Unclaimed Luggage: Where it goes and how it gets resold
The ability to travel internationally by airplane, brought with it paranoia about lost luggage. Every passenger boarding ANY flight (even a direct one where luggage stays in the cargo area beneath the plane) harbors negative thoughts of “what if today is the day; what will I do without any of my clothes? How will I survive without my Kimonos, party pants and hair curlers? [or whatever the hell people over pack in their suitcases]” Truth is: this fear is quite reasonable when tourists travel internationally.
Since so many hands get on your bags between flights, cities and countries, there is not a single airline out there that can claim they have never lost a bag. While some airlines (Delta) lose more bags than others, the average among all carriers stands at about 6 lost bags for every 1000 passengers. There is an entire terrible process you must go through to even attempt recovery of your bags (something about filling out two, not one, but particularly two lost baggage claim forms and other forms, then waiting, then waiting more time). The reality is, when luggage gets lost it usually stays lost
So where do all these bags, filled with various people’s underwear and such, go?
To luggage heaven? No, they go to the Unclaimed Baggage Store in scenic Scotsborro, Alabama. How shady does this sound? These guys buy out baggage that has gone unclaimed for 90 days (what’s that? Your trip to the middle of the Amazon lasted 91 days and you had no way to claim your luggage? Shame) and sell the contents for a discount price. Like vultures, but without all the dead bodies. Check out the great items they pulled out from other people’s bags: an emerald, headless Barbie and (ok ready) A RATTLESNAKE. They even have the balls to put a “Travel Tips” section on their website (given the nature of how they get their merchandise, we doubt they want you to keep your stuff safe).
The point is: losing luggage (and trying to find lost luggage) is frustrating. To help try and avoid all this anxiety, you can simply travel light. As a backpacker, you shouldn’t have to check any baggage. Your backpack should meet the weight and size limitations of most airlines (Ryanair, and other smaller airlines have more restrictions than larger carriers). Okay so you won’t be able to bring your pet brick or an outfit for every occasion, but you will have the security of knowing you can get out of your seat and physically see ALL of your belongings. Our Backpacking 101 Guide: Backpack & Packing should help you lighten your load. As an added bonus, when you return from your adventure, feel free to shop at the Unclaimed Baggage Store and pour salt on the wounds of all those poor bastards who decided to check their bags.
Written By: Anna Starostinetskaya
Head Writer/Editor-in-Chief of Off Track Planet. Pescatarians are not just cheating vegetarians; we're our own breed and the extra protein makes us more feisty! Rawr
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Very interesting information. I think it is very wrong to keep somebody’s stuff and give you a time frame for it. The rules have to be change, airlines should do their best to give you your luggage back. If you have your luggage with you, it means you need it.
How dare other people to touch and open your suitcases.
This is my opinion.
Totally agree about luggage. Limit yourself to a carry-on and your life will be so much simpler when you fly. The odds are that you will get your luggage when you arrive, but why risk it. And why wait for 40 minutes for the luggage to come out when you do land.
Thanks guys!
At least if I lose my bags when I check them, all I have to do is drive a couple hours within my own state to search for them when I get home.
United airlines lost my luggage. I’m so upset about the situation. They already sent my cheque however I really really want my luggage back because some of my properties were priceless for me. but how can I find it. It’s too difficult. I want to go there and search it by myself…..but how???
I traveled on Delta for a 45 day business trip and Delta lost my bag that have EVERYTHING I owned in it, including scripts and dental retainer. They gave me a small overnight envelope with a tshirt and some useless stuff to get me through for 45 days. I’ve filed claims and keep following up with calls but my bag just. . . disappeared. Delta had absolutley NO regards for my wellbeing and offered NO emergency funds. I had to use all of my own limited resources to buy immediate necessities and I am waiting (probably >180 days while they “look” for my bag to be paid back. I will post results. DON’T check your bag with Delta! I will be contacting Better Business and my local congressman.
Continental Airlines recently lost a bag of mine filled with irreplaceable possessions. This bag was a carry-on – not a checked, a carry-on — bag and was moved without my knowledge or permission from the overhead bin. No one has seen the bag since.
This took place on my way to Rhode Island to attend the graduation ceremonies for members of the Initiative to Educate Afghan Women. The First Lady, Mrs. Bush, was scheduled to be there and so, due to the nature of the events, I had packed some good clothes and jewelry and decided to take everything in one carry-on. A flight attendant helped me place my suitcase in the overhead bin a few rows away from mine
as the space above my seat was taken.
After the plane was taxiing on the runway, I was informed that the Continental staff had moved my bag — supposedly to the lower storage area of the plane. In order to find whose bag it was, the Continental staff had gone into my suitcase and from my purse they got my return ticket and my name! Yet they did not have enough sense to at least give me my purse or to see if I needed anything (such as my medication) or wanted
anything (such as my jewelry) from the bag. Although they knew from my ticket that I had a connecting flight in New Jersey, they still didn’t gate check my bag, which would have allowed me to retrieve it upon exiting the plane at Newark to make my connection to Providence. Instead, they told me that they had checked it all the way through to Providence and handed me a handwritten number. Unsurprisingly, the bag vanished, along with my jewelry.
This is the most bizarre action I’ve ever known an airline to take with respect to a passenger’s carry-on luggage, and may well be the most egregious case of airline carelessness you have heard.
Still, it doesn’t stop here. Now Continental is claiming no responsibility and have retained Fulbright and Jaworski to fight me. They asked for receipts of all items over $100 which I told them I did not have, so — per their request and suggestion — I supplied them with credit card statements and personal letters from store managers who have records of my purchases. I thought that Continental had agreed to honor this information, but absolutely nothing came of it.
They took entirely unnecessary, unapproved, unilateral action over which I had no control and which directly resulted in the loss of my property. There was nothing I could have done to prevent this, and now they choose to pay exorbitant legal fees rather than
compensate me for the loss they caused.
Anjum Malik
512-472-6666- Office
512-799-5044- Cell
a.malik@houseoftutors.edu