We always take carry-on luggage-(RS backpacks), but now being older, it would be nice just to check them through so we don't have to hassle with them. If we had a non stop flight I'd feel fine about it, but our flight has three stops: Sacramento to SFO to Frankfurt on United and then Frankfurt to Edinburgh on Lufthansa - all on the same United ticket.
What is the risk of lost luggage? Would you check or not?
while your concern is understandable, just think of the many thousands of pieces of luggage that are processed successfully every day across the world. we are travelling in europe at the moment and have transferred through numerous airports in the last few weeks.
some things to consider. ask at the checkin desk that the luggage will be transferred thru ( sometimes they put an additional sticker on it, if its changing carriers/planes, to show it is being transferred)
our family experienced one piece of 'lost' luggage, it turned out that it was loaded onto the wrong carousel. so it was there, but not at the correct carousel.
take a photo of your luggage so you can easily describe it , if it does go missing.
hope this helps.
Outbound we always carry on if we have less than three nights in our first destination. On a recent United international flight our luggage did not arrive with us but was delivered to our hotel late the next day. Had we only spent one night it would have been a real problem. On our most recent United domestic flight I checked my bag in three hours before our flight, the plane we were taking home arrived 60 minutes before we had to board AND it was a nonstop flight into Sacramento. Even so, my luggage did not make it and was delivered the next day. No excuses or explanations from United about how something so simple could get screwed up. Since we were coming home it was more annoying than anything. IMHO I would advise to not take a chance with checking on your outbound flight.
We have been checking in our main suitcases for many years now but always carryon hard-to-replace stuff (meds, electronics, etc) plus at least a change of clothes.
Hi Monte --
I know you might end up dealing with both bags.
You might want to cross-pack the bags and then check one through and carry on the other just as "insurance."
Coming home you could check both bags. I'm always glad to stop shlepping my luggage, no matter how lightly I've pack.
Have a great trip!
SharYn
Govt statistics for mishandled bags shows a range among airlines of 1.3 to 3.1 per 1000 passengers
Your chance of your bag arriving on schedule is 99.5% or better.
As long as I am physically able, I will use carry on.
Susan & Monte,
I typically also have three stops on trips to Europe (usually with Air Canada), and I always check my main pack. So far the airline has never lost my luggage, although it was late one time on a trip home but that was due to a strike in Frankfurt. Airport baggage handling systems are mostly automated these days, and incredibly sophisticated. The system in Frankfurt is even able to put luggage into a delayed circle pattern on the conveyor belt if it doesn't have to be loaded right away. At the precise moment, it's kicked onto the conveyor that goes to the luggage wagon, to be loaded on the plane. If the bar code tag attached to the luggage has the correct airports shown, there should be very minimal risk in losing anything.
I plan to continue checking my main pack, and have no worries about that.
The odds are pretty low. I always check on overseas flights. The last time my luggage was "lost" was in 2000 on a Alitalia flight from London to Cairo via Rome. My luggage was lost a total of 5 times between 1990 and 2000 by Alitalia, Lufthansa, SAS, and Air France. Four of the five times, my luggage was delivered to my hotel or home the next day. One time it was missing for 5 days; that was on a direct flight where I checked in early,
I always pack a carry on with a change of clothes and a couple extra pairs of socks and underwear. For me, the risk is worth not having to haul my bag around the airport.
I always check my bags when flying internationally. Only once since 1989 has it gotten delayed. I was flying from Florence to SF. The plane from Florence was late and my luggage got to spend an extra night in Paris. I was notified when we landed at SFO and It was delivered the next night. I don't worry about it. As an earlier poster has said, I carry anything critical, meds chargers etc., with me on the plane. Plus I can always buy clothes at my destination if necessarily.
Just make sure that you verify that the code on the tag is correct.
Assuming adequate connection times between flights and staying in your arrival city for a day or two, then check your bags. Too often, we are forced into fairly to very tight flight connections or flights are changed at the last minute. We also generally continue on from the arrival city before our first accommodation. For us, it would be a pain to manage a delay of hours or longer before checked bags arrived.
TravelingMom makes an important point, How long will you be in Edinburgh? If you are arriving then taking off to the wilds of Scotland, then carry-on. If you will be in Edinburgh for three nights, then check the bags, they should catch up with you by then in any event, and very likely there will be no issues.
