Article: How to Stop Airlines Losing Your Checked Baggage

[AFF Editor]

How to Stop Airlines Losing Your Checked Baggage is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

How to Stop Airlines Losing Your Checked Baggage

If travelling without checked luggage isn't an option, these are some ways to minimise the risk of your bags going missing in transit.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

 

[henrus]

How to stop airlines losing your checked luggage... don't check a bag when not needed.

Sure people will get fired up by my comment however I sometime see the smallest of bags at the claim belt.

 

[exceladdict]

Someone from Qantas baggage services discouraged me from using Q bag tags for tight connecting flights, because they "require a manual scanner so are sorted last if the team are in a rush".

This was after the only time my bag has been lost domestically, and it wasn't a particularly tight connection at MEL.

 

[kpc]

Because of many sectors and transits on our recent Oct / Nov trip to Africa, we travelled HLO....we were allowed 2x7 kg carryon each as our long sectors were in J...to avoid being forced to check a bag in if cabin storage was full, we were always amongst the first to board. We had to check one carryon bag though on 2 short domestic African sectors.

 

[Archipelago]

How to stop airlines losing your checked luggage... don't check a bag when not needed.

Sure people will get fired up by my comment however I sometime see the smallest of bags at the claim belt.

Without the 'smallest of bags at the claim belt' part - this is indeed the correct answer: don't check a bag when not needed. It is the only way to stop airlines losing your luggage

As for every other time when you need to check in luggage - the usual applies:
- if connecting flights are involved, and not with the same airline, or at a reliable hub - try and book the flights with a longer transit time in between
- check in early
- priority tags if possible (if premium class or higher tier membership)
- always, always - take photos of your luggage before or as you check in
- always have them clearly labelled both inside, and on the outside with a strong luggage tag with your info

On that last point, I have had luggage lost and ground handling staff clueless - until I showed them photos of my bag with a distinct label, and they were found almost immediately (except that one time, which is for another thread )

 

[Mattg]

How to stop airlines losing your checked luggage... don't check a bag when not needed.

Sure people will get fired up by my comment however I sometime see the smallest of bags at the claim belt.

I took a (full) flight last weekend where pretty much everyone with a small carry-on sized suitcase at the boarding gate had it forcibly gate-checked. There were over 50 bags tagged and put in the hold. There was no charge for this but the gate staff wouldn't take no for an answer.

 

[bussyboy]

1 in 200!?! Surely not!

What are the chances of lost baggage, as opposed to delayed?? It's a huge difference these scenarios

 

[snabbu]

Someone from Qantas baggage services discouraged me from using Q bag tags for tight connecting flights, because they "require a manual scanner so are sorted last if the team are in a rush".

This was after the only time my bag has been lost domestically, and it wasn't a particularly tight connection at MEL.

Exactly the same thing happened to me many moons ago when the Q bag tags were introduced. I didn't like them initially (preferred the rectangular credit card sized bag tags you could write your name/phone number on etc that slid apart/together) but thought I'd do the right thing and use them for a SYD-BNE-CNS trip. Arrived CNS and no bag. Straight to baggage and it wasn't even a question... "Hi there, you used the new Q Tags right?"

Never lost a bag before that and haven't since. Q Tags have been used a grand total of one time.

 

[747sp]

With the airtags some airlines like JAL do not allow you to have them in your luggage. So always check the airlines policy

 

[RooFlyer]

I would add to How to make things easier if your checked luggage goes missing (possibly ultimately lost) - take sequential photos as you pack your bag. If you have to make an insurance claim, this makes it much easier to remember (and if necessary, help prove) exactly what was in the bag, and if the clothing brands are expensive - this fact.

 

[exceladdict]

Exactly the same thing happened to me many moons ago when the Q bag tags were introduced. I didn't like them initially (preferred the rectangular credit card sized bag tags you could write your name/phone number on etc that slid apart/together) but thought I'd do the right thing and use them for a SYD-BNE-CNS trip. Arrived CNS and no bag. Straight to baggage and it wasn't even a question... "Hi there, you used the new Q Tags right?"

Never lost a bag before that and haven't since. Q Tags have been used a grand total of one time.

