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Don't end up in the land of the lostBy Betty Stark
"... a sapphire and diamond bracelet. Hermes scarves. Burberry raincoats for men ... a yellow silk Christian Dior jacket. Fancy luggage and high-priced cameras ..." gushes the Baltimore Sun. The Wall Street Journal wrote, "The public can't get enough of it. What began as a few pieces of luggage sold from card tables 24 years ago is now a sprawling glass and granite complex that takes up more than a city block." The place that warrants all this media attention is the Unclaimed Baggage Center in the rural town of Scottsboro, Ala., about 32 miles from Huntsville and 50 miles southwest of Chattanooga, Tenn. It's the final resting spot for thousands and thousands of suitcases - and their contents - that have been permanently "mishandled" by airlines across the U.S. It's also a monumental symbol of a system that failed to do what it was supposed to. The story of how the luggage finds its way to the sleepy town of Scottsboro and the deals that can be found there is an interesting one, but more about that later. First, let's talk about what you can do to keep your luggage and its contents from landing on the "New Items! Great Bargains!" table at this one-of-a-kind outlet. Viewed as a percentage, the problem of temporarily or permanently lost luggage doesn't seem all that significant. But according to a recent report by the Department of Transportation, the number of incidents has skyrocketed in the past few months to the highest level in over a decade, thanks in part to new and tougher carry-on rules that prompt passengers to grudgingly check bags instead. Luggage that does not arrive with the passenger, arrives damaged or arrives with items missing is described as "mishandled." Of those, the majority in the "missing" category are returned to their owners within a relatively short period of time, usually 24 hours to five days. About 40,000 bags a year turn up on the gone-forever list. If one of them is yours, you know what a nuisance - or disaster - that can be. So why do bags get lost and what can you do to avoid becoming a victim? According to the airlines, the number one culprit is late check-in. Luggage that trundles down the conveyor belt at the last minute might not be loaded on the same plane as the passenger. The solution to this one is obvious: arrive at the airport with plenty of time to spare. To speed the process, check in and print out your boarding passes on the airline Web site before you leave home (make sure you do this within the required time period). Then check in your luggage at a kiosk when you arrive at the airport. This will speed your bags into the system more quickly and lessen the chances that they'll miss your flight. Avoid tight connections too. Your luggage might make it on the originating flight but miss a connecting flight because the time between the two was too short. Misrouting is another common reason that bags stray. When you peruse the alphabet soup of three-letter airport codes, it's easy to see how Phoenix (PHX) can be mistaken for Portland, Oregon (PDX). You can help here by removing old tags from your luggage and making sure that the new routing tags bear the correct airport codes before you turn the bag over for X-ray screening. For a list of airport codes, check out this Web site: www.world-airport-codes.com. If you are bumped from a flight or delayed by bad weather, your luggage might arrive at your destination before you do. Typically you'll find it waiting alongside the luggage carrousel or in storage at the airline's baggage office. If you arrive to find that your luggage is not there, do not leave the airport without filing a missing luggage claim. Most airlines require you to do so within 24 hours, and some say you should file the report within 4 hours of your arrival if you want to maximize the tracing process. What else can you do to increase the chances that you'll see your bags again? Here are a few more suggestions: Don't pack prohibited items in your checked luggage (review the no-nos at www.tsa.gov) and don't lock your luggage. Either could cause your bag to be delayed for secondary inspection. Bags and their tags are sometimes separated. Put your name on both the outside and the inside of your bag. If you'll be traveling for several days, put a copy of your itinerary in an envelope inside the bag. If the bag goes missing along the way, tell the airline where to look for the information so they can more efficiently track you down. Take a photo of your bag and carry a few copies with you - not in your checked bag, of course. That way when you're asked to describe your bag you can hand over a photo and ask that it be attached to your claim. To minimize the chance that someone will take your bag by mistake, retire your black wheeled bag with the pull-up handle and get one in a stand-out color that won't be lost in a sea of look-alike bags on the luggage carrousel. If that's not an option, put something on the outside of the bag that's an instant eye-catcher, such as colorful Belle Hop Luggage Tags or Easy Spot Handle Wraps, available at Magellan's (www.magellans.com) or local luggage stores. • Check seat back pockets, overhead bins and the floor around your seat before you deplane to make sure you gather all your belongings. Plenty of items from these areas find their way to the Unclaimed Baggage Center, too. Back at the Unclaimed Baggage Center, lost bags by the hundreds continue to arrive daily, finally discarded by airlines that have attempted for up to 90 days to reunite them with their owners. The array of for-sale items salvaged from permanently lost luggage is a treasure-hunters dream. Cruise through their Web site (www.unclaimedbaggage.com) and you'll discover that they stock more than 7,000 new items daily, many of them unused, and sell them at deeply discounted prices. With luck, your bags will never find their way to Scottsboro. But if they do, you might want to consider a road trip there. Even if you don't recover your own belongings, you're sure to find something to replace them. As an NBC reporter observed, "Names that you will recognize, prices that you won't believe." Betty Stark is a Madison travel industry consultant and business travel writer with 25 years' experience. travelingwriter1@aol.com madison.com ©2009 Capital Newspapers. All rights reserved. |
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