Ummm....Well, we do have a 1:25 min connection in Frankfurt and that is also when we change to Lufthansa. We also won't meet the tighter carry on requirements of Lufthansa with the bags we are bringing, and stuffing. Thought we might change from our RS backpack to a roller bag ( the old heavy style since that's all we have currently) since my daughter can not handle her own bag and I'm getting old!
Ummm... Not really sure what to do, we leave tomorrow. Additional thoughts?
I've always checked a bag, though I have a minimal packing list--not as light as many of you, but quite spare--I do like to bring things back from my travels. Even with connections that were sometimes quite short my bag has always arrived, and if not I have the bare essentials in my carry-on tote to get me covered. The jockeying for bin space and worry that my bag would end up checked anyway isn't worth it to me.
Monte, I have some lightweight wheeled bags that you and Paige are welcome to use. I can bring them over after the meeting. A little birdie told me that you were waiting to pack. 😉 I'll throw them in the car. Text me to let me know if I should bring them by.
Susan, last time we checked the luggage size/weight requirements are based on the airline operating your flight of origin and not a connecting flight with a partner airline. In your case that would mean you are bound by the United guidelines for carry on bags, not Lufthansa. You have a very short connection time in Frankfurt (not the easiest airport to maneuver in for connections). If you have your luggage with you and miss that flight it will be much easier to get rebooked. Good luck and have a wonderful trip.
Thanks everyone!
Andrea, you should start a business for renting travel accessories and bags, because we could have already paid you for a trip to Europe all the times we have borrowed all your travel stuff! You are so generous!
Monte says he thinks he is ok. Paige is still packing but her roller is easy for her since it can roll pulling it horizontal and vertical, but likely Monte will put his bag on her roller and take care of both (he has gone back to the back pack). If they freak out and decide differently then I call you and rush to your house to borrow them :-)
I hope your are correct Travelingmom and they can carry on with the United requirements. If not, then it will be the last leg and likely the best one to check anyway.
We do have a wheelchair request in Frankfurt for our daughter so hopefully that will help speed them through to the next flight.
Hi Susan and Monte,
I was without my luggage for four days when we went to the Christmas markets in France, Germany and Austria in December 2015. I bought clothes in France to get me through. The airline compensated me for the clothes that I had to buy as did my travel insurance. Since then I have reinstituted the practice of packing half of my stuff in my husband's luggage and half of his in mine figuring at least one of us will get our luggage.
That's a great idea!
We split our shoes between checked luggage because we are out of "normal" shoe range. We also got one of those yellow plastic luggage tag sleeves that we slide our itinerary in so that if we are hopping from location to the next they know where we going. It has the directions on it in several languages.
Luggage can be lost or delayed because of airline mishandling. Luggage can also be lost when someone other than the rightful owner picks up a similar bag of the same color. There are a lot of similar sized black roller bags on the luggage conveyer and they all seem to look alike. If you are one of the black bag owners, check the name tag to avoid taking some other person's bag. It will save you a trip back to the airport to return/exchange bags.
We just got back and checked bags all the way.
We even had a last minute flight change and bags were on the flight.
Put something on your bags to mark and identify them like tape or a ribbon
We always check at least one bag going overseas. The airline has never lost anything, although my suitcase was once delayed coming home. I was flying out of Florence, and all of the computers were down which meant everything had to be done manually. Three days after I returned, my suitcase arrived, contents fully intact.
We also do the trick of sharing bags. I pack an outfit in my other half's bag and vice versa. I also always pack a spare shirt and undergarments in my carry on bag. That way I'm not totally destitute if my luggage is delayed.
Have a great trip!!!
Thanks so much everyone. Well, they (I'm not going- long story there) are taking a carry on roller bag (normal heavy bag with rollers) and a RS back pack. They will carry on both and then check both coming home. They are likely over the limit of weight with Lufthansa connecting flight, so if they have to check then they will and if those rules don't apply then great. We'll see how it all turns out!
It reminds me of the question, "What's the difference between a recession and a depression." A recession is when someone else loses their job, a depression is when you lose yours.
Odds wise, the chance of someone's luggage getting lost is probably fairly low, but all that's out the window when your luggage is lost.
I started carrying on primarily to add flexibility. If a flight was delayed or canceled, having my bag gave me the advantage of being able to hop on anything and not worry. Flights are fuller now and it's not as easy to be flexible. I keep carrying on because the chances of losing your bag are at least enough for people to advise carrying the things you "really" need with you (medicine, shave kit, change of clothes, swimsuit, etc.). I've reduced my packing to the point that all I carry are the things I really need.
