Name-Tagging our Luggage
 

We're planning a few flights in Europe, so I am printing different ID luggage tags, each for a certain flight, that has the address and phone of the hotel at our flight's destination. Each tag will also show our international cell phone.

What I'm wondering and need some feedback is: Our first flight (ORD-FRA). We're arriving early morning into Frankfurt, and leaving early the next morning to Prague. Does it make sense to have an ID tag with the Frankfurt hotel info? I want to use the Prague hotel info, since I assume if any of our luggage gets misdirected, by the time it arrives -- we'll be leaving Frankfurt already....

...Based on your experience, what's your take on this? Thanks.

Your bag will be identified by the bar coded airline tag, and in the event it's lost you'll need to instruct the airline where to send it.

The airline will not automatically redirect any luggage based on a luggage tag.

I say you just leave your name & contact info.

I always put a complete itinerary and contact information on a sheet of paper and put that into a pocket or on top of the contents. The luggage tag has only my frequent flyer number on it.

If a bag is delayed or the airline routing tag falls off, they airline will look for such an itinerary or other hint of what to do. They will track you down from there.

I agree with J62. Normal contact. I don't put in where I am going.

The airline can track you down IF you have your name and a contact number on the OUTSIDE of a bag..amke sure the contact number is CURRENT.

I'm sorry but I am not convinced the airline is going to open a bag and LOOk for an itinerary..why should they when they can simply call one phone number and reach you?

Agree with the others. If you luggage is mishandled, you will have to fill out a report with the airline that will include your contact information and where to send the bag. Putting the itinerary into the bag is a waste of time.

The only problem with the phone number is what if one is not carrying a cell phone? Or traveling internationally? In my case they are not going to get an answer at my home phone if that were on the bag.

And filling out a report is fine, but what if one is only at the destination for a few hours and moving on after that? It's not difficult to put in a series of dates and hotel phone numbers and stick it in the bag. In fact, I usually just make an extra copy of the itinerary I leave behind at home. No time wasted.

Let make this clear. A name tag is for the airline to ID your bag, to match that bag with your airline reservations/itinerary. In the case where the airline-generated tag is intact, your own name tag is basically irrelevant. But in the case where that airline-generated tag is lost or ripped or damaged, your name tag may be the only way the airline to ID and match your bag, and then to regenerate a new tag.

What you want to do with the bag - forward to whatever address, leave it at the airport, return to your home town - is between you and the airline. The name tag is irrelevant.

If you understand this, it should be clear that the purpose of your name tag is to ID whose bag it is. So, put your name, number, FF number, address or whathaveyou that matches your airline reservations, so that the airline can know whose bag this is. Putting some hotel's name or address in Frankfurt or Prague, or some international SIM cell number that is not on your reservations is NOT going to make things easier.

However, I do recommend putting your name and contact numbers on a sheet of paper where it will be visible if someone opens your bags. Whenever they interview people at the lost luggage place (where they sell unclaimed baggage; in Atlanta??) they often mention that the outside tags had disappeared and there was no identifying info inside)

Obviously, this won't make a bit of difference unless both airline baggage tag and your ID tag are gone, but it does happen!

Never bother with outside tags, just put something inside to ID me. Most places in the world are able to open suitcases without *magic* keys

All our suitcases, like any modern ones sold now, have pockets in the back side of the suitcase, specifically sewn into the fabric, to contain an "ID card" with your info, so - unlike a tag attached with a cord, or even the coded label the airline attaches to the suitcase - I don't see a reason to suspect the ID info there will be lost... I sure would expect the airline to look there if their coded label is destroyed.

So I guess the airline will forward a misplaced luggage to wherever I tell it to, when I file a claim... Yes, that's good news.

I still don't see a reason NOT to add valuable info on the ID tag, beside my name, like my intl. cell number and destination address. There's nothing to lose by adding that info.... A piece of luggage can also get lost ANYWHERE else, beside en-route with the airline....

Some of us are obsessive. I put several luggage tags on my luggage with the name of the hotel I am traveling TO. I do this each time I check my bag and fly on a trip. ON the way home I then put my home address etc on the luggage tags so they know where I am in the USA.

I ALSO print out a large sign w/ all of my going to info and tape that to my luggage. I always list my name and cell phone.

THEN I put my full itinerary inside the luggage on top...so if they open it...the really know how to find me.

If nothing else they can see my luggage coming and going!!! :) I also buy and use the most obnoxious colored luggage I can find!!! My present bag is BRIGHT golden rod yellow and black....looks like a giant bumble bee.

I walked into the Cunard warehouse and stood at the door, and spotted the suitcase in about 10 seconds!!

I actually try NOT to make any statement with any of my luggage... I'd rather not stand out and turn anybody's attention... I don't want any airport bag handlers to be attracted to my belongings, give them any reason to suspect I have some expensive stuff in my suitcases...

"A piece of luggage can also get lost ANYWHERE else, beside en-route with the airline...."

I hear that spouses have gotten better recently about not leaving things behind in hotel rooms, but it is still a challenge. :)

Teenagers & cell phones, now that's another story.

