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Tales of missing luggageBusiness travelers share their horror stories
 What is the best way to avoid losing your luggage? E-mail us your suggestions. QUICKVOTEYOUR E-MAIL ALERTS(CNN) -- In 2005, 30 million bags were either temporarily or permanently misplaced in transit. Here, Business Traveller viewers share their experiences of having bags go missing during their travels: In 1992, I traveled to Chicago on business. Unfortunately, my suitcase went to San Diego -- and I was lucky that only one trip to United's customer service office was needed to discover where my suitcase went. They were very apologetic and offered to deliver my case to my hotel the next day. Not having any other choice, I accepted. Since I had arrived in town a day early, I reasoned that I would only go one day without fresh clothes before my suitcase came in. And I still had my "essentials," which were packed in my carry-on. After work the next day, sure enough, my suitcase was in the hotel lobby waiting for me and I went happily to my room. Every personal item I had left in the room was GONE. All my medicines, make-up, books and magazines, everything was gone. None of it was anything someone would steal, but it was all gone. It seems that Housekeeping assumed I had checked out and left all this stuff behind -- despite hotel records which showed I would be staying all week. And why did they make this assumption? BECAUSE THERE WAS NO SUITCASE IN THE ROOM!! Patti Feit You travel light, carry-on luggage only, essential items, no sharpies or dangerous items. Yes, you will have to buy an electric shaver, guys. Marshall I have been working as a lost luggage agent for six years for a national European airline. According to my experience, the most you can make to avoid losing your bag forever is to put your name/address/cell phone number , moreover, your destination on the bag and inside the bag. Believe me, there is nothing more annoying for a lost luggage agent than facing an empty name label on a bag. You can do it as soon as you buy the bag! If you do so, there is little chance that your bag will not get you soon. Agnes Bach Travel light..... MINIMIZE whatever you're bringing! Anian R. Salazar While traveling overseas I only carry two bags. One the proper allowed size to travel over your seat in an airplane or train, and a good size school bag with lots of pockets. My hands are free as I have one bag across my shoulder and the other on my back. I am in my 50s, traveled many places, and have never lost a bag as my bags are always with me. My motto is.....take twice as much money and half as many clothes -- there are cleaners, and coin laundry places all over the world, why lug so much stuff, you don't need it! Bon Voyage. Carol Walters I am in the 0.001 percent and although that figure seems a trivial amount, it isn't when you are one of them! I lost a suitcase on a flight from Manchester, UK to London Heathrow. It was the middle piece of five pieces we checked in. The flight was 40 minutes long and the number of passengers in economy was around 20!! I never saw it again, and the airline's attitude was appalling. They were unapologetic and could not explain how a bag can go missing on a 40min domestic flight!! When I arrived at Heathrow they refused to call Manchester, even though we had only just left there. They kept saying "it's in the computer system". It was very frustrating and the compensation was practically nothing compared to what was lost! Miss S. Rodgers Four years ago, I was on a Business trip to the UK, and I had to go to Southern Poland last minute. The most reasonable fare, at the time, was Heathrow to Vienna, via Paris; rent a car and drive to the south of Poland. There I went with my luggage booked to Vienna, I arrived to Vienna's airport, but my luggage was nowhere to be found. instead of start driving to Poland I decided to stay in Vienna overnight and give Air France a chance to get my luggage to me with their last flight of the day and/or the first one in the morning. In the morning Air France had no idea where my bag was. I had Amex luggage insurance and I replaced the most needed things for a three-day business trip. Drove to Poland, and through the three days Amex called twice a day to keep me informed of where my luggage was (or wasn't). When I returned to Vienna, I walked into the Hotel lobby and right behind me, a taxi driver came in with my bag. Next day, I flew back to Heathrow, again via Paris. My bag was sent again. I arrived to Heathrow and my bag went missing again. This time forever. While American Express cover most of my expenses and some of the lost clothes, Air France did not take any responsibility whatsoever. So, when I watched your piece today, in my hotel in Stavanger, Norway, I tried really hard to see if any of the clothing in the store was mind from four years ago. I did not feel that bad about my loss, once you showed the emerald ring. Now I laugh about it, but four years ago it was terrible, I had still a week of meetings around the UK to go and had no clothing. I spent $1500 to replace my clothes TWICE. Alex Otman As a very frequent traveler -- and having had more than my share of bags "lost" -- I agree that the best way to avoid lost bags is to carry them on board. Unfortunately some airlines, in particular the British ones, tend to have very customer unfriendly carry-on rules. The solution, especially when flying economy, is to fly on airlines that do not hassle customers who want to eliminate this problem (and at the same time save the airline the expense of checking luggage and finding lost bags). I try to fly Continental from the U.S. as they have excellent carry-on policies and their luggage bins are some of the biggest around. Not only do my bags not get lost -- which especially tends to happen with connecting flights -- but I can dash right from the plane to my appointment and not waste time at the luggage carousel. