Originally Posted by
StanSimmons
If all you lost while traveling is a hairbrush, then you were most likely not traveling much on business, and having to carry equipment with you. My guess is that you are leisure traveler, or at best a light business traveler.
I used to travel heavily on business, there were several years where I was traveling more than 80% of the year. Most of that travel required taking equipment and tools with me in checked bags. When I was able to lock hard sided cases, I had no losses (unless the whole case went missing). After the TSA came on the scene I began losing individual tools and pieces of equipment out of checked baggage. It got to the point where it was cheaper to use FedEx and UPS to ship the tools and equipment to the site rather than risk the pilfering at the airport.
You're right, I never checked any gear (with the exception of my phone/laptop chargers) and actually avoid checking anything but clothing and personal items of no use to anyone, but I was a frequent business traveler both domestically and internationally. Now my business travel is primarily domestic.
I've never checked anything valuable and I never will - that's probably why (almost) nothing of mine goes missing.