
Why do airlines still mislay 25M bags a year? - headalgorithm
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48437262
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ginko
What I find most annoying with lost bags (as mentioned usually due to short
transfers) is the byzantine system you have to go through to get them back.

In most likelihood by the time you arrive your airline should already know
that the bag didn't make it and is still in a transfer airport. They could
just send you a message in their app and have you fill out a form so they know
where to forward it.

Instead you have to waste tons of time waiting at the belt, then even more
time waiting in line at the completely overworked lost+found counter(once you
actually found it) just so you can fill out the details you could have just as
well typed in in an app.

~~~
Tor3
Once when I landed in Narita Tokyo an attendant was waiting for me outside the
airplane, holding a sign with my name on. She told me that my suitcase had
gone to the wrong airport, and after that she led me to a desk where I had to
sign a form (they have to let customs go through the suitcase when it doesn't
arrive with you), and to get my address so they could forward it when it
arrived. But then again this was Asia, which, as the BBC article mentions,
also has a lower rate of lost baggage.

In any case, the situation is overall vastly better than when I was doing
business travels all the time in the nineties. My suitcase would be missing at
least 25% of the time. On some flights it was a certainty that it would be
missing. Now it's pretty rare. Even on very short transfers due to delays.
I've on a few occasions literally walked out one gate an run directly to
another to catch the flight, and surprise, the case made it every time.
Brought directly from one plane to another no doubt.

~~~
carlmr
Amsterdam Schiphol not once managed to transfer my bag if my transfer time was
less than 1.5h.

I asked them and they said it was normal.

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gandalfian
Because there is little downside to failure. People say they will never fly
with that airline again but most do, especially if its cheaper...

British Airways have fairly conclusively proved that ignoring complaints
doesn't really cost them in the end... When the Heathrow baggage system
collapsed BA just sold off the backlog as lost property, too hard to try and
reunite bags.

~~~
m463
I remember reading years ago that one of the airlines somehow added a bonus to
baggage handler salaries based on luggage performance and immediately cleared
up most of the problems.

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prmph
I have never understood is why there is no security around the pickup of bags
on arrival. What prevents someone from simply picking up my bag from the
carousel, knowing that it's not theirs, and walking off?

Or are airplane passengers invariably saints, so that this never happens?

~~~
kijeda
Baggage claim in most airports around the world is behind some kind of one way
exit point so you need to have been a traveller on a flight to get access to
the baggage carousel.

It is also not uncommon in places where petty theft is high for you to have to
show your baggage receipt matches the baggage tag before you can take it from
the baggage handling area.

~~~
enjo
This isn’t true of any airport I can think of... and I travel (across the
world) quite frequently.

The exception is baggage claims for international flights which are usually in
a secure area due to the need to pass through customs.

~~~
hjk05
This is true of literally every single airport i’ve ever traveled through. I
guess experiences vary greatly.

~~~
arkades
This would be a more useful discussion if both of you just named the relevant
airports.

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mbreese
Another way to look at this is:

25M out of 4.3B is a success rate of 99.4%.

~~~
chungleong
Which might be close to the theoretical limit. The probability of two
suitcases on a given flight having the same appearance must be close to 99%.

~~~
saalweachter
> Nearly half of all bags that go astray do so because of problems with flight
> transfers, Sita says. Delayed flights have knock-on effects - your bag just
> doesn't make it to the connecting flight in time.

> And a significant proportion of missing bags are down to passengers or
> handlers simply picking up the wrong one.

The former does seem like a hard problem without restricting people's ability
to switch flights or delaying flights further to allow for luggage transfers.

I wonder if there is any room to improve the latter on the airline's part by
adding visual variations to the tag without impeding the function. Like
randomly assigning colors and giant emoji to be printed prominently on the
tag, so that it is easier to distinguish at a glance whether it is really your
bag.

(I mean, you should already be checking your name tag when you collect your
bag, and people already add their own flair to their bags, but obviously not
everyone is.)

