How can luggage get lost and never recovered if it still has a bag tag?
I lost a bag on a flight from BKK -> ARN -> CPH two weeks ago. I immediately filed a report at CPH when the bag hadn't arrived after more than an hour of waiting. Since then there has been no updates of the bags whereabouts on the tracing website.
Theft is one possibility, but there seem to be many cases where luggage is lost "forever" and then end up at an auction.
As a layman, the only reasonable explanation (besides theft) for the bag being missing for more than a few days seems to be that the luggage tag has somehow fallen off the bag. If the luggage still has a tag and is sitting somewhere in an airport - be it at BKK, ARN or CPH - surely someone would have noticed it by now and scanned the tag?
However, when reading about why luggage gets lost, and especially seeing photos of lost luggage at auctions, it seems that it's entirely possible for a bag to still have its tag with barcodes intact and yet be "missing".
How can this be? Surely the system must be built in such a way that a luggage handler can scan the bag tag at any time and either find the missing luggage report or the contact details of the passenger? Or is the luggage handling identification system a lot dumber than I imagine? I read somewhere that "after 3 days the barcode is reused for other passengers luggage", which sounds too stupid to be true.
It would be interesting to know how it works from someone who has insight into how the system works in real life.
Best Answer
How can luggage get lost and never recovered ?
It's not a perfect system. Lots of things can go wrong:
- Data entry error during bag reception.
- Transfer error of the data record while it travels through all the different airport and airline systems (and probably being transcoded multiple times)
- Tag smugded or crumpled to the point that it's unreadable
- Tag partially or completely ripped off.
- Tag mis-read anywhere during the journey
- Manual handling or data entry error during the trip
- Someone else grabbed the bag off the belt intentionally
- Someone else grabbed the bag by accident and is too stupid/lazy to return it. Or they disposed of the tag before they noticed their mistake
Funny story: when I got my bag back I noticed that the handle was badly damaged and complained to the airline (LH in FRA, I think). The agent showed me to a side room that was FULL of lost or abandoned suitcases. They offered me to just grab "whichever one you like" instead of filing a length claim from and that's what I did!
Pictures about "How can luggage get lost and never recovered if it still has a bag tag?"
Do airlines usually find lost luggage?
If your bag doesn't make it to your destination with you, airlines are usually able to locate it fairly quickly and get it on the next flight there. About 97% of lost luggage is returned to its owner within 2 days, and less than 5% of all lost luggage is actually lost, aka never returned.What percentage of lost luggage is found?
The good news about lost luggage is that airlines worldwide eventually recover 97% of mishandled bags. That is one of 10 surprising facts about flying with luggage that came out of a new study by international air transport technology specialist SITA.How often does luggage get permanently lost?
Most eventually turned up\u2014one recent study by industry group SITA found only about 5 percent of lost bags disappear permanently\u2014but with so much luggage temporarily vanishing, airlines knew they had a problem. Over the past 10 years, many invested in infrastructure, including bag tracking systems, and they've improved.How long can luggage be lost for?
Airlines rarely get bags back to passengers in 48 hours. Most bags that fall into the delayed baggage category make it back to the passenger in 3-7 days.Lost Luggage Tips | What to Do When the Airline Loses Your Bag
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