How would you handle this?

[watcharacters]

When we picked up our bags at the luggage carousel at the Don Muang Airport in BKK I was disappointed to find them looking like this:

The larger bag of the Missus was brand new on its first trip and my bag (three years old had just been cleaned by her and so it looked "fresh out of the box".

I don't expect anything can be done about it especially since i couldn't prove anything but I really didn't' like starting our journey having luggage that made it look like we lived on the street. Since the bags weren't next to each other when we got them off the carousel, it baffles me how they managed to get to look like this. I also don't recall seeing a swarm of equally soiled bags come off the plane.

I'd like to have some Stoddard or Goof Off

Can anyone recommend an available product in Thailand for removing oil or grease on luggage?

Edited December 10, 2014 by watcharacters

[FritsSikkink]

Clean them again.

[lust]

Its only luggage. Mai pen Rai it.

[CharlieH]

Probably why so many take advantage of the film wrapping nowadays.

Not nice to have your luggage messed up like that.

[neverdie]

Probably why so many take advantage of the film wrapping nowadays.

Not nice to have your luggage messed up like that.

You need to wrap it

Some pretty dance gay luggage there op. Looks like ur on the was to a Mardi gras or something.

[Boxclever]

Welcome to frequent air travel! The Mrs and I learned long ago never to buy light coloured cloth type luggage.

[Issangeorge]

I worked as a baggage jammer for a year. My job was to clear all the baggage jams that occurred on the conveyor belts. You should have seen the condition some of those bags were in after they were cleared from a jam. Your bags look pretty good comparatively. As someone said, if your that fastidious about your bags, cover them. At a good luggage store, you should be able to find commercial covers.

[Fiddlesticks]

Perhaps it is a bad idea to use RED luggage in Bangkok. I think if you had used YELLOW luggage they would not have a spot on them. Just a thought.

[David48]

I worked as a baggage jammer for a year. My job was to clear all the baggage jams that occurred on the conveyor belts. You should have seen the condition some of those bags were in after they were cleared from a jam. Your bags look pretty good comparatively. As someone said, if your that fastidious about your bags, cover them. At a good luggage store, you should be able to find commercial covers.

This is a true story.

AirAsia misplaced my bag once on the flight from Bangkok to KL (they were OK about, delivered to my home address by Taxi a week later ... no complaints from me).

So, while I was standing at that luggage carousel at the old KL LCCC, waiting hoping that my bag would appear.

First there were many around me ... then just a few people ... then, just one ... me ... I felt damn lonely.

Almost as lonely as this one fragment of luggage kept going round and round on that carousel.

A bag handle with a luggage tag. No bag ... just the handle.

Going around, and around, and around.

No bag with no handle mind you ...

[Scully]

How would I handle it?

I would shrug my shoulders and say never mind. Seems like a petty 21st century problem to me, sorry op you did ask.

[cornishcarlos]

As long as they hadn't been opened and pilfered then you shouldn't be complaining at all...

Go enjoy your holiday

[nottocus]

I'd pick up me luggage, go home, unpack and store the bag till next time i use it.

[tubby johnson]

Choose a less effeminate colour for your luggage next time. A manly black or camouflage green will intimidate the chumps handling your luggage. Plus, stains are harder to notice on black.

[Thai Chi]

I worked as a baggage jammer for a year. My job was to clear all the baggage jams that occurred on the conveyor belts. You should have seen the condition some of those bags were in after they were cleared from a jam. Your bags look pretty good comparatively. As someone said, if your that fastidious about your bags, cover them. At a good luggage store, you should be able to find commercial covers.

This is a true story.

AirAsia misplaced my bag once on the flight from Bangkok to KL (they were OK about, delivered to my home address by Taxi a week later ... no complaints from me).

So, while I was standing at that luggage carousel at the old KL LCCC, waiting hoping that my bag would appear.

First there were many around me ... then just a few people ... then, just one ... me ... I felt damn lonely.

Almost as lonely as this one fragment of luggage kept going round and round on that carousel.

A bag handle with a luggage tag. No bag ... just the handle.

Going around, and around, and around.

No bag with no handle mind you ...

Just to put pictures to your words David ..........

[mogandave]

I'd be pissed too. What color were they when you checked them?

