remdk

Top tips for check-in luggage

1. Adhere to the rules for your check-in luggage. Don't be upset if you exceed the allowances given to you and the airline want to impose a penalty or refuse to carry your bags.
2. Make sure you keep the receipt for your check-in bags safe. This is given to you at check-in or bag drop, it's usually about 2" square and can sometimes be stuck on the back of your passport, ticket, boarding pass, or other random bit of paper.
3. As you board the aircraft you can ask the ground staff who scan your boarding pass to verify if your bags are going to be loaded or are loaded on the aircraft.
4. If you use the QR app, you will get a notification to confirm that your bags have been loaded onto the aircraft before it departs, including at transit points, if it is a QR flight. If you have internet access on your device you should get this notification a few minutes before the doors close and the aircraft pushes back. If you don't get the notification, ask a member of cabin crew to talk to the ground staff, although they might not be able to fix it to get your bag on that flight, the remedy process for your bag will start much earlier.
5. You should consider how you will cope if at the destination of your flight, your bags do not arrive as expected.
   • The airline will usually compensate you with reasonable out of pocket expenses for temporary clothing whilst your luggage is reunited with you (keep all receipts), but think about how and when you might get to the shops, having a change of key clothing in your hand luggage is usually very useful.
   • Any medicines that you cannot do without for a few days or will bw difficult to replace (prescriptions needed) must be in your hand luggage.
   • Any paperwork you need to support your onward trip must be in your hand luggage
   • And of course any valuable items should be in your hand luggage
6. Apart from mishandling and baggage handling delays, the most frequent but worst situation is that the baggage routing tag that is attached to your bag at checkin has been separated from your bag. It is now a very manual process for staff at the airports to try and find your bag from a manual description of it and its contents. But you can help...
   • Take a picture of your bag - in good light conditions. Take a close up of any identifying features.
   • You can have your own identity tag on the bag, whilst this can be useful, this won't help with its immediate routing to you.
   • Whilst the luggage tag can sometimes be torn off, stuff inside is usually quite safe. So a really simple but effective method is to put a separate piece of paper in the bag that lists key information.
     
     Quote:

     Lastname and Firstname
     Date of Flight
     Flight Number
     Origin airport and any Transit points and Destination airport
     Your email address
     A phone number where they can contact you
     A destination address where the bag needs to go to (if you have one)
   • Take a spare bit of paper so you can do the same for the return journey.
   • Lay the piece of paper clearly on top of everything else so it's obvious if the bag is opened.
   • If you have a frequent flyer ID tag from an airline, it can be useful to also leave that in the bag.
7. Think about what you're going to pack. Whilst you might be tempted to pack those really expensive designer clothes, if they really get lost in transit do you want to have a fight with the airline or your insurance to be compensated for their loss? Oh, and read your insurance policy so you understand what is covered and in what circumstances. Take what you really need and keep the really expensive stuff at home if you can.

remdk

For later use.

Johnnieboy

Good guide remdk, thanks!

A friend of mine used to be in charge of lost baggage retrieval for one of the major airlines. He always said that the piece of paper easily spottable inside the bag is one of the most important things you can do to help them.

He also said that one of the main reasons for bags losing all their tags and becoming unidentifiable was the handle breaking off, and the tags going with it. Hence the reason for the piece of paper inside.

The other top tip is therefore that if your bag has more than one handle, put tags on all of them. It might not stop the locator barcode coming off, but gives the baggage people a backup to identify it without having to (potentially) break it open.

Fortunately, lost bags are a comparative rarity (tempting fate there...)

remdk

Johnnieboy don't thank me thank plunet! He is the one with the patience to develop the text.

Johnnieboy

Warmness all round :-:

Dr. HFH

Good and helpful summary. Let me add a couple of practical notes.

A small, rectangular piece of the airline's tag is peeled off from the main tag and stuck separately on a flat part of your bag. It doesn't seem as if they will stick to cloth surfaced bags, but all of mine have in the years since airlines started using this system. You can also help by pressing it down with your finger before the bag disappears into the system. The info can vary by carrier, but it always has at least your baggage claim check number. Additional info can be some combination of surname, destination, barcode of bag claim number, etc. This can help the airline identify and route your bag if the large bag tag comes off.

In addition, your own name tag can also help. Your PNR in the airline's computer has the bag tag number. So if they can figure out who you are, they'll be able to retrieve the bag tag number.

One more thing, -- to avoid confusion, make sure that you remove ALL old bag tags before you go to the airport. Computers and barcodes make this type of problem much less frequent now compared to, say, 30 years ago, but no point in taking chances.


True, you can ask; but good luck. Boarding is usually a scrum, and you may not get full cooperation on a request like this. Imagine if all pax made such a request.


This goes without saying. Passport, boarding passes, tickets and/or itinerary printouts should never be checked.

mr_botak

Excellent guide - thanks. I might add a not to panic if the QR app doesn't notify anything to you - there have been a few occasions for me where this has been the case and all has been fine.

jckl

Also staff lie to get you out of their face, so sometimes you'll really only find out if your bags made it.

Connected from QR2 to QR816 few weeks ago. QR2 left LHR 60mins late, connection time reduced to 40 mins, 25 mins gate-to-gate. Asked the staff who picked me up at the gate, gate staff and also the flight dispatcher at the bridge whether bags will make it (gut feeling said no). The staff all said yes, but then QR816 left on time so there's no way they'd make it.

Ground staff at HKG had a sign with my name on at arrival gate who then told me bags mis-connected. Don't trust anyone, deal with it at destination.

ft101

If you're travelling with a partner, or in a group, you should split your clothes between the suitcases. If one goes missing you'll both/all still have something to wear.

hotwingz

Excellent guide!
To make the information available to a wider audience, is there a way to share this guide across other forums on FT?

WorldLux

And
@:-) Regularly check your handles. The screws holding one handle of my case became loose earlier this month. A nice reminder to retighten those screws and make sure the handles stay on. (AA managed to rip of a lock after the screws became loose) @:-)



My personal tips:

• Pack everything in such a way that it can survive being tossed and thrown around. Don't bother with fragile tags. The poor efffers, that carry the luggage around, won't care if there's a fragile sign on it (and I can't blame them).
• A tripod in a check-in luggage seems to be catnip for TSA employees

SullyofDoha

Just flew MUC-DOH-BEY and had a 14 hour layover in DOH. I was able to short-check my bags to DOH because I had reached the 14 hour threshold point. If the connection times were less, they would not have been able to do it.

hotwingz

Is this 14 hour threshold a general rule?
I recently had a ~16hr connection in DOH. My carry-on was a bit too heavy, so they asked my to check my bags. They said due to some 'fare rules' short checking to DOH was not possible. In the end they let me go with my carry-on and it was all fine. So seems like there are additional conditions that have to be met?

SullyofDoha

Well, in MUC they told me it was ok because it was a 14 hour layover. It might have also been helpful that my flight arrived in to DOH at 5pm and my next flight was at 7.40am. So, the fact that Airways was overnighting might also have helped, though not really insinuated.