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Can You Bring Diamonds On A Plane?

Planning and packing for your upcoming trip can sometimes be daunting – you want to be ready and fully prepared, but then again, you don’t want to overpack. And as you plan which outfits to pack, you reach for your jewelry boxes to arrange accessories for each one. 

As expensive as diamonds are, they’re vulnerable to theft. You want to make sure your diamond jewelry is safe; that’s understandable. So, the question is: Should you pack your diamonds? Can you bring diamonds on a plane?

In legal terms, nothing’s stopping you from bringing your diamond jewelry on a plane. However, you’re putting your precious diamonds at potential risk of being lost or stolen. 

So, when you travel, you should take specific steps to ensure your diamonds are safe.

“How can I keep my jewelry safe?” you might wonder. Don’t worry; we’ve covered everything you need to know about traveling with diamond jewelry in this article!

Keeping Your Diamond Jewelry Safe During Travel

The most obvious safety tip for packing your diamond jewelry is never to pack it in your checked bags. They’re out of your sight for too long – not to mention they could be lost. 

Storing your diamond jewelry in carry-on bags is questionable because airlines may decide that your bag is too big and force it into checked baggage. 

And if it’s a longer flight, you’re likely to fall asleep – leaving your bag unguarded in the overhead box for someone to look through it and potentially steal your precious gems.

So, what can you do?

Well, the safest approach is to carry a small pouch in which you can store your diamond jewelry in your handbag. That way, you can hold onto your jewelry at all times.

While many companies sell travel pouches for jewelry ideal for storing valuables and keeping your diamond jewelry, be careful of buying anything that clearly indicates its function:

Just like it’s generally not a good idea to wave a lot of cash around while traveling, you don’t want to broadcast to everyone that you have a jewelry pouch full of diamonds in your purse, either.

Purse snatching and pickpocketing occur regularly, so if you go down this route, be sure to pick a discreet jewelry pouch – and avoid taking it out of your purse while you travel.

Don’t listen to ill-thought-out plans, such as hiding your diamond jewelry in containers disguised as something else or in a rolled-up clean diaper. The danger of these methods is that they could easily be thrown away by people unaware of their actual function.

We also recommend that you photograph the diamond jewelry you plan to take with you on your vacation. Should a piece of your jewelry get lost and is eventually found, you can prove that it’s yours by providing photos as evidence.

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Keeping Your Diamond Jewelry Safe At Your Destination

If you’re staying in a hostel, be sure to call ahead to ensure they provide lockers for their guests. Ask for the location of lockers; ideally, they should be situated near the front desk rather than somewhere secluded.

If the hostel provides lockers to their guests, be sure you bring your own lock. Not every hostel is secure, and you have no way of knowing if they change locks after previous guests – or even how secure the locks are in the first place. 

If your lock has a key, keep it on you at all times – in your wallet or on a small chain. You should use the locker to store your diamond jewelry and other valuables whenever you leave the room, shower, or sleep.

On the other hand, if you’re staying in a hotel, they typically have safe boxes in rooms or behind the front desk.

If the safe is behind the front desk, be sure a hotel clerk provides you with a signed print of what items you’ve stored in the safe. On top of that, you should keep a record of when you accessed the safe.

That will provide you with the necessary documentation to prove what jewelry you have stored in the safe. Furthermore, it’ll protect you against claims that you’ve lost it – if something, by any chance, disappears while in storage.

If you use a room safe, it’s a good idea to put your return ticket in it with your diamond jewelry and other valuables, so you don’t leave any of those items behind by accident.

Some people don’t trust room safes because of the possibility of staff entering the room in their absence. Even more so, many fear that staff might know the combination to open the safe.

In these cases, some travelers choose to hide their valuables in their rooms. If you go down this route, schedule a reminder on your smartphone for the day you leave the hotel. 

That’ll ensure you don’t forget to retrieve your diamonds before check-out.

While sightseeing, keep your bag on the pedestrian side of the walkway; that way, you’ll ensure that the main compartment is always closed. 

Even though it doesn’t happen often, purse snatchers on scooters have been documented, and the easiest way to avoid them grabbing your bag is to keep it away from the street side.

It’s never a good idea to keep diamond jewelry in your backpack. 

If you decide to do it, you should consider getting one of those theft-deterrent backpacks. These backpacks feature locking zippers as well as cut-proof straps.

Getting Through Customs On Your Return

If you’ve purchased diamond jewelry while on vacation in another country, be sure to declare everything you’ve bought as you go through customs on your way back to your country. 

Each country has different tax rates, depending on the specific item’s value and the quantity you declare. That applies to things you buy in duty-free stores, as the designation applies only to the items within the country.

