50 million pieces of luggage are mishandled or lost every year. This breaks down to a staggering 95 pieces every minute of every day globally.
As I stood at the baggage carousel in Dublin airport in Ireland six months ago, I never thought anything about how the system worked; I just expected my bag to appear. I waited with my fellow travelers as per usual, but as they headed off to meet their business colleagues and loved ones I was still standing there. I waited there for another 20 minutes in the hope it would appear, until finally giving in.I preceded empty handed to the information desk where the staff member asked me to fill out the lost luggage form. This quiet simple to use form outlines the bags description and distinguishing features etc. I like many others had a medium sized rectangular, black case. I was assured that my bag would be found, but after waiting seven days it never appeared.
So what should every traveler know about before they make a journey with luggage?
The main source of lost luggage is the airline industry, and reports say that they miss- handled 42 million pieces last year and by 2015 the figure will be around 65million pieces annually. The remaining 8 million pieces of missing luggage come from trains, buses, and taxis.If you are planning on checking in your bag, make sure you do not pack any of the following, as I found out to my expense there are many things not insured when you travel. These include money, jewelry, tobacco, keys, cameras, laptops, medicine, spectacles contact lenses watches, mobile phones, iPods’, passports or business documents. This is not widely known but when you click the Terms and Conditions button, while making a booking on many large airlines websites you giving up your rights to these items. This means that when lost you are not entitled to insurance for these items.
So what happens to the remaining items that are meant to be insured in your luggage?
This is what frustrated me the most, when you go to claim for the remaining items in your bag, you have to provide proof of purchase. This means you have to find receipts and credit card statements showing you actually owned the items you claimed for.In my situation I had 2 receipts adding up to around $60, when I estimated there was $1400 worth of items in my bag. In the end after many phone calls and emails I settled for $300.
When travelling makes sure you have a robust luggage tag on your bag. I recommend one from www.bagpassport.com. The mistake I made was I expected the system to work, but it didn’t and the experience short changed me.
Written by John McCarthyFounder of http://bagpassport.com/ after a lost luggage experience.
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