mlbcruiser

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.

julia1

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.

lincasanova

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.

MissGreen

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

NoFlyZone

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.

madgicsh

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?

mamamia2

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...