How to Help Ensure the Airline Won’t Lose your Luggage

 

June 24, 2016luggage lined up against the wall

 

Have you ever had your luggage lost or misplaced by an airline? If you have, you must agree with us that it is one of the most inconvenient problems to have. You are usually left without any concrete information about your luggage or estimate time of arrival for the first few hours or even days. The truth is that mistakes happen, so there is no 100% way of making sure your bag won’t take a vacation of its own, but you can take a few simple measured to try to prevent is as much as possible. Here are some of our best tips:

 

Outside Tag: Make sure to get a plastic or leather tag instead of relying on the paper ones that the airline provides. Even if your luggage already comes with a slot to place the name on the back, make sure to add an extra one to the top. It should have your name, address and flight number. Only having your home address on it can really delay the process, so always have the address of where you are heading to on the luggage. So you will need to make two address tags. One for going and one for coming back.

Inside personal info: Print several papers with your name, address, flight numbers and times and contact information and place it in every single pocket your luggage offers. Including the actual big compartment. If your tag gets loose of wet and it’s unreadable, these will help agents identify your bag and send it to you in a timely manner.

Bag claim ticket: When you check in your luggage, make sure you are receiving the little bag claim ticket stub, so if they happen to lose your bag you have proof that you did dispatch a bag.

Agent double check: Check in agents are usually busy and, like any of us, can get distracted. Avoid chatting too much when they are labeling your luggage. And make sure to ask them to verify if the tag they printed says the right airport code (that you can easily look up online). If they don’t actually look at it and just automatically respond “yes,” then feel free to reach the tag once it’s on the bag and look at it yourself.

Bright luggage: I know we all have a preference when it comes luggage style and color, but having a very “out there” colorful luggage can really help differentiate yours and prevent another person from mistaking your luggage for theirs or even stealing your luggage. If you would still rather keep your black suitcase, then add some ribbons, duct tape, or colorful tags to help you identify it as soon as it comes out on the rotating belt.

small luggage with stickers on it