A general rule of thumb is that you can enjoy a duty-free exemption on items that are worth less than $800-$1500, depending on where you’ve been and what the purpose of the things you’re bringing back with you is.

Even though you may not have accessed tax on your purchased items, you still have to declare them. Many people get confused as some stores offer shipping from the store to your home.

Using this service, you can avoid some extra steps to keep your diamond jewelry safe as you continue your traveling. However, this doesn’t remove the obligation for declaring as you pass through customs.

If you purchased something while abroad – even if it’s not in your possession at the time – you must declare that item and fill out the form for it.

Keep in mind that the duty-free exemptions are cumulative. It can be easy to buy several items during a vacation and be amazed by their total when you come to customs. 

If you bought several items, be sure to arrive at the airport early enough. That way, you’ll have time to process declarations through customs as there may be a longer wait time in addition to the standard airport security process.

Also, keep track of all the receipts of the purchases and put them in an envelope. By doing so, you’ll remember exactly what you bought, and it will make filling declarations form much easier as you’ll have all the information written down and on hand.

How To Sneak A Diamond Engagement Ring On A Plane

A destination proposal is an excellent way of making your engagement a more memorable one. And if you plan on proposing to your loved one abroad, you would want it to be a surprise, right?

You’re most likely already hiding that diamond engagement ring somewhere in your home – and you’ll have to conceal it until the big moment. 

If the proposal is part of your trip, plan ahead of time so that the diamond ring remains a secret. And most importantly, find a way to “sneak” it in on a plane. 

Here are some tips on how to achieve that:

Pack The Ring In A Cary-On Bag

As we already covered, you never want to put anything valuable in a checked bag due to the probability of theft or loss. So, be sure to pack that diamond engagement ring in your carry-on bag.

Considering the value of the diamond ring, it’s best not to let the precious stone out of your sight. However, keeping it in a pocket or inside a coat could get awkward when you have to remove it while going through airport security.

Additionally, you could forget that the ring is in your pocket and ruin the surprise by setting the metal detector off. 

Make sure you pack the engagement ring in a box and wrap it in your carry-on bag. You can even roll it in a sweater or a sock for extra security and padding.

See Also: Do Diamonds Set Off Metal Detectors?

Research Airport Security Rules

Discreetly getting the diamond engagement ring through airport security is possible, but it takes specific preparation ahead of time. Be sure to follow security rules to minimize the risk of being stopped and searched.

Before you start your journey, make sure your baggage complies with all guidelines.

If you’re worried about getting called for a closer inspection, you might be better off having an engagement ring in a nondescript box rather than a recognizable ring box – especially if they start unpacking all your stuff.

Packing the engagement ring in a discreet box will keep the surprise from getting ruined at the airport.

If you do end up having to unpack your bags in front of your loved one, remember to stay calm. You wouldn’t want to give away the surprise by visibly getting nervous. 

Get A Travel Engagement Ring Holder

If you end up traveling with your engagement ring, consider buying a discreet box to hold the diamond until you’re ready to propose.

There are plenty of sites that sell travel engagement ring holders that are small and discreet – a worthy purchase if you’re worried your loved one will spot the recognizable ring box in your bag. 

Be sure to buy one of these boxes a few weeks in advance to ensure it’s exactly what you want.

Look Into Engagement Ring Travel Insurance

Some insurance companies provide travel insurance policies for engagement rings. If this is of interest to you, contact your insurance agent to learn about the included options in pre-existing plans you have.

Frequent travelers may want to consider getting jewelry insurance early on to prevent any future problems that might occur. 

Travel engagement ring insurance protects your diamond if it’s lost or stolen, or even damaged – specific details will vary from one to another insurance company and between different policies, though. 

Also, check with your agent if the travel coverage is available worldwide, as some policies have certain limitations. So, keep in mind what your policy covers before investing in it.

Read More: Can You Insure A Lab-grown Diamond?

Guide To Traveling With Diamond Jewelry – Conclusion

Can you bring diamonds on a plane?

Absolutely, you can. The tricky part is how to keep your diamond safe during your traveling and how to keep the diamond engagement ring a secret from your significant other until you’re ready to propose.

You should always keep your diamond jewelry – and other valuables – in carry-on bags; checked luggage is way too vulnerable to theft. 

In addition, you can purchase a jewelry pouch or a discrete box for your diamond and put it in your carry-on bag. That will ensure your engagement ring is safe and sound.

When you get to your destination, make sure you keep your diamond jewelry within a locker or a hotel room safe to reduce the risk of getting it stolen.

It’s a good idea to invest in travel insurance, too. Be sure to check with more than one insurance company and see what they provide in terms of travel insurance for your engagement ring.

Related Read: What Is the Best Way to Transport Diamonds? Let’s Find Out!