Baggage Matching Passengers
 

OK. I will say right up front I may be wrong on what I THOUGHT the rules were (so please save the flaming), that is why I am posting to find out what the rule currently is (right, wrong or otherwise, just curious the rule not the merit of it).

Isnt the current policy that they have to match the checked baggage with the passenger on the plane and if it doesnt match it comes off the flight??? Or am I wrong.

The reason I ask is that I was booked Sunday to come back from PBI, but took a voluntary bump. But my checked luggage did come back Sunday, which I thought was against policy. Thought my butt had to be on the plane for my bag to be in the hold. Is this not the case?

From what I know officially it's the policy. However, many airlines seem to not follow it (WN being one example). I do know, however, that it is enforced more rigorously on international flights than domestic ones.

The policy reported in the news a couple years back was that either they had to match bags with pax, or the bags had to be x-rayed. This was before all bags were supposed to be x-rayed (it was in the transition period).

Thus, my understanding is that today, so long as the bags were scanned, they can fly without you.

There are exceptions to the rule, such as passengers involuntarily missing connections or being bumped off a flight.

Nonetheless, there have been several times that my checked bag has beat me back to DEN.

Int'l bag matching has been around pre-9/11. I think Lockerbie brought that on.

Doppy is correct. Domestic bag matching in the USA didn't happen until after September 11, 2001, and then only as a stopgap measure. Bag screening was satisfied thru a number of measures, including CTX, ETD or bag matching.

Today, there's no bag matching requirement, since all bags are screened.

That said, I think airlines are free to disallow pax from voluntarily separating themselves from their checked bags - in other words, standby for another flight means no checked bags on some carriers.

To the OP: Even when bag matching was used in the transition period, there was never a requirement that the bags always travel on the same flight as the pax. Pax were not allowed to separate themselves from their bags, but the airlines were perfectly free to separate the bags from the pax (happens all the time that bags don't accompany the pax).

Bag matching only applied to the first flight. Connecting bags could ride on any flight of the airlines' choosing.

I took several bumps ago a few years ago, and I had no checked bags. While in line, the person in front of me also took a bump and he had a bag. The agent explained since he intended on getting on the flight, they would not get his bag off. Now if he chekced it in, then did not show up that would be another story.

What I've heard from airline people on baggage matching rules:

It's the intent that counts, not the reality. If *YOUR* actions separate you from your bags they care. If *THEIR* actions (and a bump, even if VDB is their action) separate you from your bags they don't care.

Thanks everyone for all the info!!!!! My bag and I are happily home together *smile*