Lost Luggage!
 

Has anyone else ever had their luggage taken by accident off the luggage belt?
I was studying abroad in London, my first time abroad, and when I got off my flight I waited for hours for my luggage to come off the belt. But it never did.
I finally had to take the last suitcase that was left on the belt, after 3 hours of waiting around, and took the risk that the woman whose suitcase I had perhaps had my suitcase.
So I had to trek across London to the hotel the woman was staying at, and luckily she had my suitcase! She didn’t even apologise for her mistake, I was so mad but had to stay polite!
Anyway I guess I learned the hard way that you have to personalise your luggage. Since then I traveled with a large duct tape "X" across the whole front of my suitcase.
I found a good site www.idclarity.com. I bought a SkyCrest from them, its sort of a canvas quality image that sticks to luggage to identify it. I'm happy with mine.
I just hope that noone has to go through the stress that I went through that time in London. I didn’t realise until then how valuable the contents of your suitcase actually are!
Happy travelling :)

No advertising policy is clearly being violated!

I look for the best dressed female traveler on the plane close to my size and steal their luggage when they aren't paying attention.

GoTravel - LOL!!!!!!!! :-))

I just happened to see a similar incident in play last week. The gentleman was outside of the baggage claim area and well on his way through the double row of doors, when another man caught up with him and spoke loudly,"Sir, you have my bag."

The strangest thing was that the abductor didn't even apologize but just dropped it, turned around and headed back without a snicker of acknowledging the person who had trapsed quickly after him quite a distance to get his own bag. With his own bag in hand, this true owner happened to look at me and did an incredulous shrug. He was red in the face.

Actually I have never seen as many "mistakes" as recently. I think Go Travel was quite funny, as well- but don't doubt that some are now doing exactly that, and not leaving the owner laughing. Also I think the rudeness levels at the turnstyles or turnarounds has greatly increased in the last year or two. I'm small and no spring chicken and my guy was shocked this last trip, as I was standing quite aside, when this young man rolled a big case and some golf club carrier right over me without a pause in his haste to leave the area. They also pull their case or hard-sider off the beltway and right into the others legs besides them.
Why, oh why does everyone push so!

Honestly, it would have to be the most stupid crime ever to purposely steal luggage (unless it was for the luggage). You would not know what kind of clothes and other mess you would be getting.

Another reason I never check luggage. I hate having to mess around with the luggage carasel.

Oh, GoT, you stole my answer. I was going to add that it's best to search out the luggage that has the "high priority" sticker/tag on it. Usually denotes business or first. And, of course, if you can sniff out the authentic LV, that's your best bet. :D

By the way (as if I needed to mention this) -- I am kidding.

LOL, Michelle. I just can't imagine that this is even a crime.

Getting your own luggage is such a PIA that I can't imagine grabbing others. You could really only get one or two bags at a time and I think security would start to recognize repeat visitors to the baggage claim after a while.

I put gold ribbons on my luggage so I can spot it quickly. One time I saw a woman pick up my bag without looking at the tag. I caught up with her and told her that's my bag, and she frowned at me like I was being rude. Maybe she was a thief, or maybe she was just made a mistake and was embarassed. I couldn't tell. In any case, whenever my plane lands I waste no time getting to the baggage claim, and I stand as close as possible to the place where the bags come out. This helps to prevent people from taking my bag, whether on purpose or not.

This happened to a friend of mine when we went to the Bahamas. The only bag left on the belt was one that looked just like hers, but had someone elses tag on it. Thank goodness the other person was smart enough to put the name of his hotel in the Bahamas on his tag. The airlines contacted his hotel, but it took until the next day for my friend to get her luggage. She had NO identifying tags on her bag!! I can't believe she checked a bag that wasn't clearly marked. She had NOT made that mistake again!

I found some very large, very neon luggage tags that I put on my bags to help prevent the mistaken pickups. (Embarasses the heck out of my husband and son when they travel). I purchase cheap luggage rather than expensive luggage to make it less inviting to someone looking to make a haul at the pick-up carosel. Also, when it gets beat up by the airlines its no big deal.