I have otherwise had success with them, and rarely have issues connecting Syd, Mel, BNE or adl (ex per) other than this one time. In any case they're almost always on the bag as an ID tag.

 

[p--and--t]

Been flying since the early 70s, thousands of flights, more than 250 in one year, 75 countries.

Only once in all that time luggage not waiting for me at carousel (AN BNE-MEL) but delivered to my hotel room a few hours later.

Touch wood, lost luggage not something I lose sleep over.

 

[theblank]

Without the 'smallest of bags at the claim belt' part - this is indeed the correct answer: don't check a bag when not needed. It is the only way to stop airlines losing your luggage

As for every other time when you need to check in luggage - the usual applies:
- if connecting flights are involved, and not with the same airline, or at a reliable hub - try and book the flights with a longer transit time in between
- check in early
- priority tags if possible (if premium class or higher tier membership)
- always, always - take photos of your luggage before or as you check in
- always have them clearly labelled both inside, and on the outside with a strong luggage tag with your info

You just restated everything the article says.

 

[theblank]

I would add to How to make things easier if your checked luggage goes missing (possibly ultimately lost) - take sequential photos as you pack your bag. If you have to make an insurance claim, this makes it much easier to remember (and if necessary, help prove) exactly what was in the bag, and if the clothing brands are expensive - this fact.

Insurers state in their policies or claims information that they wont accept photos of bag contents as proof of the loss.
They say the only thing they accept for proof of ownership is a receipt.

some people have said insurers have accepted a Stat Dec of the inventory.

having made a few travel insurance claims recently, the one thing i have discovered is reciepts rule the day. If event is proven and receipt is presented, they just pay up no questions

 

[troels]

I always put a large printed sheet inside the luggage with my name, country, city, phone number and email on it.

 

[epsc]

Last weekend, flying CDG-SYD via SGN on Vietnam Airlines. Wife’s two checked bags didn’t arrive, baggage services said they’d been sent to the US on Delta (no conceivable reason why). They gave me the lost bag report form, which had no contact number, but suggested contacting them by email and using the bag tracer website. Bag 1 (with Apple tag) showed up within 24 hours (tag showed it went back to SGN then caught the flight we’d been on 24 hours before. Bag 2, no news. Heres the point of this post: I called the Menzies Aviation number they’d called from about bag 1, no answer, was urged to leave a message but the voicemail box was full. Sent an email, it bounced as the inbox was full. Tried the bag tracer website, it said that my airline wasn’t using that service. Checked the Menzies Aviation website, found the email address of the Operations Manager, sent him a cranky email, and within ah hour got a voicemail from someone in baggage services saying that the bag still hadn’t shown up, but she would go down and check and call me back. Of course she didn’t call me back. Called Menzies accounts department (the only number that anyone was answering) and got a guy who said he’d pass the message on. Bag showed up last night. Unbelievable.

 

[marks]

I always put a large printed sheet inside the luggage with my name, country, city, phone number and email on it.

Its not locked?

 

[epsc]

Insurers state in their policies or claims information that they wont accept photos of bag contents as proof of the loss.
They say the only thing they accept for proof of ownership is a receipt.

some people have said insurers have accepted a Stat Dec of the inventory.

having made a few travel insurance claims recently, the one thing i have discovered is reciepts rule the day. If event is proven and receipt is presented, they just pay up no questions

They’d go down in a ball of flames if you took them to the Civil and Administrative Tribunal. Regardless of what they say they will accept as evidence of loss, your testimony as to your loss constitutes admissible evidence. But yes, having receipts is so much easier.

 

[troels]

Its not locked?

They will always open it if they lose the airline tags or your own luggage tags on the outside. If there's no contact info it eventually gets sold off. This is a last resort tactic.

 

[StingyGeek]

With the airtags some airlines like JAL do not allow you to have them in your luggage. So always check the airlines policy

Perhaps things have changed...
JAL's website https://www.jal.com/en/flight/safety/airport/baggage.html
Shows that electronic items with less than 2g of lithium are allowed in checked baggage.
Since the airtags with ±0.1g of lithium are only one-twentieth of this amount, they would now be permitted.