Take photos of your luggage

We tie bright orange ribbons around our luggage handles, but stickers sound pretty good too!

My ski Spotstube is basic black. Like James I decorate the box with decals and stickers and the same colored tape on each half plus the clevis pin. If anything it helps locate my Sportstube at the luggage pickup. (The colored tape didn't prevent TSA from losing the pin.)

I also tape a copy of my destinations, telephone numbers and associated travel dates to the box in addition to the usual luggage name tags. Then I hope for the best.

Excellent tip..

Yes, great tip. I will add it to my pre-trip to do list.

Oh, this forum topic is heading towards another question now: What do you do to make your luggage stand out at the baggage carousel or when someone else has to go retrieve it for you? My old "orange ribbons tied to handles" sound so uncreative now...

I use a rainbow colored cinch strap around my black bag - not only does it make it easier to spot on the carousel (on the rare times I check it) but it also serves to keep the bag secure if a zipper should break.

We put yellow tape around all of the handles on our two suitcases. I do like the suggestion to take a picture of everything you check in. Will do that next Thursday when I fly again.

You should include a yardstick in the photo. The lost-luggage questionnaire has blanks for all three dimensions.

When/if I check my bag: It was the same as all the other small, red, inexpensive, zippered, wheeled bags....until I took at very wide magic marker and covered the sides with the first letter of my last name. Can spot it coming now.

What a great idea, take a picture with a yardstick. I will definitely do this for my next trip. I have a lime green and hot pink initial name tag. It certainly helps me ID my bag, whenever I check it.

ready for an amusing-now-not-at-the-time story? flew from Chicago with a tour group years ago.....the sincere but amateur "host" had made green pom poms for our luggage for us......when we arrived in Dublin, my bag was missing. waited and waited and waited for it to come off the carousel. began claims paperwork with a porter. host and hostess had seen the green pom poms and just grabbed multiple bags off the carousel, and wondered how they had ended up with an extra bag and where I had disappeared to........ no good deed goes unpunished.

I have brightly colored LL Bean rolling duffels. Hard to mistake the bright print coming around the luggage carousel, but just in case some other crazy person on the flight also has the same print, they're monogrammed with my initials.

And, should it ever get lost, it's easy to describe the color/print and would be easy for someone to pick out if they're searching for it.

I use colored ribbon or yarn on handles. Mom makes big asterisks on the front with screaming green or pink duct tape.

But now I really want to see Carol's yellow polka dogs...

Just one more way that carrying on eliminates worry.

For those times I do check bags (like the little puddle jumpers in Europe that have almost no carry on overhead)..... I have a Khaki bag with a custom made ID tag. It is different enough from the average bag that I have not had trouble spotting it yet.

Because my luggage was lost for 2 weeks during a trip a few years ago, I carry on whenever possible. I don't mind gate-checking because the plane is right there and the chance of the bag ending up on a different flight is hopefully very small. Taking pictures of the bag is a great idea. Mine is red, which is apparently the next most popular color after black, and has a blue ID tag. I saw a chartreuse luggage set when I bought mine, but that set wasn't on sale. Even so, sometimes I wish I had bought it because I don't think I've ever seen anyone else with chartreuse luggage!

I carry on whenever possible...

Whenever POSSIBLE is the operative word. Gear restrictions and needs may mandate checking gear. Active travel beyond basic tourism sightseeing often is driven by gear requirements. Renting may be an alternative but is also the fall back option should gear be delayed.

Where renting is not an attractive option, measures to reduce the possibility of delayed, damaged or lost is the operating strategy. This included pulling old destination tags, label, label and label,. and have distinctive bags. Then plan on arriving early to allow your gear to catch up with you in the event of delayed baggage.

Plain black bag. Ugly hot pink name tag, Pink ribbon with Black dog bones on it. Who'd want it! Pic is always taken.

Indeed. I also carry on when possible, but when you're moving overseas and are expected to report to work the next day and hit the ground running, you need more than just a carry on.

I kept my maiden name; both my husband's and my last initials are "H". We painted H's on the bottom of each black suitcase with white Liquid Paper so now with the H's on one end and round red luggage tags on the other, we can find our bags with ease when they are going round and round on the luggage carousel.

Great idea, we will pass that along!

It can indeed be challenging to describe color in another language. I think of the marvelous scene in the film If It's Tuesday This Must Be Belgium in which non-Italian-speaking tourist Murray Hamilton tries to describe "tan" to non-English-speaking shoemaker Vittorio De Sica. Classic.

@Jeff, I remember that funny movie very fondly and that particular scene! The American guy rubs a piece of white leather together with a brown piece and says, "tan" and we know he will end up with a pair of two toned shoes. I was just a teenager then and I actually did a "22 countries in 21 days" European tour when I was 32. After 26 years, I returned to Europe in 2012, but did it without a tour, of course.