Make sure your phone number is on ( or in) your checked bag!

Thanks for the reminder. I always check in the main bag, the phone # is already on the tags.

Good reminder, I am checking to insure I have phone number on tag. Glad that all worked out for you.

And include an email address. We always have a very noticeable luggage tag on our luggage. A small piece of duct tape covers everything but our name. And we added a little extra colored plastic tape on the bottom side near the wheels just to make our bag unique.

Good advice, thanks.

My checked bag is not your standard 22" rolling bag and it's not black so it stands out. Still I put two brightly colored luggage tags on it to make it more easily identifiable. And to increase the chances of it arriving at my destination I include a copy of my flight info, either printed or hand written if I forget to print one. I just put it in an outside pocket. Also on those airlines where you self tag your checked bag (southwest and JetBlue). I peel off one of the barcode like stickers and affix it to my bag.

Tie a colored tie or tape on the bag... I see the latest thing is now a GPS devise you can purchase and put in the bag or a bag with a GPS device already in it.
Do you remember the day that someone was actually checking your baggage claim # to the bag? Haven't seen that in a long time.

Lola,
Good reminder!!

And, also a good idea to tie some distinctive multi-loop ribbon bow on the handles or attach one of those funny plush animal type fobs we see on other traveler's bags. I've even noticed some people put a few strips of colored duct tape on their bags.

I remember on a recent trip, my husband entrusted me with his Orvis zip tote to watch over while he went to the restroom at the airport., as I stood with another couple from our tour. It was right at my feet against the wall...very safely and securely placed. When he came out, looking for his bag, it was gone. What!!! No one had approached me.....same little group, same wall behind us. I'll never forget the look of disappointment on his face. Turns out our tour mate had picked up our tote by mistake, and the tour mate's zip tote (which looked similar) was on the other side of that guy. Crisis canceled!!!

Then there was the time when we shared a van going to the airport in Paris at the end of an RS tour. As we were quickly exiting as the van which was stopping at the various airline signs, I jumped out and quickly grabbed my burgundy RS rollaboard (well, at least I thought it was mine) from the stack in the back of the van. Thank goodness a fellow tour mate realized I had grabbed his by mistake!! What a confusing mess I could have caused had he not been watching so very carefully (and I even had the goofy multi-loop ribbon on mine). And, on RS tours, one sees a lot of the RS brand luggage (for the obvious reason).

Yes, Lola, good advice to actually LOOK at one's address tag regardless of how certain we think we are when grabbing our bags!!

Yes---we will put a bright ribbon or luggage strap on his bag so this mixup does not happen again!

Lola, thank you for the reminder. I have also been told it's better to use your cell phone number rather than home number (if you even have one!) as you're more apt to have that phone with you.

we will put a bright ribbon or luggage strap on his bag so this mixup
does not happen again!

And just hope someone else doesn't use the same color ribbon.

This reminds me of an incident years ago. Someone was flying into Europort and transferring to Basel Badischer Bahnhof. I looked at the schedule from the Basel Verkehr site, figuring the station at which they had to switch from the bus from the airport to a tram. I even sent them Google Map satellite images of the change point showing the location of the bus stop and tram stop. All for naught. They picked up the wrong bags at the airport and didn't discover it until they were in Basel. They had to take a taxi back to the airport and ended up missing their train from Basel Bad.

All these are things you don't have to worry about if you carry your bags on. But if you do check, make extra sure the bags you take are yours, hope everyone else does the same, and distinctly mark your bags.

Do you remember the day that someone was actually checking your baggage claim # to the bag? Haven't seen that in a long time.

Delta does it at LaGuardia in NYC. I was surprised to be stopped on my way out of baggage claim last February, and I had to dig in my purse to find the ticket.

After reading some people's experiences having a checked bag go astray, I took photos of our bags as we checked them in for the flight home -- mine was decorated with rainbow-colored duct tape, my husband's had an orange-and-black pompom (Go Giants!) Not needed, as it turns out, but if anything HAD been lost we would have been able to give a precise description. And yes, phone number /e-mail outside and inside.

My bag has only been lost once. It arrived two days later, but I think the idea of taking a photo of it is brilliant, especially when I was standing at the airlines desk trying to describe my suitcase.

That was a new suitcase, though. All my old luggage that I would check is hand painted. Very few people are going to grab my bag with the large, hand painted smiley face on it.

Pom -Pom is a great idea! Ours would be Seahawks colors.

In many years of checking bags, this is the first issue we have had ( although family members have had others). Our rule for checking is only if it is a single flight ( so generally domestic flights). For connections, we carry on.

