luggage

Cool travel gear at the International Travel Goods Show

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The latest in luggage, travel gear and gadgets-for-those-on-the-go was on display this week at the 2015 International Travel Goods Show in Las Vegas.

Here are just a few of my favorite items that were out on the floor.

1_Playluggage Blocks_courtesy Playluggae

The designers at Estonia-based Playluggage want their luggage to be a “dependable and trustworthy partner for the craziest adventures.” They’re on the right track with suitcases that have surfaces that double as game boards for backgammon, Chinese checkers, chess, poker and Parcheesi, a model that comes with erasable markers and a covering you can draw on and this new design, which has a surface compatible with Lego-style blocks.

5_ShelfPack2

Hotel butlers unpack and repack luggage for well-to-do guests. The rest of us must do all that ourselves. The Shelfpack (MSRP: $349) from McKaba Luggage may be a good in-between option.

The idea: organize you outfits on the collapsible shelves built inside the suitcase, push the shelves into the suitcase and then pop them back up on arrival to form an instant dresser.

For more fun stuff from the 2015 International Travel Goods Show, see my slide-show on CNBC

Book a room, get a free suitcase

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GLobe Trotter bespoke luggage

This unusual offer that certainly trumps chocolates at turndown was included in the slideshow about new luggage I put together last week for CNBC Road Warrior.

This holiday season (Dec. 15 through Jan. 5, 2015), guests who book a special suite package at the 5-star Brown’s Hotel in London will receive a custom-made 21-inch Globe-Trotter suitcase, made at the company’s flagship store located next door to the hotel.

Planning ahead is required, because three weeks before arrival, a guest will be asked to choose the colors for the outside of their suitcase, the lining, the clasps and the preferred monogramming. The bespoke suitcase (along with a fine bottle of Champagne) will then be waiting in the suite at check-in.

Rates start at £2,000, or about $3,200 per night.

 

 

Test drive Vancouver Airport’s new baggage carts

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Airport baggage carts can cost a bundle to rent for that short trip from your car to the terminal or from bag claim out to the curb.

Some airports offer them for free in their international terminal areas while a few, including Vancouver International Airport, make them available for free terminal-wide.

Here’s a fun video, done in the style of an automobile advertisement, touting YVR’s 3000 new and improved luggage carts.

Makes me want to go for a test drive…

Airport amenity of the week: coat check

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AmeliaEarhart-BuffaloCoat

Amelia Earhart’s buffalo coat – courtesy Buffalo Bill Center of the West.

When you’re flying off somewhere where you won’t need warm weather gear, wouldn’t it be great to be able to leave your heavy coat at the airport and pick it on the way home?

If you’re flying on JetBlue out of JFK’s T5 you now can.

CoatChex has set up a kiosk in the main marketplace area offering a ticketless coat checking service that costs $2 a day or $10 for a full week.

Instead of getting a paper claim ticket that could get lost on a trip, a traveler enters a phone number and their initials into a digital kiosk and then poses for a photo with their coat before handing it over for storage.

To get the coat back after their trip, the traveler keys in the last four of digits of their phone number at the claim desk to bring up the original photo and an ID number that tells the CoatChex staff where to find the coat.

Right now, the CoatChex kiosk at JetBlue’s T5 is in a temporary location, but plans are to have a larger, more centrally located kiosk that can accommodate more items.

JFK is not the first airport to have a coat check service. Frankfurt Airport is offering coat check service for less than a dollar a day through the end of April and for several winters Korean Air has been offering five complimentary days of coat storage to passengers flying out of Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea.

Wrapping luggage may add extra layer of security

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courtesy Secure Wrap

Some air travelers might be more determined to fly with only carry-on bags or add extra security to checked baggage after recent news of an alleged theft ring by workers at Los Angeles International Airport.

Others, however, may rely on plastic.

For about $15 per bag, luggage wrapping companies such as Seal & Go, TruStar and Secure Wrap encase suitcases in multiple layers of Saran Wrap-like plastic.

“I do it every time I fly out of San Juan Airport,” said Allisan Konrath, a customer service representative based in Chicago. “When I started years ago, too much luggage was being pilfered before flights.”

Wrapping stands are plentiful at many international airports but hard to find in the U.S. beyond the pre-security Secure Wrap stations in some terminals at Miami, JFK and George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, which together wrap about 1.6 million pieces of luggage a year.

A wrapped suitcase might make a baggage handler think twice before rifling through your luggage. However, it won’t stop the Transportation Security Administration from opening your bag if needed.

TSA screens all checked bags using Explosive Detection System (EDS) machines. And while “the vast majority of bags screened by the EDS do not involve any physical inspection, bags that alarm may be opened and inspected before being reintroduced to the system,” said TSA spokesman Ross Feinstein.

In some U.S. airports, Secure Wrap employees re-wrap bags that have been opened by the TSA.

“TSA does a great job of screening all luggage,” said Daniel Valdespino, executive director of Secure Wrap. “But many customers worry about what happens next.”

Wrapping bags may offer some added security, but keep this in mind. “At some point, after all the wrapping and unwrapping and wrapping, that bag will be handled by a human again,” said personal security expert Robert Siciliano. “And humans sometimes steal.”

(My story about wrapping luggage in plastics first appeared on NBC New Travel)