Yes, many third world countries and former Soviet republics denizens have this (mis)conception that wrapping luggage in plastic will prevent baggage handlers or whoever else has access to the checked-in luggage from pilfering valuables.

You can do it at the Miami airport, too - one of the worst places in the US for "opportunistic" baggage handling.

So bad for the environment with the waste of plastic!

I've seen this also at a number of airports.

Doesn't it encourage security to rip it off and go thru your luggage?

I've seen it on different continents throughout the decades. It's too prevent tampering/theft. Happy Travels!

Correction: "to", "not, "too". Happy Travels!

It's been around for a long time, and as noted, some people believe that it will deter thieves, but all they would have to do would be to re-wrap the luggage before sending in on to its final destination, minus the gifts, or anything else, someone though were safe inside.

It's also a definite magnet for the TSA, and will not make it through US Customs.

At CDG airport, they have a mobile unit that rolls up to do the luggage of most flights to sub-Saharan Africa. It pretty much becomes an obligation once you reach a certain point. Would you want to check unwrapped baggage when 80% of the other bags are wrapped?

I still don't understand how it gets through security. If TSA wants to open your bags, they still have the right to do so, right???

Yes, right. In the 90s, they would cut through the wrap. The other theft prevention measure was to put a numerical lock on the luggage and the US customs would either cut the lock off or just cut through the suitcase.

"I still don't understand how it gets through security."

Most of the world's travellers have better things to do with their time than visit the United States.

And no developed country shares America's disgraceful record of airline security. So no other country has overreacted as spectacularly. If UK Customs have a worry about my arriving baggage, modern technology allows them to inspect it without ripping it apart.

It's also a definite magnet for the TSA, and will not make it through US Customs.

I have taken items wrapped in plastic wrap through US Customs without a problem. Indeed, I find that US Customs is not overly aggressive in asking for physical inspections of baggage.

I still don't understand how it gets through security. If TSA wants to open your bags, they still have the right to do so, right???

Yes, security personnel in many countries can go through your baggage. Thankfully, taking off the plastic wrap is a simple matter. If it were terribly difficult, wouldn't folks have trouble taking it off when they reached their destination?

flanner - Do you actually believe the stuff you spout? Because, I have to tell you, you don't seem to know what you are talking about.

Which other country wants you to leave luggage unlocked or use a "magic" lock?

Which other country wants you to leave luggage unlocked or use a "magic" lock?

You are free to use non-TSA locks in the US. As in virtually every other country, however, this means that the lock is subject to being cut off or the bag opened by other means, should authorities seek to search your bag, when not in your presence.

The better question is whether there are any countries where authorities are not permitted to open locked bags. I suspect that the list of such countries would be exceedingly small.

Those little locks are false security...have a look at this youtube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf-DGKUNffI

Thanks, everyone, for all the info. Very interesting. Didn't mean to start a national security discussion...

Happy travels to all - Saran-wrapped or not!

I would assume that security is not necessarily the only reason for the plastic wrap. Anybody who has flown to India or other such countries during a monsoon downpour and seen how inadequate the little tarp that they slowly pull over the baggage wagons is might want to invest in a little extra plastic.

I would have thought that people were wrapping their bags to protect against bed bugs.

I also thought it was to prevent bed bugs. My luggage gets so beat up and dirty that I sometimes wonder if I should wrap my luggage. I figured securty would just cut it off so why bother.

Easyjet (or, to be fair, baggage handlers or customs people who may have had nothing to do with Easyjet for all I know) not only cut my lock off, they took the whole zipper off and threw the lock away (or did something with it). Still annoyed about that, it was the only decent suitcase I owned up till that point. Of course I didn't notice until I was hours away from the airport.

I also have memories of obnoxious staff at LAX screaming "TAKE IT OFF OR WE BREAK IT OFF". Seriously, I don't know how US border control etc. are with US citizens, but they are not remotely pleasant to the rest of us, I always hate flying via the US.

Anyway, sorry for mildly off-topic ranting

Adu: I think the vile in flanner's comments is in inverse proportion to his access to nookie. But that's just a guess.

>>"Seriously, I don't know how US border control etc. are with US citizens..."<<

Trust me, it's no picnic for us, either.

+1 on what Trophywife said.

I have no problems with US Border Control. I walk up to the Global Entry kiosk. I stick my passport in the slot. I place my hand on the screen. I fill out the customs questions. I walk out. Easy.

