Tips to avoid losing your luggage

Mardee--This was of interest to me as my brother just had a horrendous experience with his checked bag. He flew from Denver to Dallas to Madrid. His bag stayed in Dallas for 3 weeks. He had a tag on it with his name, address and phone number and had an air tag inside. He kept calling American and telling them exactly where it was in the Dallas airport. It arrived in Madrid after he left to come back home. Once home it still took a while. His bag was misplaced for 38 days. This was all his stuff to walk the Camino. He did drop the ball on this by only having his work backpack and the clothes on his back. So upon arrival in Madrid, there he was ready to do the Camino but in jeans, Hoka trail runners, and a work backpack. Thankfully his friends gave him extra shorts and socks. He bought one pair of underwear, lol. Once the bag was back in Denver, American called and said it was there and asked if he would like to come get it. He is a good sport and was polite, but told them no he was not driving 40 minutes and they could deliver it:)

Thanks for posting that link, Mardee..and reading the comments that follow was entertaining!

We started using Tile trackers in 2021 when travel resumed during the pandemic and airports reported mountains of luggage. Like you, Mardee, we check bags partly due to trekking sticks and partly due to lengthy trips.

Just last month, my Tile helped the airline find my bag in Reykjavik when the carousel stopped and my bag wasn’t on it. Only took them 10 minutes to locate it in the bowels of the building and send it up to a carousel, no paperwork required!

He bought one pair of underwear, lol.

Hahaha, typical guy!!!!

Cathy, I forgot to read the comments! I love the comment about Naples airport, lol! :-)

Laurel, I agree. I use AirTags and love the reassurance of knowing that my bag has made it on board. Yes, Delta does have bag trackers on their app, but occasionally they don't work, and my AirTag always does.

Mardee--So true! When he bought the 2nd pair of underwear I don't know why he didn't buy more.

We just used AirTags from So Cal to Hawaii. It showed my husband’s golf bag not being on our plane. Yet sure enough it was. On the return home my tag showed my luggage over the top of the volcano on the big island, which isn’t even the island we visited. I am still pondering that. It too was on our flight and on the luggage belt when we returned home.

It's possible that there weren't enough iPhones around to accurately track them, since they don't use GPS. That's one reason we don't have one for our dogs. We live in a rural area and if they got free, there would be no one around to bounce the signal off. But at least your situation was good, as opposed to it showing the luggage on the plane, and then not being there. :-)

Thanks for sharing the article. We rarely check a bag, but we have luggage tags and air tags just in case.

I'm a big propoent of Airtags for many things. But an important point from the article is this:

Remember, since AirTags don’t have GPS tracking built in, they only update location when they are within range (up to 100 feet in ideal conditions) of other Bluetooth-enabled Apple devices.

So it is really showing the last location a tag was nearest another device. If the baggage handlers dont have iPhones, it may not give a current location. It's not 100% reliable.

KD, a wild guess is that your volcano bag could have been just close enough to a fellow airplane passenger with an iPhone or iPad to send a signal, and not later.

Here’s a reminder to check the battery status of your AirTag. We don’t get a notice when ours is low like we do with our car fob so we’ve decided to replace the AirTag batteries once a year. We got ready for our second European trip this fall and looked everywhere for one of our dead AirTags in a well hidden, aka forgotten, backpack that was going with us.

I also write my phone number on the inside of my suitcase with a marker, in case the outside tag gets torn off. A card with info inside the suitcase is another idea.

LizinPA, I tend to also include contact info inside my luggage/backpacks as well. On a recent flight from SoCal to Vegas, my luggage tag which was a very strong type of tag; attached with a zip tie no less was no longer on my bag when I arrived. Who knows what happened. But, it had to have been cut off. Even though the airline bag tags have info, it can't hurt to add extra incentive for a lost bag to be returned because of info we provide.

Thanks for the good reminders, Mardee!
LOL, love the dude who bought one pair of skivvies. My husband sez that you can get 4 wearings out of pair if you have to: right side out; wear back to front then front to back; turn inside out and repeat.

We're checked-bag people too and have had only one instance (knock on wood) were we were separated from them. Weird thing was that we missed a connection but our luggage did not. Long story short, the silly things had a MUCH easier time getting to the final destination than we did!

Just bought airtags. Hope we never really need them!

I've never bothered with trackers - lost luggage is likely to turn up eventually, and it's insured anyway, so if I did lose my luggage I'd just claim it

That said, is 30 years of traveling as an adult, I've had only one occasion where luggage has been delayed and missed my connecting flight and one instance of damage. This year alone I've taken 13 long haul international trips, so at least 26 flights (not including intra-Asia) so I think airlines overall do a good job.

To mitigate the problems caused by lost / delayed luggage, consider this. If traveling with a partner or spouse, pack one half of each person's things in each bag. If one bag goes on it's own holiday, each person will still have enought to get by until the wayward bag reappears. We do this even with carry on bags, as they do get gate checked from time to time.

