It’s that time of the year again. Where sunshine splashes over everything, even into the evening hours. Where water parks and ice cream trucks mingle with pool parties and road trips.
It’s summer. Chances are you want to hit the road or fly the friendly skies to visit someone or somewhere else. But as you prepare to escape for summer, be sure your travel packing includes more than just sunscreen and swim trunks.
You’ll want to ensure that your valuable and valued jewelry is safe and secure when you travel. To that end, we’ve assembled a helpful guide on how to best secure your jewelry during your travels. We hope you find this useful this summer—wherever you decide to go!
Safe Packing Tips: Carry On…
No matter where you go or how you get there, take time and care to ensure that your jewelry is secure. This is especially true if you’re flying anywhere—and doubly important if your vacation entails international air travel.
According to the SITA Baggage Insights 2022 report, global mishandled baggage rates increased by 24% from 2020 to 2021, rising to a rate of 4.35 bags per 1,000 customers. No doubt some of these missteps were due to the sudden uptick in travel after loosened COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. But you can expect that more contact points during any trip will increase the chance of something disappearing. Plus, if you happen to lose your jewelry while in a foreign country, the odds of you being able to claim it without a dedicated jewelry insurance policy are somewhere between slim and none. You’ll probably have a better chance of crossing the Atlantic in under an hour.
Whether you experience a mysterious disappearance or you later find your misplaced piece, neither is a scenario you want to experience. Not here, or abroad, or this summer, or ever.
Basically, it is never a good idea to pack your jewelry in a suitcase or bag that requires an airport baggage check. Not even if you’re flying from Los Angeles to San Francisco. And certainly not if you’re flying from New York to Paris (and odds are many such travelers are well-versed in fashionable and pricey jewelry and attire).
So forget checked luggage. Put it out of your head right now. Always opt for carry-on. And as you’ll soon see, this isn’t just our expert opinion about travel packing.
WHEN and HOW to Carry On
Now, this doesn’t mean you should merely toss your jewelry in any old carry-on bag. Absolutely not. We offer some helpful tips to ensure that your jewelry stays as safe and secure as possible while it flies the friendly skies with you (and all those people you don’t know).
Remember, it’s best to start this process well before you leave for the airport. You don’t want to be scrambling at the last minute, or anything close to such a stressful scenario. Just like a jewelry insurance policy with Zillion provides peace of mind that your diamond engagement ring is always protected, packing that jewelry away in a safe, secure, smart carry-on bag before your trip will alleviate stress and worry. Here’s what you can do at home right now—or on the eve of your flight.
- Buy a jewelry organizer. Like a long flight, you can go several routes with your travel packing. Roll with jewelry rolls. Choose a soft drawstring pouch. Or opt for a jewelry box organizer. Regardless of the form factor, jewelry organizers typically include individual pockets to keep your pieces safe, secure, and separate.
- Pack a pill case. A little on the cheaper end, you can simply choose a standard seven-day pill case or box. This should work just fine for smaller pieces of jewelry like rings or earrings. You can even plan out your attire by the day if you choose this option.
- DIY jewelry protection projects. Like to get creative with your travel packing tips? Why not just take a small, soft travel towel and carefully arrange your jewelry on the towel? Then, simply roll the towel up and tie down the ends. Other inexpensive-yet-efficient DIY tips include storing rings and earrings together in sandwich bags. You could even loop necklaces through plastic straws, poke earring studs into erasers, or use vacuum-seal wraps to separate pieces.
FAQ on TSA and Jewelry
OK, now you’re at the airport. This is always the “fun” part, isn’t it? Especially with the seemingly never-ending escalation in safety and security screening processes now in place at pretty much every airport. So, do you have to worry about taking any non-packed jewelry off before you board your flight?
Well, not necessarily.
No less an authority than the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) advises air travelers to wear their fine jewelry through their often-cumbersome and tedious airport checkpoint stations. The TSA says there’s no need to remove it—and adamantly advises not to store your jewelry in checked luggage. So they’re on the same page with us here.
In most cases, your jewelry won’t hold you up by causing metal detectors or imaging devices to go off. The TSA does caution that “heavy jewelry” may result in an alarm or pat-down screening—and advises any such jewelry be placed in a carry-on bag and put on after the screening process has concluded.
If you do remove your jewelry (by choice or by instruction) during the security screening, avoid placing it in the bowls that hold smaller items. If this bowl were to flip while on a conveyor belt, there’s a good chance your jewelry can get lost, damaged, tangled up, snagged, or suffer some sort of mysterious disappearance—standard insurance jargon for “sorry, but we won’t be covering your loss here.”
You could also request that TSA agents screen you privately, if you’re concerned about safeguarding valuable jewelry you are traveling with. There’s also a TSA website page dedicated to traveling with jewelry.
Easy Claims. Easy Additions.
Planning and executing a relaxing summer vacation may not be easy, but Zillion makes it easy to protect your jewelry during travel. A Zillion jewelry insurance policy insures any and all pieces you travel with against loss, theft, accidental damage, and even natural disasters during your summer vacation (or any other travel). In the unfortunate event that you have to interrupt your getaway to report a jewelry loss, we make the insurance claims process as fast and painless as possible.
Our extensive network and state-of-the-art embedded insurance technology connects you with only the very best jewelry insurance policies. All retailers in the exclusive Zillion partner network guarantee that you can go anywhere and do anything with the peace of mind that makes vacations extra special.
We even make it easy to add a jewelry piece–or pieces–to your existing jewelry insurance policy with us. Heck, if you want to, you can go ahead and add your entire jewelry box (or special travel case) to your policy. This way, you’ll ensure that all your jewelry is covered—not just your diamond engagement ring.
To start the process and secure peace of mind, simply visit our homepage to get your fast, free jewelry insurance quote right now. And wherever you go this summer, we wish you the happiest, healthiest, and safest of travels and times!
