Originally Posted by 6P&E

A few years years ago my wife and I were traveling SMF-SNA. We had an old turquoise hard sided American Tourister piece from the 1960's (!) her parents had given us to carry some extra things home. The color alone should have been unique, but my wife insisted on putting a red ribbon on the handle- she normally uses ribbons to mark our bags.

When we got to the baggage carousel at SNA, the bags had already started coming off. Indeed there was an old turquoise hard-sided bag-- but without the red ribbon. We first thought the ribbon had come off. When we reached for the bag, it didn't feel right. I examined the suitcase and lo and behold, it was not ours! So put it back on the carousel and waited for our bag. It never came off.

The owner of the non ribbon-tagged bag had picked up our piece instead and we were left with the wrong suitcase.

We got it straightened our eventually and within a day both bags were re-united with rightful owners, but what were the chances that two old-fashioned odd-colored suitcases would be on the same flight? The ribbon didn't help much that day!