Baggage Survival Guide

If your checked bag is left behind or lost, most airlines will deliver the bag to you once it arrives. This is a relief for most people, since it saves them an extra trip back to the airport. However, there are times when airlines won’t deliver mishandled luggage to a passenger.

The most common reason is late check-ins. When you check in late for your flight, you are increasing the odds that your checked luggage won’t get on the plane in time. Those bags have to be scanned and sent through a complicated conveyor belt system before they get loaded onto a cart, transported, and loaded onto the plane.

If your bags were delayed because you checked in late for your flight, most airlines won’t cover the expense of delivering the bags to you. You’ll usually have to pick them up yourself.

Changing flights after checking in your bags could also nullify your right to have your bags delivered to you.

In some cases, it’s nearly impossible for the airline to deliver your bags in a timely manner. If you’re staying in a hotel that’s hundreds of miles away from the airport, for example the airline will probably resort to sending your bag via FedEx (within the US, anyway). That could mean you’ll have to survive an extra day or two without your bag.

In short, yes, if the airline temporarily loses your baggage,  they will most likely deliver your bags to you at no expense. However, if checking in late was the reason why your bags were delayed, don’t expect the airline to deliver.

One thing I wish more people did when they travel is attach their personal information to their checked bags. Most travelers skip this because they don’t expect the airline to lose their bag. Unfortunately, there’s a reason why airlines have baggage offices: They mishandle thousands of bags every day. That’s why you want to make it as easy as possible for the airline to reunite you with your bag.

Some travelers are pretty good about attaching a tag with contact information to one of the bag’s handles. That’s good, but those tags can be torn off. Stuff like that happens. That’s why you should put the same information inside your bag as well, along with a print-out of your itinerary. That way if the baggage belt system manages to eat the tags and an airline employee is forced to search your bag, they’ll find out who the bag belongs to and where it needs to go.

Some people are afraid to do this because they don’t want bad guys finding this information. I understand their concern, but the odds of something like this happening are remote. I don’t have official numbers to back me up, but I feel comfortable saying that your odds of losing your bag forever by NOT including this information are better than the odds of a thief rifling through your bag and targeting your house while you’re away.

If putting contact information in your bag still makes you uneasy, please include your name and cell phone number at the very minimum! Alternatively, you could use a business address.

I’ve seen a few John Doe bags: They had no identification, no clues for us to go by. Eventually we had no choice but to ship such bags to our central baggage office. I assume they were eventually sold at auctions.

Don’t let that happen to your bag. Put contact information on both the inside and outside of your bag.