An aunt of mine leaves mostly jewelry behind. She travels a lot, so those trips are getting expensive. Last trip she left her checkbook in the room. A year ago it was an expensive camera (now she uses only disposable). Cell phones? She goes thru 6, maybe 8 a year. Most of the time we call her on her cell it's "not in service" 'cause her husband needs to cancel till they get a new phone.

Mamamia ...I love your aunt!!! She just has more important things on her mind huh? :)

Now see I feel the more obnoxious my luggage is the more likely they will leave it alone. And so far its worked. Knock on wood!!

Plus my travel wardrobe is always made up of Walmart specials so if they did look inside...they would say UGH....and close the bag up quick! :):):)

Leanna, you like my aunt? good for you, I can't stand my aunt. She;s one of those snobs who can afford obnoxiously losing things....

Check out the Magellan catalog. I have their Retriever Luggage tags. They are 3x4" bright yellow tags, that you can put your entire Itinerary inside and on the outside they are printed with directions in 9 languages, to remove and examine itinerary if luggage is misplaced or misdirected. They also make your bag very recognizable when retrieving luggage

Sorry that is 8 languages!

Here's a link

http://www.magellans.com/store/Shop_...cessoriesLA316

"So I guess the airline will forward a misplaced luggage to wherever I tell it to, when I file a claim"

Yes, they will - or at least they should.

A couple of years ago, I flew Northwest (before the merger with Delta was completed) from Boston to Seoul. My checked bag did not arrive - in fact, it was still in Boston! It was supposed to arrive in Seoul on the same flight, 24 hours later. (I had to check luggage because it was December and I needed 2 sets of clothing - it was warm in Thailand but freezing in Korea!)

You should have seen the horrified look the poor Korean NW agent had on his face when I told him I would be in Thailand in 24 hours - and in a city not serviced by NW/DL to boot! (I was flying Thai for that part of the trip, on a separate reservation, and then returning to Seoul a week later for the Korea portion of my trip.) But I left him my hotel information in Thailand, and NW did indeed forward my bag and have it delivered to the hotel for me (the day after I arrived). Good thing I had a couple of changes of clothes in my carry-on!

After their h.s. graduation my daughter and her friend went to Spain and France about 4 yrs. ago. They flew a U.S. Airline through, I think, Boston or another N.E. city to London, where they connected w/Brittish Airways to Barcelona. both coming and going. The friend's luggage turned up missing right away. She had her mom's cell phone along, w/an int'l. chip, so it worked from those countries. The girls were in Barcelona for 3 or 4 nights, and the friend was told each day that the luggage would turn up. Everyday she spoke to both airlines, leaving her cell # and her "story" at every accommodation they stayed at. She used my daughter's clothing and bought a few things to make do. She held up during the trip despite this, but finally broke down crying the day she got home. In the end, not only did she never get her luggage back, she had high phone bills from having to call the airlines everyday, and never got reimbursed for ANYTHING! Each airline blamed it on the other. Her mom contacted these airlines as well, to no avail.

So don't COUNT on being contacted even though you have a cell phone with you, and don't count on an itinerary saving the day (I think airline personnel are often so busy, or indifferent, that many will NOT go the extra mile.

I'm sure there are a slew of similar lost (and found!) luggage stories. Sometimes it's just dumb luck.

Hate to tell you this but ... The 'system' is set up to take a lost-bag report from you, trace where your bag went/was left, retrieve it and send it on its way to you within hours. If your bag is lost/misdirected and things get to the point where someone starts looking inside for info about who you are/where you are, chances are your bag won't catch up with you for days, weeks or until you're back home.

I don't check bags anymore. Mine was once lost on a flight from London to Madrid. I gave the airline my hotel and contact info and they promised to deliver it to me in Segovia the next day. When I returned to Madrid four days later, there it was at the airport waiting for me.

Another time it was lost on a flight from London to Nice. Again, the airline had all my hotel and contact information on the report I filed. The bag followed me from hotel to hotel, Nice to Ventimiglia to Florence to Siena to Lucca and back to London again, always one step behind me.

ALWAYS put your name and contact info INSIDE your bag somewhere also as once when our luggage was lost, the outside tag/s must have been ripped off, an old fishing license found in a side pocket, from a trip several years prior, was the key to reuniting us weeks later.

I bought some fabulously good looking luggage tags and one of them was ripped off on it's first leg. Boo!

MissG, that's why I only use the junk plastic ones on bags, although the nice leather and metal ones Delta gives me are on the hand baggage.

I buy print-it-yourself oversized tags on eBay and print the inserts on the home computer; favourite one is of my 52kg male Rottweiler on the foot of our bed, cuddling his giant yellow fluffy duck. It won't help with lost luggage but it sure helps find them on the carousel! I've never seen another Rottweiler / Fluffy Duck photo, have you?

This is your OP here, back from Europe: We had 8 flights altogether, and only one suitcase out of 4 missed one domestic flight (KLM Ams-Fra), which we got the next morning after couple phone calls...