Most travelers have experienced waiting at the baggage carousel, searching for their luggage and seeing a bag that looks almost, but not quite, like theirs. If anyone travels with a small black rolling bag, heaven help them. And with airports rarely hiring claim tag checkers, travelers are on their own to find the right bag and avoid wandering off with someone else’s.
Many travelers resort to colored straps, pom-poms, yarn ties or anything to make their bag stand out. My husband decided to make my life easier by buying me a unusual slate blue bag, which, up until today, has made identification much easier.
Amazingly, the bags from my United flight were already rolling on the carousel when I got to baggage claim. Plus, United’s new tracking kiosk had informed me that my bag had made the flight. I gazed hypnotically as the stream of bags passed in front of me. Eventually, one looked familiar, but with a bright red wrapped handle, and a bright red tag. So I waited, and soon enough, it became apparent my bag wasn’t showing up.
The woman at the luggage counter initially shrugged and muttered that my bag should be there. I finally took the look-alike bag from the now deserted carousel area and brought it over to baggage services. After a bit of typing the agent proclaimed the man had been on the same flight. She filled out some paperwork, took the second bag and told me they would be in touch.
Fortunately, I took down the name, phone number and email address off the tag. Despite no response from United other than a phone agent also assuring me, “it’ll turn up,” I was able to make contact with the other passenger. He emailed later that night telling me, yes, he had grabbed a bag quickly and discovered it wasn’t his only after a 2-1/2 hour drive home.
The man, a professor, was driving back to the airport the next day to pick up his bag, and return mine. So, in this case, it looks like no major harm was done.
But a few lessons and thoughts:
First, don’t assume that any bag is a one of a kind. Unless the luggage is handmade, it’s a safe bet the company produced plenty of them, in each color.
Second, don’t pack anything you need urgently, valuable or not. (At the last minute before checking in, I had removed my laptop and phone chargers.)
Third, be pro-active. Because I copied the name, phone number and email address, I knew for hours where my bag ended up. United, officially, still didn’t know, even as the professor was driving back to the airport. However, the airline repeatedly assured me that when they “find it,” they would deliver it.
And finally, check the tags. I only had to wait a day or so for my bag. The nice, if absent-minded, professor who took it needed to drive five hours round-trip to bring back it to the airport.
If any readers have luggage confusion stories, with happy endings or not, please feel free to add them in comments. I can post the best, or worst, in a future story.
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I traveled with the same BLUE samsonite luggage for years. Never had any problems because it wasn’t the black or red that seem to be most popular on the carousel. So I’m standing there at baggage claim and see my bag come down the chute (I recognized my distinct luggage tags) and then I see this little old lady grab my bag off the carousel and start to walk away. I had to chase after her to get her to stop and then had an argument with her before she agreed to read the name on the luggage tags. So she finally gives over my bag and I head back to the carousel to wait for my 2nd bag. As I stood there, she gave me evil looks every few seconds like it was my fault that wasn’t her bag. Well, when her bag finally came it was BLACK, and wasn’t even the same shape or size as mine.
After that, I resorted to putting neon colored shower poofs on the handles of all my luggage until I bought more distinctive luggage. And yes, I have met at least one other person in my travels that has that same distinctive luggage. Thankfully we use different colored luggage tags and locks. And we both read the luggage tags before walking away from baggage claim.
I bought a luggage set that was bright purple with big Hawaiian flowers. Luckily, though Hawaiian print luggage is very trendy now, they don’t make my exact print anymore, so I know which is mine every time. Sometimes the tackier, louder suitcases work better than the blue or black bags with just a small marker.
Wrona: I wouldn’t assume that the little old lady took your bag by mistake — especially since her own bag was so different. She was probably giving you dirty looks because you stopped her in mid theft. It would be so easy for anyone to snatch a bag, hand it off to an accomplice, and then return for his/her own bag.
Assuming that *was* her own bag…
Coming back to Anchorage from my honeymoon in Baja on a frigid January night a few years ago, I staggered out of my First Class seat and into the terminal (it was 2 AM local, 4 AM Baja time, and it takes 12 hours to get from SJD to ANC). I visited the ladies’ room on my way down to the baggage carousel to spash some cold water on my face while my pilot husband took the airport crew shuttle to retrieve our car in his company lot. When I got to the carousel, first his bag and then eventually my own came off the conveyer, after almost everyone else had left. We loaded up the car and drove home, not bothering to unpack once we got there as most of the beachwear in our bags was not needed at -20F!
An hour after we went to bed, the phone rang. Alaska Airlines was calling to say we were missing a bag. Huh? How could that be? We checked two and retrieved two. DH’s was a worn 22″ Purdy Neat with his cargo airline’s purple and orange logo emblazoned on a custom strap. Mine was an almost new 26″ Eagle Creek roller, the likes of which I had not seen so far in my travels. Plus, I’d checked the leather luggage tag holder and I’d seen the familiar Arrowhead logo that appears on my business card (I work for the federal agency that takes care of our national parks).
Sighing, I zipped open my bag to confirm its contents. There was nothing inside that belonged to me! Checking the luggage tag again, this time with my reading glasses on, I realized that the bag belonged to a work colleague. What were the odds . . .
The next morning, back at the airport (good thing we lived 10 minutes away) I sheepishly exchanged my colleague’s bag for my own. Apparently my bag had come off the conveyer right away and my colleague, who I didn’t even realize was on the same flight up from PDX, had checked the tag, seen our agengy logo, and grabbed the bag. When he got home he started unpacking and at first thought the TSA had messed with his stuff, big time. When we compared notes at work the following Monday we marvelled over the fact we had identical bags AND luggage tags. Not so surprising that our business cards looked the same or that we were flying back to ANC on the same flight given the amount of air travel we all do up here.
On hisnext trip to Incheon DH got me custom embroidered yellow straps and I haven’t had a problem since then . . . Still waiting for another Sourdough to show up with the same straps!