BCAA Travel Blog

You have journeyed halfway around the world. Jet-lagged, dazed and dehydrated, you shuffle into the baggage terminal, looking forward to grabbing your gear, transferring to your hotel and hitting the beach. You take a place beside the carousel and begin to wait, and wait, and wait. Ever had an airline lose your bags? You are not alone. The problem of gone-missing luggage in the airline industry has reached epidemic proportions. Increased security procedures combined with a shortage of baggage handlers and a record number of passengers have created major headaches for travellers, leaving millions of bags damaged, delayed, pilfered, or lost forever at airports around the globe.

Unfortunately, it’s happening more frequently every year. According to U.S. Department of Transportation statistics, in 2002, there were 3.8 reports of mishandled baggage for every 1,000 passengers in the U.S.. In the first nine months of 2007 alone, the rate was 7.3 per 1,000 passengers–nearly double. The total figure is astounding: 3.45 million reports in those nine months. Worldwide, an estimated 42 million bags were lost or mishandled. That’s a serious load of Samsonite.

Some airlines are notorious for luggage screw-ups. British Airways lost more baggage per flight last year than any other major airline in the world. The British air carrier temporarily or permanently waylaid 26.5 bags per 1,000 passengers, compared to a European-wide average of 16.6. And the data shows that BA’s performance is getting worse. The airline lost an extra 3.5 bags per 1,000 in 2007 than it did in 2006. Other European airlines that had a worse-than-average loss of luggage included Lufthansa, Alitalia and Air France.

Fed up with after having luggage lost or damaged on British Airways, three U.S. citizens, including two from Washington state, are fighting back. They launched a legal challenge against the airline in 2007. A Seattle law firm, Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, known nationally for high-profile, class-action lawsuits, contends the airline has been knowingly reckless in its baggage handling and that a limit of $1,500 in compensation, set under an international air-travel agreement called the Montreal Convention, should not apply.

Two of the travellers involved, Donald and Joan Smith, are from Tacoma. On a British Airways flight to Italy in June 2007, their luggage went missing for weeks and was eventually found wet and damaged beyond repair in Naples. Another traveller, Aydan Kayserili of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, lost her luggage on a British Airways flight to Madrid. Since the original filing of the lawsuit, 10 other plaintiffs have joined the fray, and more evidence has surfaced of the airline’s negligence.

The suit claims that British Airways’ conduct was egregious, constituting recklessness in their knowledge that so much damage occurs regarding lost luggage. The law firm cites studies showing that travellers on British Airways have a 1 in 36 chance of having the carrier lose their luggage–the argument being that this qualifies as reckless behaviour. If the court approves the case as a class-action lawsuit, thousands of passengers could receive court-ordered compensation from the airline.

Although there is no foolproof method to prevent your luggage from being lost or misdirected, industry experts offer some tips to help decrease the odds of it happening.

1. Place tags with your name, address, e-mail address and phone number on, and also inside each of your bags.

2. Put a copy of your itinerary in your bag, or even tape it to the outside of your luggage. This way airline handlers will know the bag’s ultimate destination, even if they can’t reach you.

3. Arrive early at the airport. If you check in at the last moment you may make it, but your bags may not.

4. Get a claim check for every bag that you check. Also, make sure that the agent processing your bags attaches a destination tag to each bag.

5. Follow the rules. It may be annoying to check in any bag with more than three ounces of liquid, but if you try to bring forbidden items in carry-on luggage, you’ll have to check the bag. At that point in the boarding process, it may be too late to get your suitcase on your flight and it will be bumped to a later one.

6. Most bags look very similar. Mark yours with a ribbon, colourful tag or some other identifying trait so others won’t mistake it for their own. It will also make it easier to find on a crowded carousel.

7. Remove old tags. They can confuse the automated sorting system and even human baggage handlers.

8. Keep a detailed list of what you packed in your suitcase to facilitate any future claims for compensation.

9. Take a picture of your bag with your cell phone, or print it out or keep a copy with your passport. If you have to report a missing bag it will help if you can show the airline personnel what it looks like.

Lost your luggage and need a laugh? Check out this routine by Welsh comedian Rhod Gilbert about his mind-boggling baggage mishap on a flight to Australia.

Filed under: Travel Blog