I admit we were in a bit of a rush at baggage claim, to get home and pick up our dog from the dog sitter. When we realized we had the wrong bag, my first thought was, OK, I will go back to the airport with this bag and look for yours; you go get the dog. But then we realized we could look for a phone number on their ID tag and call. That turned out so well it cost us little extra time and we picked up our doggy as planned. That is how I learned the importance of the phone number on the bag tag.

And yes, I do remember the days when one had to show a claim check matching the bag to leave the baggage area. That was long ago. . . I have not seen that in many years at any airport.

In addition to putting contact information on the outside, I think it's a good idea also to put it on the inside - in case the outside tag gets damaged, pulled off, etc. Just before closing the bag, I put a sheet on top with my contact info, so it's the first thing seen if the bag is opened.

I rem we were waiting for a bag and one came out with bright curly ribbon on the handle - the lady with that bag was standing beside me and I said 'what a great idea' and she said it really helps her to pick hers out since it was a basic black suitcase...

I bought a "Kermit the Frog" green luggage tag with a neon pink V. So far, I have not seen another bag with this tag. It makes my generic black bag extremely visible. I always put a sheet with contact information inside my bag. It has list of all hotels and dates of stay, along with my name and cell number. (I did away with land line 3 years ago).

Thanks for advice! I try to use the bags that stand out of the crowd, so that it is easy to spot it. There are not many chances that someone will take the bag by mistake, but if it happens, the name/phone tag will definately help.

We had a similar experience on a cruise. The shuttle that took us back to where our car was parked made multiple stops. When we arrived, my brother-in-law's bag was gone...but another bag was there. We were the last stop. We complained to the driver, but he said "not my problem". We took the bag (he left) opened it up and found a phone number. Sure enough, the lady was zipping up the freeway confident her bag was in the trunk. She turned around and drove back. For the record, the stuff in her bag was much more valuable than the stuff in my brother-in-law's bag!!

I like to use a bright colored luggage strap around my luggage. It helps me identify my luggage quickly, and (hopefully) someone won't take my luggage by mistake. I keep the same color for all our luggage. I use bright blue luggage straps and I also get the same color handle wraps.

It's nice to quickly identify them at baggage claim at the airport or at the hotel storage area.

A older gentleman once grabbed my husband bag--blue, Travelpro carryon. My husband told him he grabbed the wrong bag. The man insisted that he had the right bad and was convinced that my husband was conning him. My husband finally convinced the man to open the bag and of course the bag was my husbands. The man's bag was still on the conveyor belt.

Lola, thanks for this reminder.

I have a red 22" suitcase - I think red is the second most common color after black - with a rainbow luggage tag. Even though I don't check it, I still write on an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of paper my itinerary (dates, cities, hotel names) and include my home address, cell phone number, and e-mail address. I put that paper inside my suitcase in case I have to check it and in case it gets lost or someone takes it by mistake.

My alma mater offers a luggage tag with a raised mascot logo. I've never seen another one like it. That allows me to easily identify my bag if I have to check it.

Next time you're at the bag carousel, see how many of them have "ribbons" on. More than you can imagine. My suggestion is to find a tag or something that is really unique and can be seen from a distance.

I once flew from Chicago to Dublin with an Educational Opportunities group. in Chicago the enthusiastic volunteer hostess gave us all green pom poms for our luggage that she had hand made. when we got to Dublin, my bag did not come off of the carousel. I was at lost luggage filling out the paperwork when my friend came to get me......seems that Miss Enthusiastic was snagging ALL of the green pom pom bags and piling them up.....thinking that we'd all be thrilled at her good deed.

I have used pompoms in the past but have had them torn off (same with luggage bands). I cut circles out of red duct tape and put them on all sides, top and bottom of my black suitcase. My bag was very easy to spot on the carousel. Pretty sure no one else had the same look.

Good reminder!

Some luggage tags have space for a physical address. Don't use that. It tells baggage handlers and others at your home airport that you will be out of town - if any of these people are looking for a house to break into, yours just got on their radar. Obviously this matters less when coming home - a baggage handler in London won't care about your house in Denver.

I put my email and cell phone and home city on the luggage tag, then I try to have a paper in the suitcase with the same info (and maybe another phone or email, since there is more room) in case the luggage tag gets ripped off. Not sure if that ever happens, but writing your info on a paper is easy enough so no downside.

One thing not mentioned is the tag your bag gets when you check in. On the barcode is information about you and the flight you were on. It can be read at any airport.