Help Prevent Your Luggage from Being Lost

How Can You Protect Your Luggage from Being Lost?

Reported today in the CNN news, is the fact that the rate of lost baggage climbed again in 2010, after declining for the two prior years.  European airlines actually drove the decline and interestingly, U.S. airlines saw a slight improvement. Here’s the stunning number… 29.4 million checked bags were lost on the airlines, worldwide. Wow. Guess those Euros must have really had a bad year…. For 2010, for every 1000 checked bags, 12 were lost, a six percent increase over 2009. That doesn’t strike me as awful, but of course, if your bag is one of the twelve that is lost, then it’s a major problem. So what are some of the steps you can take to protect your luggage?

1.       Believe it or not, one of the most effective ways to ensure that your luggage doesn’t get lost is to avoid the ‘sea of black’… aka: travel with luggage that is brightly colored, or has a distinctive design. Even with the vibrant colors being offered in today’s carry-on and checked luggage, the majority of travel bags are still black. Choose blue, red, striped, burgundy or some color that is easily identifiable.

True story: recently a very prominent business executive came in to the Irv’s Luggage retail store to purchase new luggage. Despite the sales person’s best attempt to steer him to the traditional and very manly black luggage, he insisted on purchasing a pink carry-on bag and a matching pink wheeled upright suitcase.  The sale person asked if the luggage purchase was for his wife.  The executive smiled and said no, it was for him. He proceeded to say that he always purchased pink luggage… it was always easy to find at the airport carousel and it was never lost. Pink luggage in an airline’s cargo hold will easily stand out. Clearly, here is a man with a knowledge of how to travel and not lose his luggage, plus he must be very comfortable with who he is. Author’s Note: my husband wouldn’t touch pink luggage, let alone travel with it!

2.       Believe it or not, brightly colored luggage tags and luggage wraps help to distinguish luggage. In addition luggage tags for your favorite  sports team, there is an endless supply of ridiculously bright tags. Take a look at these brightly colored hologram luggage tags from EnRoute in Fuchsia and Blue. Luggage handle wraps are a simple, yet effective concept… a nylon handle wrap that comes in bright colors like: orange, lime green, pink, and ocean blue.

3.       Last but not least… a new product has just been launched that will help locate and return your lost luggage. The product is called ‘Back2You – Personal Item Locator’. The concept is ridiculously simple, yet highly effective. ‘Back2You’ provides you with ‘bonding labels’ that contain a unique code. Simply attach the label to your luggage. Register your unique code on the free web site. When you register, you’ll include your cell phone number, email and your address. Then if your luggage is lost, the finder simply contacts ‘Back2You’. Then ‘Back2You’ sends the owner a text message and an email that their luggage has been found. It’s a simple but effective way of using computer technology, texting and messaging to get a bag returned. Very inexpensive and yet highly effective. This idea follows the exclusive Tumi Tracer program and is being imitated by other major luggage manufacturers. I’m buying the ‘Back2You’  for my kid’s backpacks and those ridiculously expensive high school books that somehow seem to disappear.

Losing bags on an airline will continue as long as people travel. However, hopefully you can protect you luggage and avoid the misery of losing your bag.