Globetrotter Travel Tips: What To Do About Lost Luggage
Copyright © Vulcanmind
Knowing what to do if you have lost luggage in transit
is one of the most vital travel tips you will ever learn. You can lose
luggage anywhere and at any time during a long trip, no matter how you
travel.
Tourists lose luggage regularly in taxis, on buses and
trains and anywhere in between a trip. Sometimes, luggage is stolen.
However, lost luggage is a problem most commonly associated with airline
travel.
So what do you do if your bag fails to appear on the
airline’s baggage carousel? The first point on your agenda is
to report this fact to the airline’s baggage office or window.
This is usually where lost luggage reports are recorded and addressed.
It is bound to be on the same level as the baggage conveyor.
Once there, you locate the baggage clerk and hand him
your baggage stub. Do keep your cool and avoid panicking or blowing
up at the poor fellow. Sometimes luggage for one flight arrives on another
flight because of logistical problems.
Once you have reported lost luggage at the airline’s
baggage claim counter or office, a clerk will attempt to track your
bag on the computer. If it turns out that your luggage is not arriving
on another flight, another search level kicks in.
The clerk will start making calls at all possible locations
where your lost luggage may have wound up. If this yields no results,
he will mobilize the baggage handlers to make a search for it.
At this point, input from you will be very useful. You
should offer a detailed description of your individual luggage pieces.
If you have a picture of your stuff – even one taken of you by
a friend that shows your luggage too – give it to the baggage
handlers. After you have done this, do something to divert yourself.
The matter is now out of your hands and there is no point in stewing
or getting in their way!
Next, you will need to fill out a claim form in which
you will need to give some personal information. This will include a
description of your lost luggage. Give the baggage clerk contact details
of wherever you will be over the next few days. Ensure that you ask
for and stash away a photocopy of this form, too!
You will receive assurances to the effect that the airline
will try to trace your lost baggage, and that you will receive it if
it turns up. Listening to that can be pretty discouraging, because it
confirms that your luggage is now officially lost.
There is, of course, an off-chance that the baggage
clerk will find that your luggage had arrived on the baggage carousel.
If this is the case, your baggage is most probably stolen. This then
becomes a case for the police and insurance company.
If your lost luggage is traced, the airline company
will definitely intimate you and return it to you. If not, most large
airlines will do what they can to replace your lost luggage itself.
They might offer to give you luggage pieces that match your lost ones
closely (however, do not count on it!).
It is your legal right to receive compensation for
the contents of your luggage. There is a limit to your entitlement,
of course. It varies according to the airline in question. In any case,
find out the airline’s reimbursement policy should you choose
to purchase replacements for items lost in your luggage during transit.
