You’ll see this a lot at airports overseas — people have checked-in bags covered with plastic wrapping.

And you’ll see the services at these airports offering that wrapping. But are you better protected when you do this?

It will certainly help protect a full bag from bursting open. And baggage thieves might think twice before making the extra effort to go through your stuff. Some bag wrapping services even offer a free tracing tag affixed to the bag to help find it if it gets lost.

The service is not cheap — it can run up to $22 per bag for the plastic wrap. One caution however is that if the TSA determines it needs to inspect your bags, it has the right to rip the plastic off and will be under no obligation to rewrap your bag.

Photo: Raju Paudel