[Gracas]

This is what bags are for, to keep your belongings together and to help prevent them from being damaged. If the bag itself is important then you need another bag for it, some airports offer that shrink wrap service.

[katana]

Clip filmed recently of bagage handlers at the airport:

[Kaalle]

Who cares what they look like? They are in the storage area in between trips anyway I presume?

[manarak]

Maybe OP is Swiss or of another nationality where urban people are obsessed with their image.

Personally I don't care at all about how the luggage looks as long as it's still in one piece and keeps my stuff safe inside.

Storing it until the next trip seems to be the best way to "handle" this situation.

[kannot]

I would handle it by knowing that all bags are treated like shit at all airports in the world, I count myself lucky if its in one piece these days.

You can watch the handlers physically hurl them on and off planes.

I would never buy "nice" bags only cheap ones as they all get destroyed, handles rippe d off wheels ripped of etc etc

[geronimo]

It is a bag. Used for putting things in. I would not do anything except clean it.

[asdecas]

Choose a less effeminate colour for your luggage next time. A manly black or camouflage green will intimidate the chumps handling your luggage. Plus, stains are harder to notice on black.

You're absolutely right, it's clearly all the OP's fault for choosing such poofy luggage in a macho country like Thailand.

[steven100]

Who cares how your bags looked.

Think yourself lucky you got the bags at your destination ......

Welcome to Thailand and leave your whinging head back home ....

[Ianatlarge]

Yep. If that is your biggest gripe then you are doing well.

[SpokaneAl]

I like the colors, in that they probably stand out in that sea of black bags. We have resorted to tying or taping bright colors on our bags so that we can find them on the carrousel.

And as far as a few dirt and grease stains - part of the price of admission IMO. I am more concerned that ours arrive safely on each trip.

[SpokaneAl]

I like the colors, in that they probably stand out in that sea of black bags. We have resorted to tying or taping bright colors on our bags so that we can find them on the carrousel.

And as far as a few dirt and grease stains - part of the price of admission IMO. I am more concerned that ours arrive safely on each trip.

[The Deerhunter]

Probably why so many take advantage of the film wrapping nowadays.

Not nice to have your luggage messed up like that.

You need to wrap it

Experienced travellers buy luggage plain, strong & light not pretty. I have had the same zip black suitcase for over 15 years, numerous overseas trips a year. It is due for replacement. Black doesn't show grease. I'll bet it is really filthy but it is black. and I don't eat off it. Tie a brightly coloured plastic bag to the handle so you know which black bag is yours. (the kind of bag that you get at discount barns or that arrives in the letterbox back home every week or two asking for clothes donations to orphanages.) Baggage handlers don't care about your expensive bag. I know they even deliberately try to dirty clean pretty ones at some airports. Bags will get dirty, count on it. They will get scuffed. Sometimes they get trashed. If you stay at home your bag will never get dirty. If you clean your bags up nicely they will attract more attention that way. Plastic wrap it at the airport if you really want it clean. It also means no-one (probably) has been inside it. Yeah, that happens too.

[bluebluewater]

I worked as a baggage jammer for a year. My job was to clear all the baggage jams that occurred on the conveyor belts. You should have seen the condition some of those bags were in after they were cleared from a jam. Your bags look pretty good comparatively. As someone said, if your that fastidious about your bags, cover them. At a good luggage store, you should be able to find commercial covers.

This is a true story.

AirAsia misplaced my bag once on the flight from Bangkok to KL (they were OK about, delivered to my home address by Taxi a week later ... no complaints from me).

So, while I was standing at that luggage carousel at the old KL LCCC, waiting hoping that my bag would appear.

First there were many around me ... then just a few people ... then, just one ... me ... I felt damn lonely.

Almost as lonely as this one fragment of luggage kept going round and round on that carousel.

A bag handle with a luggage tag. No bag ... just the handle.

Going around, and around, and around.

No bag with no handle mind you ...

BS story by you. Rhod Gilbert has been telling this one for years!

[monkey4u]

As long as the wheels go round and round and it still has a handle

Don't worry

Be happy

[Monkeyrobot]

Just buy black bags man it's the little wheels on the other bags that make those marks. Us TV members are very busy with important matters. Eg > I have a hole in my sock what should I do? And you think you have problems.