Even before Global Entry, I never had a problem with US CBP agents, either. The worst I think I ever got was "why were you in Qatar?" Probably 50% or more of the times, they told me "welcome home".

I haven't had any problems with US border control either. Just lucky, I guess. Now TSA is another story. Some of those agents are just downright nasty.

As for locking checked luggage - who puts valuables in their checked luggage? And as we have seen, locks are easily cut off and zippers easily openned.

I first saw this in the Naples airport in 2006. Great fun watching the suitcase being spun around and around. I did not have mine wrapped, but my TSA lock had been opened when I got to Milano. Nothing missing as no valuables there.

most world travelers have better things to do with their time?
that's quite a statement, flanneruk

thanks for letting me know I have wasted my time bothering to visit Maui, Napa Valley, New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Sedona, Tahoe, Veil, Moab, UT, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon and countless other destinations in the the US

I've seen the saran wrap going on for years-way before all the extra security checks.Silly me,I thought it was to protect their suitcases from getting beat up or to prevent the cheap suitcases from bursting open because they were so overstuffed! I never imagined this innocent query would become so heated!!!!

I thought the Saran-wrapped is to proof no one can put prohibited items, restricted articles etc., in your luggage after you checked in

TSA in State are mostly pigs, we try to never fly through American now, this is impossible to avoid though if going to America, lol They can be and have been unnessarily rude and aggressive to many travellers including a friend of mine, in her eighties and in a wheelchair.. ask me about how they treated her ( they yelled at her to stop wiggling when they asked her to stand for a hand wanding, because her hair pins set off the buzzer, , but fK them thats impossible with Parkinsons, I hate them , they must be the most undereducated and poorly trained power trippers ever, I would rather fly through Israel where their security is VERY thorough but WELL TRAINED ).
I love watching the TSA people trying to phyically pry open an INFANTS hands for a swabbing in LA, ,my 12 yr old daughter almost started crying watching that show, such stupid a holes.

Sorry, did I mention I don't like the TSA.

justine, we share the same thoughts! Unless I am actually going to the States for a holiday now I refuse to fly through there on the way to somewhere else, I don't care how much money we will save, it isn't worth it.
I watched the TSA in L.A. hold up some poor woman travelling by herself with a baby in a stroller and a small child of about 3 or 4, they gave her so much grief and were so rude and abrupt plus they made her small child go through the metal detecting arch and then just let the child wander off, no one assisted her and no one made sure the child stayed nearby. It was a horror show.

I have encountered some pretty arrogant and aggressive U.S. customs agents too. My husband is Australian and doesn't have Canadian citizenship so going into the U.S. requires eyeball scanning and fingerprinting every time we fly there and crossing the land border is ridiculous. We all have to go into the building with him and then the fun begins. ONe time the customs agent asked my husband if he spoke any other languages besides English, the answer was not really, a little bit of French.
Oh says the agent, well, we are all out of forms in English, so....here's one in Icelandic, try that.I don't know what he thought we would do but DS and I kept our mouths shut and my husband who has the best poker face in the world just filled it out as best he could as if it was in English and handed it over. The guy looked disappointed. What a power tripper.

The "best" one though had to be the customs agent in LAX we encountered at five in the morning after a long flight from Australia with a small child. He was listening to rap music blaring out of a boom box beside him and was wearing mirrored sunglasses and was so abrupt and rude it was scary. We were so startled at the total lack of professionalism we had that weird feeling like "have we entered the twilight zone, is this a parallel universe or what??" ANd the fun just continued from there...

US security

I used to do the UK flight to LA and then onto NZ pretty often. The Jumbo would vomit us out for a 2 hour wait while they sluiced the thing down and the worst part was the locker room we had to wait in. Every time they provided a room the size of a small aircraft worth of passengers so we all stood in this room for the first 30 minutes. Slowly the idiots would spot the first fainters and they then would open a door to quadruple the size of space available. Small children and old dears would be trampled in the crush (think black hole of Calcutta), goodness knows how no one was killed. What was worse was the staff were so fat they waddled around shouting into phones, hi fiving each other and behaving like pratts, talk about ugly Americans.

After the worst of these I dumped LA and fly via the far east where at least people are treated with respect.

Just a note of agreement with Denisea's comment above. While we've enjoyed traveling to several parts around the globe, we've also traveled pretty extensively in the US, and appreciate the tremendous beauty here. Denisea, I think our travel interests are pretty much aligned with yours and your DH. Lots of places on our wish list. Now we're looking forward to a fall trip to the Black Forest of Germany and Switzerland. And, of course, a return home through our fav, Paris! Just returned from a week-long jaunt to PR to escape our midwest winter. I'll be watching for any of your upcoming plans.

