Lost luggage?

On a Best of Ireland with RS a few years ago my bag did not arrive for 9 days of the 14 day trip...I only carry on now....
Note: It was not really the airlines fault, but no fun just the same. Long story of fire at the airport, cancelled and delayed for thousands of folks (Chicago). BUT made me never want to check a bag again. Yes, 1 in a million or whatever but once it happens to you, you will be converted.

We have traveled extensively to Europe, around Europe, cruises, etc., for over 20 years with checked luggage about a third to half the time. Never had a lost bag or even late. The vast majority, probably 98, 99%, of luggage arrives on time and with you. It is rare for a bag to go missing. But it can happen and if you are the 1 in million, it is a big problem. On a Rick Steves's tours you will be hauling your bag frequently from the hotel to the bus, some hotels don't have elevators or you have to climb a set of stairs to get to the elevator, and sometimes the bus can only get within a couple blocks of the hotel so you are handling you luggage fairly often. If you are taking a direct flight from the US to Rome you will have your luggage. The Best of Rome does stay put in one hotel. Traveling light is learned behavior. No one travels light on their first trip. Of all the things to worry about, lost luggage is very low on my list.

I think you should feel free to check a bag. I'm sure you already know to keep all your documents and a change of clothes/toiletries in a carry on as well. I have checked bags multiple times to Europe without problems. Could there be a problem in the future? Of course, sometimes things happen. Statistically, your chances of your bag being lost are somewhat low.

How many airport connections ? We routinely check one rollaboard-size bag and carry on a cabin bag with prescription meds, one change of clothes, and stuff we don't want to trust to checked baggage. (This for trips of 4-8 weeks.) But we often fly non-stop so there is much less chance of misdirected bags. Over the last 10 years all bags arrived with us on the way over, only had delays twice on the way home.

Since you will be on a one-location tour, any bag that gets delayed will most likely be delivered to your hotel by the next day.

In nearly 30 years of travel and 40 countries it has happened to me twice. It can happen but not very often. Perhaps you could purchase the RS backpack, pack light and carry it on. You are only going to be in Rome for 7 days so you don’t need that much. Mix and match outfits and do a little hand wash in your room at night and you should be fine. You have time to plan. Make it into a game.

I have travelled to all the continents except Antarctica numerous times and have never had a bag lost or delayed. I always check a bag and pre Covid took 3-4 trips a year.

You want to take more stuff and not be bothered with trying to wash clothes mid tour, then take what you need and don’t be brainwashed into thinking you only have to travel light. You don’t!

We have traveled extensively and only started checking bags a few years ago. Only had delayed luggage one time, in Paris. Later found out it had arrived on the flight after ours but we didn’t get it for another day. We carried luggage on for years so we could get out of the airports faster, get through passport control before the rest of the passengers on our flights. Never worried about it being “lost.” Several airlines allow you to track your baggages’ location through their apps. American is one of many who offer this. It would give you peace of mind. Download the airlines apps before your flights and sign into them.

In over 45 years of flying I've never had a bag lost, and can count on one hand the number of times it was delayed by a day or 2. Since you'll be in the same hotel for a week, a delayed bag is no big deal as long as you also have a carryon with all your necessities, including a change of clothes.

And if disaster strikes and the bag is actually lost? You will have both a tour guide and a hotel front desk who can point you to a department store where you can get replacements. Not something to lose sleep over.

We have traveled extensively and have never lost a bag. I do pack some added items in my personal carry on. I recall one of our tour members bag never made it for our trip to Southern Italy & Sicily. She had packed an extra t shirt in her carry on bag. When we got to Positano we went shopping & she bought an outfit, & extra pair of shoes. Along the way she picked up a few other things. She was a trooper- never complained. Just more sink washing than usual! Her luggage was found upon return.

Oh, hey, while the odds are in your favor, luggage arrival is a binary event, it either gets there or it does not. It is not a predictable outcome; there are no factors you can influence. None.

I have lost bags on several domestic flights over the decades. Last time, someone in Denver took my similar-looking bag from the carousel. Took me 24 hours to get my stuff. That was the last straw for me. As an ultralight backpacker and experienced bicycle tourer, packing everything necessary for all kinds of weather into a single carry-on was not only easy, it was great fun to assemble and parse all my gear.

Here’s what the savviest travelers recommend: pack everything you need to survive for a day or three in comfort into your smallish carry-on and put everything else in your giant checked suitcase. Easy-peasy.

I recently did a 3-week US trip by car with my husband, so I perked up at this, "I know that Rick recommends taking just one carry-on bag, but I tried that on a recent domestic trip and I simply needed more stuff."

I found that on our domestic trip I didn’t really need more stuff, but that I took more anyway. I could've managed quite well without so much.

For years I've had the good fortune of having a pilot son and standby privileges on SkyWest and Delta. Checking a bag is not an option under those circumstances. Carry-on and a personal item are the only way to go.