On my last trip I had a message from Lufthansa saying that my checked bag had not been loaded on in Munich.
This as I was actually physically lifting my bag off the carousel here at my home airport.
The world has gone mad…. Or at least the computer systems have!

Here’s a reminder to check the battery status of your AirTag. We don’t get a notice when ours is low like we do with our car fob so we’ve decided to replace the AirTag batteries once a year.

Mona, you can check the status regularly by opening the Find My app on your phone and clicking on the tab called Items. If the battery is low, it will tell you there, and if you click on it, it will show you how to change the battery if you haven't done it yet.

My husband sez that you can get 4 wearings out of pair if you have to: right side out; wear back to front then front to back; turn inside out and repeat.

Kathy, that made me snort! Again, only someone of the males species would say that, lol!!!

We don’t get a notice when ours is low like we do with our car fob so we’ve decided to replace the AirTag batteries once a year.

I get a notification on my phone when the battery is low. If you have notifications turned on, you get an alert. If you want to turn on alerts, go to Settings > Notifications > Find My and turn on the notifications.

If traveling with a partner or spouse, pack one half of each person's things in each bag.

Yes, TC! We do this every trip, along with extra undies and a t-shirt in our daypacks.

I once received enhanced screening in Prague and the authorities made me check my bag. Unfortunately it didn't make it on our flight and my car's electronic key was in the bag.

We had to sit in a cheap Atlanta airport hotel for 2 days until the bag arrived.

My tip to never losing luggage is to pack light and to personally carry the bag on the plane. We check nothing.

Or you could remember to keep your car key in your personal bag so that you wouldn't be stuck in a cheap hotel. :-)

Here's one caveat- I previously posted about my perfectly packed and compliant cabin bag. The small personal item weight allowance was included in the total. I am of the fervent carry-on camp.
So confident with my results (under the weight and size), the only item of practical use was my 3-1-1 bag in the backpack. No underwear, or anything else.
"Never say never!"
For some reason, never explained by Lufthansa, in Amsterdam while the flight to Berlin was a mid-sized jet it had been late arriving and to "save time" the agents insisted everyone gate check their bags.
I wasn't thrilled but could see the baggage crew carrying them by hand back and forth. I even saw mine go on. But then there were a cascade of issues, that plane couldn't take off, they unloaded us- and wouldn't let us reclaim the luggage!
Fortunately I was staying put at a hotel in the arrival city for the week, and the bag was delivered there two days later. Still, huge lesson learned.
As a solo traveler (so no sharing partner solution) next time I will include a small packing cube with some essentials in my backpack- somehow!

My checked bag has 2 ID tags. One is sewn into the bag and the other attached via a wire cable loop. One of the last things I examine before dropping of the bag is to check that the cable loop is tightened. Sometimes it loosens up. I supposed I could add a drop of loctite to keep it secure.

I print out a copy of my flight info and add my cell number and email on it. Goes inside an external zippered pocket. I cross off the flights as needed. If I use a self check kiosk I peel off a couple of those little barcode like stickers. Place strategically on the bag. They actually stick to the cloth material quite well.

So far so good. A few delayed bags but nothing recent. I generally fly nonstop so that helps.

”Or you could remember to keep your car key in your personal bag so that you wouldn't be stuck in a cheap hotel. :-)”

Last February my husband’s carry on suitcase was rejected at the Madrid airport, although it had been fine on all of the connections from Spokane to Minneapolis to Amsterdam to Malaga. He grabbed his iPad and other essentials but forgot to remove his keys from his suitcase. Fortunately his bag showed up with no issues, but it made me add a sublist to my packing list: items I need to collect if my bag is forced to be checked last-minute. For me, it’s my two prescriptions, phone & iPad chargers & adapters, moneybelt (w/ contents), reading glasses & keys. I keep all of those in my Tom Bihn “travel tray” round drawstring bag now when traveling. So, it’s just grabbing two things out of my backpack - that bag & my iPad if forced to gate check.

Good idea, Jean. That happened to me once, too, where I forgot to remove my laptop from a bag I had to check at the last minute. Luckily it came through fine, but I was paranoid about it the whole flight.

Since I check bags now, I don't have to worry about it anymore since anything like that goes in my personal bag, but it's a good idea to have a checklist if you do carry-on. You just never know!

Yes, to Jean's ideas! I think because of David's experience, I use a coil tether and small carabiner to attach my car/house fob/key to my personal item. I have also had it attached to the interior of my tech cube depending on which personal item I settle on. BTW, I take my car and house keys even when I am being dropped off at the airport by family. I figure there might be a case that something happens and they are not able to come get me and I might need to get into the house on my own.

BTW, I take my car and house keys even when I am being dropped off at the airport by family.

I do, too, Pam, but I also leave the extra set of car keys with them, just in case they need to move or use the car. :-)

I also bring a house key with me even though my husband is at home while I’m away.
I use a big locking safety pin and pin the key ring deep in the bottom of my personal bag.
You never know…..