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The plastic tags that look like a little credit card, that the airlines give to frequent flyers and club members, work fine. It is impossible to remove one from a suitcase without a pair of scissors. Anyone who finds the bag can call the issuing airline or bring it to a ticket counter, and the airline will find their customer. This really works - American has called me a couple of times to say they had my bag.
I also have a luggage tag with just my name, cell phone number, and E-mail address. I don't like to advertise where a big empty house can be found.
I don't like people looking through my suitcase and there's unlikely to be anything in there other than old clothes anyway.
You're probably more at risk at a neighbor noticing you leaving your home with a suitcase than you are with anyone being able to obtain your address and use it for nefarious means.
Wrong. Especially since the suitcase goes in the car before even exiting the garage.
Bottom line, there's no good reason to have your address on your luggage, so why do it? Hey, if you want to advertise your address, feel free. I choose not to.
I would think that the airlines would see your name printed somewhere on the luggage and run it against their database so see if you had a flight. Or once they know it’s YOU, they’ll make contact and get it back. Obviously if you didn’t get your luggage picked up because it was lost you would file a report and your name and address location would be on that list of people missing luggage don’t you think?
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The airlines typically don't make any effort to get luggage to passengers without a filed report. It ends up in a giant lost and found warehouse, and auctioned off if never claimed.
Makes sense with not putting your home address, especially if you're traveling domestically where we all have cell phones. But putting the address of your destination on the outbound trip only makes sense, especially if it's an international trip and you won't have a phone there. It only makes sense to have the address of your destination so at least they can deliver the bag if they can't get in touch with you.
We had a bag lost in Rome a few years ago, and we hadn't yet had a chance to go buy a card for our phone to work there. It really made it a hassle for them not to be able to contact us for a while. (And we DID have our apartment destination address inside the bag.....but the building didn't have a door tender or buzzer, so one of us had to wait outside on the street for almost a full day when the airline kept saying they were en route....finally we got a number for the driver and we were able to get a better ETA, but it was a PIA until then. )
Email address. We put it on our luggage tags, our dog's id tag, within the plane reservations, and make sure neighbors have it when we travel. Especially internationally since we rarely use an international cellphone.
That said, after one lost bag episode 30+ years ago, I've stopped checking bags on vacation until I'm on the flight home. Then, I cross my fingers and hope they lose it, saving me from doing the dirty laudry it contains and the opportunity to go shopping for new clothes.
I hear people complain about losing bags like its a given. Some people won't even check bags because they are certain that they will lose them. I have flown a lot....to asia and europe. Many times. I would say that most of those times I have checked a bag or two. I have yet to lose a single bag, even for a day. Most of that flying has been with United, ANA, SQ and other Star Alliance companies but that is about to change this year.
I can't help but think that people that lose bags must be doing something different, like checking in really late or really early or changing flights or something that I am not doing.
I hear people complain about losing bags like its a given. Some people won't even check bags because they are certain that they will lose them. I have flown a lot....to asia and europe. Many times. I would say that most of those times I have checked a bag or two. I have yet to lose a single bag, even for a day. Most of that flying has been with United, ANA, SQ and other Star Alliance companies but that is about to change this year.
I can't help but think that people that lose bags must be doing something different, like checking in really late or really early or changing flights or something that I am not doing.
Unquestionably, airlines have made major improvements in baggage handling. Since most of them are charging $25 to check a bag, I woukd certainly expect improvement! Statistics prove that at least 7 out of 1000 passengers have delayed or lost luggage issues in 2014. That's slightly worse than 2013.
Last edited by Jkgourmet; 12-24-2015 at 07:41 AM..
I hear people complain about losing bags like its a given. Some people won't even check bags because they are certain that they will lose them. I have flown a lot....to asia and europe. Many times. I would say that most of those times I have checked a bag or two. I have yet to lose a single bag, even for a day. Most of that flying has been with United, ANA, SQ and other Star Alliance companies but that is about to change this year.
I can't help but think that people that lose bags must be doing something different, like checking in really late or really early or changing flights or something that I am not doing.
Yeah, I have to say that I am a frequent flyer, and have never had a bag truly lost. I've had a couple delayed ... usually because the airline switched me to a different flight for one reason or another and my checked bag couldn't keep up. For example, I was departing San Francisco and my flight was delayed at the gate because of technical issues. The airline recognized that I would miss my connecting flight, so they literally pulled me off the plane at the gate and put me on another flight to another city where I could make a connection to my destination. My bag however was already loaded and they couldn't pull it. In that case, it was just a matter of waiting for the bag to complete the trip a little later than me. I filed a claim when I reached my destination, and they delivered the bag to my house (as indicated on my claim form). No need for an address on my bag.
The plastic tags that look like a little credit card, that the airlines give to frequent flyers and club members, work fine. It is impossible to remove one from a suitcase without a pair of scissors. Anyone who finds the bag can call the issuing airline or bring it to a ticket counter, and the airline will find their customer. This really works - American has called me a couple of times to say they had my bag.
I also have a luggage tag with just my name, cell phone number, and E-mail address. I don't like to advertise where a big empty house can be found.
I don't like people looking through my suitcase and there's unlikely to be anything in there other than old clothes anyway.
I use to use them, but Delta for some reason removed all identifying info from my Delta frequent flyer tabs (even my FF membership number). Now they are of no use except as "brag tags". I've lost them before as well.
But as a few posters have said, in my 1 million plus miles of travel I've never had a bad outright lost. Never! Delayed? Oh yeah plenty of times, one time for over a week (and the airline compensated me almost $500 to by clothes and stuff). But never totally lost.
But as a few posters have said, in my 1 million plus miles of travel I've never had a bad outright lost. Never! Delayed? Oh yeah plenty of times, one time for over a week (and the airline compensated me almost $500 to by clothes and stuff). But never totally lost.
The red part explains why I don't check bags on the way to a vacation, but happily give them over (assuming it's free) when I return home. I don't care if it's delayed when I get home, or lost for that matter. But at the front end of a vacation, no way am I risking that!
British Airways motto;
Breakfast in London,
Dinner in New York,
Baggage in Cairo.
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