Regarding security in the US: We agree that LAX leaves something to be desired. In general, however, we've had no real issues at other locations. Maybe we live a charmed life!

We also wondered about the saran wrapped bags at Madrid, previously we had only see this in the developing world and had only used it when our bag was broken. However having had two items (a jacket and a pair of headphones) stolen on a recent (Jan 2013) flight into Madrid I now understand why people do this. I travel 50,000 plus miles a year and this was the first time this has happened to me. last time we went through madrid on our way to Seville our bags we delayed by three days but that was better than having things stolen.

I haven't flown to Europe in about 8 years but I don't recall ever seeing this in the decade I spent traveling before that. I would think that the wrap is to prevent the spread of bed bugs rather than theft. I have such an unreasonable fear of those horrible little critters (probably because they're so expensive and rather difficult to eradicate), I'd probably consider doing the wrapping if I thought it would afford me some protection especially when my luggage is bouncing along the conveyer belt with the other checked luggage. Ick!

Good grief I must be one of the luckiest people travelling. I have had some minor inconceniences with border crossing but have never in a very long lifetime experienced what has been described on this forum. Once in Amsterdam I was pulled aside and my ID checked very carefully but otherwise nada!!(Perhaps I looked like a very unhappy terrorist granny as I'd been travelling for nearly 28 hours) I never lock my bags and NEVER EVER have anything of value in them except my clothes. Anything that I can't do without is in my carryon, carefully and tightly rolled (an old navy trick) and in my own care. I am so-o-o lucky!!!

I saw the saran wrap machine in the airport at Barcelona. There is a big sign up there and it says its for improved security and that it protects your bag,, didn't say anthing about bugs. Most people did not see be doing it.. it seems a bit silly to me, but suppose if you had very expensive fancy luggage you may like it as it prevents your bag from getting scuffed..

As an American I agree with these comments about USA airport personnel in general! Coming home from Italy I carefully packed four plates we had purchased in Verona in my checked luggage. As we cleared customs and re-checked in Philly the recheck handler literally threw my bag 6 feet into the air onto the conveyor and broke 3 of the plates, WHILE I was asking him to please be careful! He even had the gall to stare me down while he did it! Low Life!! Scum Sucking Dog!!

If anyone wants to stick up for the TSA have at it but they are a HUGE joke and that is a fact!! I know flanneruk's post is 2 years old but I couldn't agree more.

Technically its "plastic wrap" or "cling-film" : Saran Wrap is a popular domestic brand of wrap in USA, but I doubt whether this is the type used in the machines. All my Russian friends used to have their bags wrapped up, but IMO its not going to prevent someone breaking in, only to alert you sooner that the bags been tampered with.

Toucan, that is awful. I am not surprised though. To carry on in the luggage vein from what I said about our awful landing in LAX, after we survived the weird sunglass wearing passport control guy we heard an announcement that said "the luggage from flight such and such will be on carousel three....and if you don't see it there, it will be on the floor".
We looked at each other and started laughing, the twilight zone was just getting weirder and we said oh, I guess this early in the am the staff like to get on the loudspeaker and pull pranks!
Uh, no, when we approached the carousel, which was perfectly functioning, all the luggage was on the floor and I mean literally just thrown all over the place, not stacked up or placed side by side, it was just randomly chucked everywhere and the carousel was going round and round with not one piece of luggage on it.

Luckily we didn't have any nice plates in there!

This is one of those posts with a lot of irrelevant information in the replies. Anyone wanting genuine information is filtering through about 95% of irrelevant information.

I can't say for Spain in particular but it would be interesting to know where the people paying for the wrap were travelling to?

As mentioned , the wrap indicates any tampering with luggage!!!!

In Australia it became quite popular for anyone travelling to countries known for drug trafficking, after the arrest of one of its citizens in Indonesia for smuggling drugs in a body board bag.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schapelle_Corby


Wrapping luggage for bed bugs??? thats a bit extreme isn't it?

A little off topic maybe, but its an old thread so we take a little license.

To stay on topic though, recently in Guatemala City while checking in for a domestic flight to the northern reaches, they were wrapping almost everyone's luggage using a spiffy little portable machine. Definitely for security reasons.