Travel News Today

The smashing of a theft ring at Toronto's Pearson airport pinpoints the danger of tossing electronic toys, cameras and jewellery into your checked luggage.

Seven baggage handlers at Pearson were charged this past week with taking small valuable items from bags during loading and unloading. About $12,000 worth of electronic goods were recovered. Peel Regional Police launched an investigation last summer after noticing a spike in reported thefts at Pearson's Terminal 3.

Peel detective Malcolm Bow, who led the investigation, warns that baggage theft is a worldwide problem, not just in Toronto. Most locks can be broken easily and don't provide a lot of protection, he said.

While theft from luggage has been around as long as commercial aviation — London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports were dubbed Thiefrow and Gatnick by the British press decades ago — pilferage from bags appears to be on the increase. Baggage theft has been on the rise ever since the U.S. Transportation Security Authority (TSA) started cutting locks and forcing bags open in the aftermath of 9/11, says Stan Seggie, president and chief executive officer of RBC Insurance's travel-insurance division. Insurance claims are rising, he says, because many travellers now leave their checked bags unlocked, making it easy for a thief to get in and out in a hurry.

Payam Mohammadian, a Toronto-based civil engineer, learned first-hand about baggage theft in November. He put a digital camera and two gift cards worth $100 inside a bag he checked with Air Canada at Los Angeles airport. When he picked up the bag at Toronto's Pearson, the items were missing.

Mohammadian reported the loss to the Los Angeles airport police. He also asked for compensation from Air Canada and Visa, whose platinum card he had used to buy the camera. Both the airline and the card company turned him down.

So what's a traveller to do? There are ways to protect your checked belongings, including using special locks recognized by the TSA when flying through U.S. airports. Much harder is pinpointing who is committing the thefts. And trying to claim compensation can be a hit-and-miss affair. Here's the lowdown on how to arrive home with your possessions intact.

Taking precautions

The obvious way to avoid theft from checked luggage is to carry your valuables on-board. But with airlines enforcing size restrictions for carry-ons, that isn't always possible.

As well, there have been press reports of items stolen from carry-ons at pre-flight screening points. So, even toting valuables with you carries some risk.

Looking back on his situation, Mohammadian says he should have put the items in his carry-on. But with a heavy laptop bag already full of documents, the last thing on his mind was a possible theft, especially since he has flown in and out of Los Angeles for years without incident, he says.

Jack Shoenmakers of Kitchener, Ont., was another recent victim. Returning with his bride from a honeymoon in Hawaii, he put his digital camera in a checked bag because he «didn't want a lot of hand baggage to deal with,» he says. It was the wrong decision. Someone lifted the camera en route, along with the 200 irreplaceable honeymoon pictures that were sitting on its memory card.

Neither Mohammadian nor Shoenmakers had locked their bags. Mohammadian says he believes a lock would be a signal to thieves that something valuable is inside. Shoenmakers had a much more common excuse. He was under the impression that it is forbidden to lock bags while travelling to or though U.S. airports. That view is held by 71 per cent of adult American travellers, according to a recent study conducted for Travel Sentry, a New Hampshire-based consortium and one of the companies behind the special locks designed for U.S. flying.

Travel Sentry (www.travelsentry.org) licences locks that, in theory at least, can be opened by TSA agents, who otherwise might cut your lock or damage your bag to gain access. The agents locate an access code on the locks that tells them which tool to use to open the bag. Various models, costing from about $5 to $12, are on sale in luggage, department and hardware stores. The most expensive ones change colour if your bag is tampered with. Luggage stores also sell hard-sided suitcases with a TSA-accepted lock built in.

Travel Sentry is in talks with Canada about possibly providing the locks' codes to security agents in this country, says Joel Blumenthal, the company's president. That could happen if Transport Canada goes ahead with plans to allow the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority to start opening suspicious checked bags. Such a policy could come into effect by this spring, says CATSA spokeswoman Irene Marcheterre. At present, Canadian security agents can open bags only if the passenger or an airline witness is present.

But even a locked bag isn't a guarantee against theft. Ellen Greenspoon of Toronto put a digital camera and electronic translator inside a locked bag she checked with Air Canada from China through Hong Kong to Toronto. When the bag showed up six days late, it had been cut open. The two items were missing, but someone had inserted a box of chocolates.

Who's to blame?

A lot of people have access to your checked bags. They include airline baggage handlers, who in many cases work for an outside contract company, employees of airports and other airlines, and government security agents. Thefts can take place at the departure airport, the destination airport or any connecting airport in between.

In October, a TSA officer in Orlando was charged with stealing gift cards and a roll of quarters from a passenger's checked bag. Such cases are isolated incidents and don't reflect on the more than 43,000 TSA workers who inspect bags every day, says TSA spokeswoman Amy Kudwa. If misconduct can be proved against a TSA employee, that person's federal career is ended, she says.

And Toronto isn't the only place where baggage handlers have been implicated in thefts.

Five contract workers were charged this month with stealing from bags at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. Last month, nine baggage handlers were arrested at London's Stansted Airport for stealing belongings from passengers' bags. And in September, three former baggage handlers at Baltimore-Washington International were accused of stealing electronics and other valuables from the luggage of U.S. soldiers heading overseas.

Travel Sentry's Blumenthal feels the greatest opportunity for theft is on narrow-body planes where bags are loaded and unloaded piece by piece.

«You have one or two guys in the belly of a plane, out of view of anyone,» he says. «There are no cameras there. They are alone for 20 or 30 minutes.»

Claiming compensation

If something is missing from your checked bag, file a report immediately with the airline.

Under international conventions, you may be entitled to limited reimbursement for loss or theft in certain circumstances. But the conditions of carriage of most carriers preclude such valuables as electronics, jewellery, documents and cash.

In a letter to Mohammadian, Air Canada denied responsibility for the theft, pointing out that many outside parties had access to his bag.

«Airline tariff regulations,» the letter continued, «preclude any liability for loss of articles such as jewellery, cameras, electronic equipment, money, cellular phones, fragile or perishable items, business documents and other valuables, regardless of the circumstances and we must, with regret, deny any request for compensation for such losses.»

Theft of items not on the precluded list could be covered under Air Canada's baggage liability conditions, which also apply to lost, delayed or damaged bags. The maximum that will be paid is $1,500 for one passenger for flights within Canada unless a higher value is declared in advance and additional charges are paid.

For most international travel, the maximum claim is about $24 a kilogram for checked baggage and $470 a passenger for unchecked baggage.

Some credit cards cover emergency purchases for lost or delayed baggage if the card was used to book the trip. But coverage for theft from a bag is unlikely. Because Mohammadian used a platinum credit card to purchase the camera, he made a claim under a provision that covers theft or loss of items during the first 90 days. That claim was rejected because the exact location of the theft could not be proved.

Another compensation option is homeowner's insurance. Most policies cover theft of items brought along on a trip.

But there is a limit, often $10,000, on the amount paid out as well as a deductible, often about $500, says RBC's Seggie. To make such a claim easier, John Karapita, spokesman for the Insurance Bureau of Canada, recommends that expensive items such as computers and jewellery be shown as endorsements on the policy.

Baggage insurance, sold through travel agencies, will also provide coverage for stolen items, Seggie says.

It is usually combined with trip cancellation and medical coverage in a travel insurance policy.

Before any insurance claim can be made, it will probably be necessary to file reports with the airline and with all the airports involved. For many victims of baggage theft, that is just too much hassle.

Mohammadian says it isn't worth it to continue seeking compensation for his loss. «It's fun to go after these people, but at some point you just give up.» Special to The Globe and Mail.

(The Globe And Mail)