~~~
9nGQluzmnq3M
A few airports have bag checks at exit, where they validate the tag against
your chit. This is surprisingly rare though.

You can also tilt the odds in your favor by choosing an unusual bag
color/design though: nobody's going to mistakenly pick up my lovely lime green
number.

~~~
V-2
Or simply customize it at no cost.

I've just put some large stickers at the bottom of my bag (normally invisible,
but in plain sight when on the conveyor belt).

Honestly I didn't have any such problems in mind; did it mostly for my own
convenience - to avoid the usual "erm, is it mine?" hesitation.

~~~
Tor3
That's exactly what I (and many others, including my old parents) do. It
really helps when you're waiting for your case, particularly for those big
conveyor belts with tons of people.

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Theodores
But what happens to the bags after they have been picked up from the carousel,
i.e. not lost?

Over the same time period there has been an increase in wheeled luggage. This
has been a game changer. In the olden days people needed a taxi even if the
hotel was a short walk away from the airport. This was because without the
wheels it was quite a struggle to move one's luggage.

With the wheeled luggage people can get public transport that bit easier. So
they are willing and able to walk a bit.

The wheeled luggage has not been welcomed by all. Demand for taxi airport runs
diminished considerably with this innovation. But do people get parted from
their luggage on the way on and off trains/tubes/buses more than in the olden
days when a taxi driver was there to take responsibility for what was in
his/her vehicle?

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sh-run
I've flown carry-on only most of my life and I've done up to two week trips
(business and personal) with only carry on luggage. I'm also not the type of
person that just hangs out in my hotel room after work. Of course if you need
to wear anything nicer than a polo shirt to work this may not be possible.

1\. Wear your bulkiest shoes to the airport

2\. Find pants that can be used for work and play (I like Kuhl Slax)

3\. Plan on doing laundry (or paying someone to do laundry) on trips over a
week. Make sure you bring clothes to wear on laundry day!

4\. Don't bring crap you won't use, but it is ok to bring items that you don't
necessarily need if as long as they add value to your trip. As an example, I
always travel with my Olympus EM5.2 and two lenses.

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amelius
Given all the dark patterns used by airlines, I wonder why airlines haven't
made a business out of it yet: pay $X extra, and be assured that your luggage
actually arrives at your destination.

~~~
tinus_hn
They do, it’s called cabin luggage.

~~~
gjm11
That would be true if they didn't sometimes take your cabin bag away from you
and put it in the hold.

(The last time I flew with United Airlines, they did that. Then they cancelled
flights so I had to stay in Chicago overnight, and wouldn't give me back my
cabin bag with clean clothes and things in it. Then they lost that bag and I
didn't get it back for another three days. That was about a decade ago and I
have never flown with United since then, nor will I ever again.)

~~~
lotsofpulp
American/Delta/Jetblue/Southwest/Alaska/Hawaiian are no different. They're all
the same, unless you have status. Alaska/Jetblue might be slightly better, but
at the end of the day they have limited cabin space, and have no choice but to
check in luggage, and I doubt their propensity to lose luggage is any
different either.

[https://www.marketwatch.com/story/these-airlines-have-the-
mo...](https://www.marketwatch.com/story/these-airlines-have-the-most-
complaints-and-lost-luggage-2018-02-26)

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matt4077
As the article points out, the fraction of lost baggage has been cut by 75% in
the last decade. I seem to remember even more dramatic numbers if you look
further back in time.

But, of course, the comments here are (as of now) only cynical takes on how
losing luggage is either complete incompetence, or one of various conspiracies
of airlines or airports to earn money by... Well I don’t actually understand
the ‘how’ part of the schemes. Apparently it’s by paying the customer the
contractual (or, in the EU, required by law) hundreds of dollars per loss and
then turning around and auctioning off mystery suitcases at $40 a pop?

