Let's talk today about scenarios that you are likely to face and what you can do about it? Since the majority of passengers approach flying with a zombie like surrrender, it is no surprise that they are so appallingly uneducated in handling situations out of the ordinary.

The kilos have gone scenario: Your luggage was 65kg on an economy ticket but through contacts and influence you have it loaded on board and your ticket is marked 2 oblique 20kg. At destination the bag is missing. The airline agrees to reimburse you according to the markings on your ticket. But you want reimbursement for the 65 kilos. The airline says it is sorry, there is no evidence of that. What are your rights. Response. None. You have already contravened regulations by making an illegal arrangement in that the airline and you agreed to the uplift without recording it.

That is the risk you took. In fact, at many airports where rackets are operative, loaders prefer excess baggage for pilfering. If it does not exist, it will not call for much investigation. Your one piece is 20kg, your ticket says that is the weight you have and all that is missing is one bag with no weight in it, according to the rule. You may get a 5kg compensation since airlines allow that much excess as a passenger courtesy. But you are not going to get anything more. So, remember, when you smugly get your excess weight through, you could be saying goodbye to it forever.

Being offloaded on an okay ticket: In another possibility, passengers may be offloaded because of temperature conditions or the weight of cargo. Which is why when passengers comment on empty seats in a 'full' plane they have failed to realise that the weather conditions, the temperature, the above sea level height for takeoff, the fuel on board and the cargo all combine to reduce passenger weight. What's the point of an "okay" ticket? There may be passengers with higher priority. Because on international flights people may not show up flights can be overbooked if people do show up. It is a fragile and imperfect game of chance especially in season and you could be the 'victim'. This is ground staff’s nightmare because as a passenger you can be pretty teed off rendering space to frequent travellers, loyalty members, passengers with more expensive tickets and no ‘no shows."

Security are watching. Never leave your baggage unaccompanied in the airport. We tend to leave our guard down when we are at airports. We make friends with strangers. Airports are a happy hunting ground for thieves. Heathrow was often referred to as Thiefrow.

You leave your bag unattended or worse, ask some stranger who smiles at you to please keep an eye on it and you go shopping or to the toilet. Only at airports do people trust others whom they have known for three minutes. There is some misplaced belief that once you are in the airport everyone is in the same "boat".

When you return, either the bag has gone or something is missing. What can you do. Response. Airport security could have taken away your bag as a precautionary measure. You may have a lot of explaining to do before getting it back, if you get it at all.

Don't you read the signs? As for the co-passenger you elected to keep an eye on your bag, he has no responsibility whatsoever. If some item is missing, you will first have to identify it, make an accusation and be open for libel in case you are wrong. Secondly, duty free has no markings and you cannot prove it is yours.

If you are stupid enough to leave your wallet or pouch and money has gone, you can't prove it either. You will be surprised how many people leave exactly these items in the care of total strangers on the flimsy grounds that they are travelling on the same plane. Do you know that there are professional flyers who do short routes and earn their livelihood by striking up conversations with passengers. Never entrust your bag to anyone, even if he is a family man with children. You may lodge a complaint but airport traffic is so swift that it is almost impossible to track a theft.

Sure, I'll carry it: You have been re-quested through common friends to carry a small packet for a friend. Medicines or cosmetics. It arrives sealed and you put it in your bag and off you go. Are you completely out of your mind. Are you so dense that you so easily place yourself at risk.

Never carry anything for anyone unless you have opened it and checked it out. You could be risking several years of your life for unwittingly carrying contraband.

(To be continued)