It's not the odds of checked baggage being lost, it's the consequences! A lost bag with things you really need can ruin a vacation.
So, I put everything I absolutely have to have (and if you are disciplined, it's not really that much) in a bag to carry on. The rest of the stuff, since I know I can do without it, I assume will get lost anyway, so I leave it at home.
On one trip to Germany, I had one hour to make a connection in an eastern city. The plane was an hour late leaving Denver due to icing. There were 13 of us on the Denver flight who had to make the flight to Germany, so the airline met us at the gate with a van and took us to the international terminal. I had my carryon, with everything, on my lap. Also in the van were a couple of business men who had checked everything. They were walking around hands-free - fat, dumb, and happy. I suspect when they got to their destination, they were still fat and dumb, but no longer happy.
Several times, I have arrived back in Denver, jet-lagged, with just enough time to make the next bus home. Had I had to retrieve luggage, I wouldn't have made that bus and would have had to wait for the next one in an hour.
"3 stops? Your risk of lost luggage is real. I would NOT check luggage."
That's never been a problem with my trips over many years, and I often have to take three flights to get to Europe. That includes trips where there was as little as 60 minutes between arrival of one flight and departure of the next.
I always check my main bag but carry
all my life/essentials in my under the seat pack.
On my current trip due to delayed departure we arrived in Munich 2 hours late. My healthy window of 2.25 hrs was down to 25 mins, but all passengers with the Prague connection were expedited off the plane , thru immigration and bussed to our connection. I feared the worse for my suicide but there it was on the carousel in Prague!!! I'm an even bigger fan of Lufthansa now!!!
CHECK your bag. The onboarding and offboarding is so much easier.
So Susan -- did the bags make it to their destination ?? Inquiring minds want to know!
They did carryon and were able to follow the United guidelines so their too heavy bags made it fine changing to Lufthansa. They will check bags coming home, just for ease.
Lessons learned- do arrive three hours ahead of schedule, and have your driver leave their cell phone on after they drop you off. When I was almost home I glanced at my cell phone noticed 6 calls and text messages telling me their flight had been cancelled! I rushed back, loaded them in and made a mad dash to SFO with weekend traffic. They made it! But, my nerves were shot! A 7 hour adventure!
Wow! Didn't see that coming!
Glad to hear that once they got on a plane the luggage wasn't a problem. Your nerves, however ....
Good advice about making sure the person left at home is readily accessible.
Yikes! Having the commuter flight into SFO cancelled is our worst nightmare. We much prefer SMF because it is easy and a quick trip home after a big travel day, but we always have to " pad" our timing so we could still make our SFO flight by driving if United cancels the commuter. Sometime soon United is starting a nonstop between SFO and Newark which is very convenient for overseas connecting legs. We are ( naively) believing those flights would be less likely to be cancelled. Glad it all worked out for your travelers.
We never considered there could be a cancellation of a flight!
I think SFO is working on runways right now and they had to cancel many flights. I'm just glad they got off the ground because they later told me the plane was practically empty. That would have been a bummer if that international flight had been cancelled, too.
So, those commuter routes are cancelled often? I hope they make it back to SMF and I don't have to do a PM run to SFO!
I should add : we got a text message saying the flight was cancelled early in the morning. I called United and they said nope, it is good to go, it involved different flights. Later in the day I checked online again and it showed on time. Never got any other text messaged or alerts.
Any recourse ? Seems they should reimburse us for the flight, right? We did use credit card points, so maybe there is no reimbursement. Frustrating though since it took a lot $$ for fuel, plus my time.
I lost my luggage once, on our Vantage tour of China. We were on an internal flight from Being to Xian. Fortunately, our tour manager assisted me with airline personnel and my luggage was found and delivered to our hotel.
I have heard that one of the worst places for having items stolen from your luggage is Miami.
Oh my gosh they should definitely reimburse you for the flight PLUS for the bad information!!!!
Incredible!!!
Susan, if the flight back to Sacramento gets cancelled, Monte and Paige are certainly welcome to take BART from SFO to Oakland and sleep in our guest room until you can pick them up.
Yikes on the cancelled flight!!!
Thank goodness you got them to SFO on time!
Maybe you can get a partial refund of miles ...
I hope the rest of their trip goes more smoothly.
SharYn
Thanks so much for the offer Lauri! I guess we'll see what happens, but we can keep that in mind. You are very generous!
