According to the Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings, of the US Department of Transportation, more than two million bags were lost, damaged, delayed, stolen or pilfered from US airlines last year.
Many of those bags were permanently lost to passengers, ending up donated to charity, or sold to the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsville, Alabama, which has over one million items pass through its store annually.
Can you prevent your checked-in luggage from being delayed, pilfered, or lost to you forever?
The answer is . . . maybe.
There are things you can do to prevent your bag from being mishandled, and other things you can do to enhance having your bags recovered back to you.
Choose an airline to fly to your destination which doesn’t mishandle luggage too often. Airtran, Hawaiian, JetBlue and US Airways had the best record for luggage handling among US airlines in 2010. Comair, Pinnacle, Atlantic Southeast, and American Eagle had the worst record, each mishandling more than twice the number of bags per 1,000 passengers, than US Airways.
If you must fly on an airline with a poor record of luggage mishaps, try to use only carry-on luggage.
Reducing the number of times your luggage is handled reduces the chances of it being mishandled. If you can, take a non-stop flight to your destination. If that’s not possible, minimize the number of your connections. Make sure you and your luggage have enough time at your connections to change planes.
Before you leave, remove all old airline luggage tags to eliminate airline personnel reading the wrong tag. Don’t use removable straps to secure your luggage. They increase the likelihood your luggage will get snagged on airport baggage conveyor belts.
It’s critical to properly ID your bags to ensure you’ll have them returned to you, if mishandled. You should put ID information both outside and inside your luggage.
Put at least two ID tags with your name, address and phone number, on the outside of your bags, in case one is stripped or falls off. I include my cell phone number on these tags, and use covered ID tags with a strong band to attach them to my bags.
Put an additional ID tag in each of the outside pockets and inside sections of each bag. In the main section of your bag, pack a copy of your itinerary on top of your belongings. Make sure it has your home phone number, cell phone number, if you have one, and the phone number at which you can be reached at your hotels, cruise ship, etc.
If your bag is mishandled, at least the airline will be able to identify the bag and get it to you, if well identified. In case of theft recovery, I also put a couple of well hidden IDs in my bags.
Lock your bag with either a TSA approved lock, or a numbered privacy seal. Neither are foolproof, especially on zippered bags, but they can slow down thieves, perhaps causing them to skip your bags, and they can prevent your bags from accidentally opening.
You could send your bags by a shipper such as Luggagefree.com, Fedex or some other service. It can get expensive, but it does avoid the vagaries of the airlines.
Since passengers began printing boarding passes at home, some have ignored check-in deadlines. Those deadlines still hold for checked-in luggage. If your luggage isn’t checked-in on time it may be refused, and even if taken, may miss your flight.
For example, “US Airways closes passenger and baggage check-in 30 minutes prior to departure for domestic travel and 60 minutes prior to departure for international travel.” US Airways like many airlines requires luggage at some airports to be checked in even earlier.
I advise checking your airline’s website to determine your flight’s luggage check-in deadline to ensure you meet it.
When you arrive at the airport, walk past curbside check-in. This way you skip their extra handling, which can go awry.
At the check-in counter, prior to permitting your bag to be placed on the conveyor belt, verify the accuracy of the routing information on the airline’s luggage tag. Make sure, if you have a connecting flight, it isn’t your responsibility to pick up your bag from a leg of your journey, to re-check it for the next flight, otherwise your “lost bag” may be your own fault.
Make sure you get your luggage claim tickets upon checking in your luggage, and put them in a safe place. You’ll need them in case you luggage is mishandled.
In case of mishandled luggage, put in your claim immediately when your luggage isn’t at the airport, or in case of unseen theft, within 24 hours of your arrival at your destination, or your claim may be denied by the airline, and insurance company.
You’ll need proof of what was lost. I take a photo of the contents of my bags laid out prior to packing, and of the packed bag, open and closed, for identification purposes. I store a copy of these photos on my cell phone.
Don’t pack valuables, electronics and breakables in your checked-in luggage. The airlines don’t take liability for them. Domestically, US airlines have a limit of liability of $3,300 per passenger, and about $1,807 internationally.
Don’t forget to pack a day’s worth of clothing in your carry-on along with medications, toilet articles, valuables, breakables, and everything you’ve got to absolutely have while you travel, in case your luggage is delayed or lost.
There is hope. Ninety-eight percent of the time, lost luggage is eventually recovered, most within the first 24 to 48 hours.
After many years working in corporate America as a chemical engineer, executive and eventually CFO of a multinational manufacturer, Ned founded a tech consulting company and later restarted NSL Photography, his photography business. Before entering the corporate world, Ned worked as a Public Health Engineer for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. As a well known corporate, travel and wildlife photographer, Ned travels the world writing about travel and photography, as well as running photography workshops, seminars and photowalks. Visit Ned’s Photography Blog and Galleries.
