The little-known reason you should never put your mobile phone in the airport trays
A TIKTOK user says that she was warned by a security worker to never put her mobile phone in an airport tray.
On her social media account, she revealed the little-known fact that all holidaymakers need to know when they jet off abroad.
The influencer - known as @travel.by.the.books - revealed that a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) worker in America warned her against leaving her phone in the airport trays.
In a video posted to her account, she said: “The thing I'm absolutely never doing when I go through TSA, I am not putting my phone directly into one of the containers or bins.
“It's always going inside a zipped pocket in my bag.”
She added: “Why? I did this once, the TSA agent looked at me and said, ‘You don't like your phone?’
“I looked at him like he was a little crazy and I said, ‘Yes’, and he said, ‘This is the fastest way to get it stolen.’
“The number one thing that they see stolen on a regular basis is phones, and that's because they are left out and available, and the lines can back up, and somebody could just swipe it and you're not paying attention until you realise it's too late.
“So always make sure that your valuables are zipped up into your bag when they go through the scanner.”
Every year, thousands of items are lost in airports, with the American TSA service estimating that 90,000-100,000 items disappeared in airports across the States last year.
The news comes after the UK airport most likely to lose your luggage was revealed.
Travel company Bounce examined passenger complaints, cancellation rates, and customer satisfaction from 2022 to 2024.
The company’s research found that Southampton Airport had the highest number of baggage complaints, with 0.18 per 100,000 passengers.
The airport also had the highest overall complaint rate at 4.42%, ranked the second worst for flight cancellations at 3.63% and received a low overall rating of three out of ten.
A spokesperson from Southampton Airport said: "Responsibility for baggage handling lies with the individual airlines and their appointed ground handling partners."