Provide your copy of the bag tag that you received at check-in and have the agent look up your information. Once you’ve figured out where to report it, inform the agent that your luggage didn’t arrive as expected. Just look for the logo of the carrier that operated your last flight. Keep in mind that if you’ve flown into a small airport, you may need to report the missing bag to a contract agency that works with multiple airlines. However, if you were on a connecting itinerary with more than one airline, the claim must be filed with the operating carrier of your last flight since that airline is ultimately responsible for delivering your bag to you, even if the bag never made it into its system. If your entire trip was on a single airline, this should be simple.
The first step is to find the airline baggage desk. Locate the baggage desk for the airline that operated your final flight. Here are the steps to report a missing bag: 1.
CHRISTOPHER WALKEN IMPRESSION AIRLINE LOST BAGAG HOW TO
(Photo by Peter Dazeley/Getty Images) How to report a missing bag When you’re in a sufficiently calm state of mind, it’s time to act. However, getting worked up will not help the situation - and could exacerbate the problem. Traveling is stressful enough and if your bags don’t arrive, that only ups the anxiety levels. Before you do, take a deep breath and try to stay calm so as to not elevate the situation further. If you’ve done the first two steps and still can’t find your bag, it’s time to alert the airline. Read more: 9 tips for traveling with valuable luggage and handbags Stay calm In theory, something like this should not happen, but it’s worth double-checking before reporting your bag as missing to the airline. It could also be waiting in the airline’s baggage office or another holding area. Therefore, we recommend taking a quick look at other carousels to see if the bag somehow beat you there. If your bag doesn’t come off its designated carousel, there’s a slim chance it could have made the flight but been offloaded elsewhere. In the end, it all worked out, and their luggage was waiting for them in a back room at HAV when they finally arrived. There was nothing Caroline or any of her travel mates could do besides go to Target and buy new clothes since they were stuck in Miami overnight without their belongings. She missed her connecting flight in Miami International Airport (MIA) due to a blizzard in Chicago, but the airline still sent her unaccompanied luggage (and every other connecting passenger's luggage) to Cuba. Patience goes a long way, especially in times of distress.įor example, patience was the only thing that got TPG reporter Caroline Tanner through a stressful experience when she flew from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport (ORD) en route to Cuba's José Martí International Airport (HAV).
Luggage can come in waves from a single flight as well, so just because your suitcase didn’t arrive initially doesn’t necessarily mean it’s lost. Before the panic sets in, start with these important steps: Be patientĪirport baggage procedures can be exceedingly complex at large hubs, so waiting for 30 or even 45 minutes for bags is not only normal but expected. This sounds silly but there are some instances where bags appear to be lost even when they're not. To start, you need to know how to determine whether your bags are, in fact, missing. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. I would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions.
Even so, here are some key things you can do when your bag is delayed - or lost - by an airline. This is all to say that when your bag doesn’t appear at baggage claim, chances are it's temporarily lost and will eventually be returned.
Airlines mishandled 4.35 bags per 1,000 passengers in 2021, up slightly from 3.5 bags per 1,000 passengers in 2020, according to the most recent data available from SITA, a leading specialist in air transport communications and information technology.Īn increase in lost bags is to be expected, thanks to the resumption of both intentional and domestic travel, but it's good to know that statistics favor a temporary misplacement of your bags versus something more permanent. Nearly 700,000 bags were mishandled in the first quarter of 2022, according to data published earlier this month by the Department of Transportation.Īlthough that seems like a large number, the likelihood that an airline will actually lose your bag (as in, you never see it again) still remains small. When a bag is “lost, delayed, damaged or pilfered," the Bureau of Transportation Statistics refers to these items as being "mishandled." Even if you are among the lucky ones who have not yet experienced something like the Heathrow craziness, it's important to be aware of the possibility.
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