I have Rick Steves tours to Istanbul, Village Italy, Scandinavia, Portugal and Spain under my belt. My experience is that unless it was outside the group activities and I didn’t see them, no one dressed up for anything. So if your "more stuff" is extra clothes, careful wardrobe planning and coordination along with a cool scarf will get you through -- especially since your trip is only for a week.

In fact, I pack for a week no matter how long I'll be gone. So far my longest trip has been six weeks.

You posted your question under Covid-19 & Travel. You might get more responses if you post it in the Packing Forum (https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/packing). You'll also see lots of discussions there on related packing topics.

On multiple international flights in the past 10 years I have had luggage delayed once. This was on an Athens-Milan-Toronto flight. The layover in Milan was under 2 hours, and my bag did not make it onto the flight. It was delivered to my home in the US (note the flight was into Canada, crossing the border was apparently not an issue) in I think 3 days. Multiple people on that flight had bags delayed, they were not all on short layovers or coming from Athens. Something apparently happened with luggage services in Milan.

My main advice is to have things you absolutely need in your carry on. That would be medicine, basic toiletries like a toothbrush, anything valuable like a computer, clean underwear and socks, and things you need in your first few days and can’t replace easily. So for a beach vacation I’ll have a swimsuit in my carry on because swimsuit shopping for women is an ordeal. My husband could just pick up shorts at any store with minimal hassle so doesn’t bother. For a hiking trip we will have our boots with us or wear them because we can’t hike well without them and they are very expensive to replace.

Check out these links. Why check a bag, worry about it and run the risk of losing it? Challenge yourself to do a carry-on. You will be glad you did.

https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/packing-light/packing-list-women

https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/packing-light/packing-smart

https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/video/travel-talks/packing-light-right

How many flights do you have before your international leg? If you are flying directly from an International hub, to me the chance of lost luggage is less than those of us who have to fly to a hub and connect. I've no stats to back that up, it's just an opinion. Still, I've not lost luggage since 1975, lol

I suspect you are not really wanting packing advice but...I just got back from a month in France and did a capsule wardrobe section in my Trip Report. For a week, I'd take 1 less shirt and no need for a LS shirt for Rome in April but I would take a LS dri-fit or cardie. I would wear long pants on the plane and take 1 or 2 pr of crop pants if the weather forecast was for 70's (I'm not real heat tolerant!). I would take a waterproof jacket with a hood.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-9-21-10-24-paris-road-scholar-tour-of-sw-france-paris-lol

For domestic trips, I usually have my clothes in my 20" or 22" rollaboard. I DO fill the car with extraneous stuff as most of my domestic trips are to Yellowstone so need a spotting scope, cooler, outerwear options, chair, blah, blah, blah. Depending on how long I'm gone I might do sink wash or last June I just got lazy and took underwear for the 16 or so nights I was gone, lol.

In the end, however, it's your trip and you can pack as you wish. I do recommend you arrive a day or 2 before your tour starts. There is PLENTY to do in Rome for extra days!

Sometimes luggage gets mislaid; sometimes the wrong luggage is on the conveyor belt

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-59141394

Many people seem to prefer stories to facts. So if that's what you need then skip the rest of this. But stories are not data. The US tracks how many bags are lost and the rate is roughly one out of every 325 bags. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_luggage RS has said he will have 30,000 people on his tours in 2022 so if each of them checked bags then he'd have about 100 travelers with lost luggage.

I tried that on a recent domestic trip and I simply needed more stuff

It's not a need, its a want. And it's fine if you want to bring more, but you'll have to accept the risks. You can have a 100% certainty of less stuff arriving (eg. carryon) or have a high likelihood of more arriving but take a chance that it gets lost (eg checked baggage). Only you can decide if the risk/consequences is worth it.

Greer continues her question in the Packing Forum:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/packing/lost-luggage-59d04fe1-9165-4739-a4d5-cb8d1bd259c1

Hi,

Luckily, I have never had a piece of luggage lost either domestic or international in 50 years of traveling. I always check in luggage, , sometimes I don't have a carry-on at all. Both pieces are checked in. Most of the time, I travel solo.

The last few trips, however, it's only the spinner that is checked in.

One time , the closest I came (nervously) to thinking that my suitcase was lost was in 1989 landing at FRA after a non-stop from SFO on Condor. I was one of the few, say 15% , still waiting for the suitcase to show up. Obviously, someone has to be last just as some one is the first to have his/her luggage roll out. I looked at the others waiting with me, , was relieved when the suitcase rolled out. I remember seeing other fellow passengers with no luggage

I know RS tours always stress the need to carry your luggage up stairs and along streets as a reason for packing light and carry-on luggage, but I would also guess that they don’t want you to lose valuable tour time stressing about lost luggage. While lost luggage is uncommon, it does happen. It looks like you’ve gotten lots of good suggestions for ways to pack light or make sure you have enough in what you do carry-on to survive, but would you want to give up tour time to replace your stuff?