Know thy bag

After 6 agonising days of waiting, phone calls and worrying, my lost luggage finally returned home to me.

In the past 6 days, I have learnt a few things about how airlines handle delayed or missing bags. To us mere passengers on a flight, it may be just as simple as boarding the plane, suffer the cramp quarters, or enjoy the lap of luxury if you travel in First Class, before getting off the plane at your destination. You may not notice but you have legs and can walk yourself on and off the plane. Your bags, unfortunately, have to be man-handled, many times, before they join you at the end of the baggage claim conveyor belt. That means screw ups are part and parcel of the process.

There are 101 ways for your bag to get separated from you. Barring the occurence of thefts, the commonest reason of all - it missed the flight. Specifically, your flight, especially connecting flights. Humans can rush to make tight flight connections, bags can't. If the bag don't make it, it usually comes in the next available flight, which now becomes a delayed baggage.

The next reason - the baggage tag went missing. Yes, that seemingly impossible-to-tear barcode sticker that was wrapped around your bag; it can fall off, intentionally or not. I have learnt, from UA, that the numbers on these baggage tags are recycled after 72 hours. It means if your bag could not reach its final destination after 72 hours, the airline's systems cannot track the bag using the baggage tag id as it might not refer to your bag anymore.

Most people would file a missing bag report immediately at the airport if their bag never turned up. But no one really knows if their bag was just delayed or was lost somewhere in between.

If your bag was delayed with the baggage tag intact, there's high chance that you will get it back within 72 hours after landing. Most people I spoke to have experienced at most a 2-day wait before their bags showed up.

If you were unlucky, like me, where your bag was still missing after 72 hours, the airline is going to assume your baggage tag id is useless and starts tracing with bag description info instead. Therefore, you will greatly help the Lost&Found people in tracking down your bag with the following information when filing your missing bag report:

1. The type - UA (United Airlines) has a list of bag types, like hard case, hard case with wheels and retractable handles, soft shell with zipper, etc. Identify your bag type as accurately as possible. Airlines (and airports?) seemed to be classifying unclaimed bags according to type first and this also seemed to be the first place to look by the Lost&Found department. Specifying the wrong bag type is going to send them on a wild goose chase.


2. External descriptions - like your bag's brand, color and any other distinctive features. Some people, like me, don't even know the brand of their own bag! These external features show up as descriptive text on a database search. Being precise here will take a lot of guesswork out in the tracking. Whatever your preference, just spend some effort to mark your bag with something unique, like labeling your first name, your pet's name or your college's decal - all should work, in my opinion. I found that airport personnel may not always be permitted to open your bag to identify by contents so don't count on providing the sundry list of your bag.

Of course, you have to prepare the above before you start your journey! Unfortunately, I have to learn it the hard way.