It continues to amaze me that most airports don't check luggage leaving baggage claim area against your barcode tags. I can't think of any other situation where we rely so heavily on customer honesty.

My mom had this happen recently--at BWI, a porter took her floral motif luggage off the belt and added it to a loaded cart. I wasn't there so don't know the exact details but she told me she saw her luggage on the man's cart as it headed out the door. She stopped him, explained the situation, then had to argue with him to check the tag--it was hers. Timing was everyting in this situation.

Back in the days (ahem) when people still rode trains, I was invited to accompany my best friend and her parents on a spring break trip to her uncle's in Boca Raton. Proud of my new tan when all others in New England would be pastey white, I began the return trip in white shorts and a sleeveless top, arriving in NYC looking, I thought, most cool and definitely feeling it--it was March. Bags were unloaded; people claimed their's and left, but there I was, shivering in my white shorts (by now with a chocolate stain on the front and a broken zipper to boot), and one lone blue bag left on the platform...a bag that was not mine, although mine was also blue. We turned it in to whomever at the station, and reported my missing bag (not even identical or anything close to that I should add.) Mine finally did arrive at my home in MA about a week or so later, sent from an address somewhere in the Hamptons by the woman who had taken it. Of course there were no "Sorry's" attached and it arrived with the added insult of a COD charge!!

I'm a quick learner of painful lessons. Today my ubiquitous black Tumi luggage travels with the most unglamorous multi-colored floral ribbons tied to the handles. LOL I'm not proud! Even so, I watch the carousel like a hawk. If the handles are turned in the wrong direction, someone could still snag it inadvertently and leave with it. To this day I breath a sigh of relief when we've collected the last of our bags. If there is a better method, I'm all ears, advertising or not.

By the way spongebob, I'm the proud owner and user of a Spongebob Square Pants mouse pad, a Christmas gift from one of our kids--and that's a story for another day...:)

Chicago Midway checks your bar code on your luggage as you leave. And I don't think I ever have it checked anywhere else but there.

I flew into New Orleans about 4 years ago and was pleasantly surprised that they checked my tag. I later found out that it's only when you fly SW Air that they will check your tags at that airport. Apparently SW hires the people in New Orleans who do that. I don't know if it's changed since then.

Flew SW from TPA to MSY in February and they are no longer checking baggage as you leave. Did have it checked in the past.
But geezlouise this OP is nothing but spam....this guy trying to sell luggage markers!

It really is a bit suspicious. This person has never posted before.

I am sorry to hear that they no longer check luggage tags at MSY. I was very impressed that SW was doing this to protect their passengers' luggage from theives.

Good observation about OP.

They check your bar code regardless of what flight/airlines you arrive from at Midway. And they have for years. I don't know why it is different from most other airports. But I do know that when we skiied often- and had the skis to pick up & it sure was a pain to keep all those bar code tags handy as you needed them at check outs between the regular carosels and the ski pick up area- as oftentimes (depending on how many skis they had) they were different. And you needed them as well to get beween the two pick up areas if you had one batch and not the other and had to return again. And then once again as you exited with your entire luggage. And in winter with coats etc. you just didn't seem to have enough hands. But in 20 years of flying out of Midway, I have never been a victim of lost luggage upon pickup.

Surely it was not that long ago that most airlines had personnel at baggage claim to check your tags against your bags? It was up to the individual airlines to provide this service, but it was more common than not. I suppose this security measure has been abandoned for other concerns (some of them financial).

spongebob advertisingpants!

Yes - they do sometimes try to steal your luggage - though I can;t imagne why. Mine has a large multi-colored striped elastic band around it - no one else could mistake if for theirs.

Coming into Paris we were delayed in immigration by a couple of planes from Africa coming in ahead of us and when we got to the baggage area all of the bags for our flight had been pulled and lined up on the floor.

I didn;t see mine but luckily noticed a woman carrying it out towards the taxis and my beau srpinted after her to grab it away. She really resisted giving it up - until he said he would call the police - and a nearby security guard came over. (Luckily I keep a copy of my itinerary on the top of the clothes - so it was easy to prove it was mine. The guard said there are frequently such "confused" people - but this was before 9/11.)

nytraveler, putting your itinerary and contact info on top of your clothes is SUCH a good idea. I've never done it, but I think I'll start.

