Before Leaving for Vienna

Although at Wien-Schwechat incidences of stolen baggage are rare, frequent flyers don’t travel with expensive looking luggage. If you do, it’s rather like attracting bees to a honey pot (particularly in baggage reclaim). It’s equally important though not to use old threadbare luggage which isn’t up to a mild bruising from baggage handlers.

When leaving home, ask neighbours to keep an eye on the house and ensure that all exterior doors and windows are locked properly. Security experts advise not to lock interior doors as this usually results in further damage should an intruder break in. If you turn off gas or electricity supplies, remember that appliances such as fridge-freezers will need to be defrosted beforehand. And, if the timing of your return flight means that you’ll be arriving home at night, make sure you have a torch to hand to switch supplies back on.

When packing, it’s important to know the value and contents of each bag, just in case they’re lost. Label them with your name, contact number and destination address in Vienna (this is preferable to advertising your home address to all and sundry). When checking in, make sure every piece of luggage is correctly tagged with the destination airport’s unique three letter identifier (VIE).