cargueiro

I dont think this is that sensible.

A lot of staff working at handling agents and even airlines are not familiar with all FF programmes. In Europe and US they are no doubt much better at this than in places like Africa and parts of Asia. In some of the stations I have worked at your Cathay, United or Air New Zealand FF number would not mean anything as the staff would never have heard of these airlines as they don't fly to their stations. Would they have the nouse to contact the respective airline? Probably not. Email or tel no is much better.

MissJ

Same. Now if I could just find the tags that I ordered last year before I moved.

josephstern

So my next question is: anyone have a good supplier?

I just want something that's tough and plastic and not too expensive. I'll probably make fewer than five.

LarryJ

I've used Luggagetag.com.

You upload a photo and fill in and position the text. They don't last forever but are inexpensive so you don't mind too much if one breaks off and is lost.

Cloudship

I think you would be pretty hard pressed to find someone who worked in the airline industry, particularly someone at a managerial level who would actually be able to do something with said bag, who did not at least know Delta, United, and American were airline. They may not know a lot of details, but they would know enough that it would give them a clue.

Then again, the rarity that I would even be flying to someplace so remote regularly enough to worry about that on my bag tag probably means it is not a concern for the majority of usage.

Carnforth

Thanks for that. That prompts a question- how often do airline baggage tags become detached during handling and is this the prime cause (along with tight connections) of bags going astray?
I had a positive experience whilst in transit at Frankfurt. Waiting at the gate for next (long haul ) flight, I was summoned to the desk. A baggage supervisor who had come to the gate showed me an image of my case and a close up of my label. I was asked to identify it as mine.
It was explained to me that the airline label had become detached and lost. Fortunately, I had my flight details on my own label and because of that they were able to reunite my case with my flight in time for a new airline tag to be printed and the case to be on the same flight as me.
The alternative would have been that awful and unsuccessful wait at the destination carousel and the wait for the bag to catch up with me (if lucky).
Although I realise the OP original question was about static data on labels, I am very much a convert to having flight details on my own, hard to detach, label.

Pittie Pup

I find these to be the best option. Nothing is visible until the QR code is scanned or the email address shown is visited. I get to choose what information is public and visible when someone who finds the bag scans it. They can message me right from the screen after they have scanned it. Ebags also alerts me someone has found my bag and it allows for myself and the bag finder to contact eachother so I can find my bag if ever lost.
Ebags connected bag tags

Annalisa12

[QUOTE=cargueiro;3098

It is also sensible to make sure your luggage is easily identifiable by avoiding standard black luggage, getting a bright coloured strap or two etc.

If your tag is legible and your bag is a bit unique it stands a much higher chance than most of being found and successfully returned...[/QUOTE]


I take a photo of my luggage so in the instance I need to show someone what they are looking for they know. It's grey and pink so it stands out.

tentseller

Since I am on the losing brain cell side of the age curve, I always take a photo of the content of my bag for personal reason when repacking to head home. This photo is printed and on the back is my contact information, content list and placed inside on the top.
This paid off 2 months ago when making a permanently lost bags claim. They took one look at the photos, the timestamp on it and my matching list that was dated the same date as the photo and wired the claim settlement into my account.

As I am frugal and only buy discounted, end of line colours of B&R, Lojel (hard shell with latch); I have no problem IDing my bags off the belt or for missing bags paperwork.

Tags? It is a laminated printed onto business card size tag. On it is my name, FF numbers with airline code and an email address that I use for getting freebies.

cargueiro

I think you over estimate the capabilities of the kind of staff who get to Baggage Services Supervisor/Manager at a typical handling agent throughout the world. Yes you do get some amazing ones but you also get some appalling ones. The good ones seem to be more of a rarity than the bad ones.

And whilst you may not travel to obscure places where handlers really struggle to recruit vaguely competent staff, you need to remember that LAX is rather similar to LAD (Luanda in Angola), BOS is a bit like BOT (Bosset in Papua New Guinea) and EWR is not dissimilar to EWO (Ewo in Republic of Congo).

One does see bags destined for major US airports turn up in not so great airports!

Eastbay1K

Fragile. Valuables Inside. Do Not Open.

josephstern

Would "careful - contains cash" be too much?
(I don't live here but I just got back from a run around Lake Merritt, btw)

cargueiro

In my experience, tight connections are main cause of delayed bags.

Then human error is the next biggest cause I reckon. In a lot of stations bags are still loaded manually and can be put in wrong ULD or just forgotten. Baggage can sometimes end up being offloaded in wrong airpirt, sent to cargo shed instead of terminal, or just placed on wrong carousel. Often when it goes to the wrong place nobody at the wrong place is proactive and tries to sort out the problem. I have been in some airports where a cargo shed has a whole pile of list bags and been in some lost and found offices where the airline/handler has a whole collection of lost bags that do not belong to them. Mistakes happen but lazy and/or incompetent staff are the main cause of the problem as to why the problems aren't fixed.

If your bag is delayed, a big problem for a lot of pax is they cannot accurately describe the missing bag. If you can't describe the style, make, colour and brand of your bag World Tracer really struggles to make accurate matches. It simply beggars belief how many pax can't describe their bags.

It is not actually that often that you see the tag come off the bag in my experience.

emma69

You may not travel there, but your bag might well end up there! Most people when given the word 'American' and to a lesser extent 'United' may be thinking of countries, not airline FF programs. A number could be mistaken for a zip code, or PO box number. And don't assume your bag will be found by an airline employee - I know several people who have been contacted by a person who has mistaken a bag for theirs (large, black suitcase normally!) and they have called to apologize, and arrange for its correct delivery (they certainly wouldn't be able to do that by FF number) I subscribe to the KISS method - keep it as simple as you can and don't assume other people think the way you do. A business card of some description is recognized in most of the world. I understand not putting your home address for security, but I am not sure what people think others might do with an office address / phone number / email.

CarlTheWebmaster