I wish they would have checked mine when I went to Toronto otherwise I wouldn't have grabbed the wrong bag, that looked identical to mine. I didn't realize this until I get to the hotel, I was horrified, immediately called the airport, brought the back back to the airport within the hour, and sheepishly claimed my own.

Spongebob, your advertising is showing. Put that up! And by the way, since when does it take THREE HOURS to wait for luggage?

My husband and I love to observe people at the airport baggage claim. We have noticed that people in Huntsville stand waaay back from the baggage claim and step up when they see their bag coming around the bend, not a moment before. In Fort Myers, we noticed that everyone stands rightontopofeachother, ascloseaspossible to the conveyor belt, and then fight for first dibs on who can grab their own luggage faster. A generalization, maybe, but it's our own independent study, if you will. We've hypothesized that it's because many eldery people come into Ft Myers and might be a little more apprehensive about having their luggage swiped or lost. It really is funny to sit back and watch everyone there stare at the wall opening, just more and more frantic with every bag that pops out that is NOT theirs.

This game became not-so-funny when our luggage WAS actually lifted by someone in Ft Myers. It was an accident, but the person grabbed our bag right off the belt and took it home! Thankfully it was located a couple of days later when they realized it wasn't their luggage after all. (Maybe my bikini was too large...) Now I find myself hawking my own bag as it comes around the bend, DARING anyone to touch it before it gets to me!!

"And by the way, since when does it take THREE HOURS to wait for luggage?"
Apparently you've never been at the Philadelphia airport during one of USAirways "slowdowns". On a good day it can take an hour and a half for the first piece of luggage to come off a plane there.

We were in Munich/Bavaria/Austria in jan. 2005. And yes people sometimes do accidently grab other peoples luggage.

Because it happened on our trip!! It was our friend who grabbed someones elses luggage. We were already in Austria. It was a huge hassle. So check your tags please!!!!!

I tie an old bright scarf to my luggage. Easy and free of charge.

My father once took somebody's black suitcase off the belt, it look exactly like his. That man screamed like insane while my dad was checking the tag!

I would NEVER put an itinerary or ANYthing that could let someone know my whereabouts or anything else personal like that in my suitcase! They say not to even put your street address or phone number on your luggage tag. How about putting your e-mail addy in there instead? THAT seems like it would be best. How many thieves or innocent 'luggage takers' knows your e-mail addy???
Also, I am glad the poster posted the website of the luggage identifier things. I am sure he was just trying to be helpful. Not everybody has an ulterior motive. I have posted websites of stuff on here in hopes of helping someone get a better deal on things. If people didn't do that, how would we know these sites exist?
Also, one poster stated that there are some travelers that let their luggage hit others in the legs when removing their bags from the carousel. Have you not tried to remove your bags from a moving carousel??? Kinda hard NOT to bang someone. Especially when they are packed around that thing like sardines not wanting to let you in! I am sure most travelers do not do this on purpose. If I ever do that, let me apologize in advance. A little advice-when you are standing next to someone trying to remove a suitcase-move aside a bit. Problem solved.
Aloha!

In addition to having a big, bright but ugly, tag hanging from my bag I also used the wide packing tape to secure my business card to my bag. So far I haven't had anyone walk away from the carosel with it; only had the airline send it on a different trip from me.

please put your name and return address on your luggage! that is how the poor soul got his luugage back on our trip!

I can't see the harm in having an itinerary in your suitcase. I can see why you wouldn't want your home address, since it's obvious that the house is empty, but what can anyone do knowing you're at a particular hotel in Paris, for example?

I picked up someone else's briefcase once exiting an airport rent car shuttle, luckily I realised my mistake before it was too far away !

For checked baggage I tag it on the outside with a new tag showing destination address & phone number and that day's date (maybe even flight number). Inside has tag with home address etc. Outside has tufts of vivid surveyors' tape on handle :0

Have had "lost" baggage once since 1970, and it showed up in the end.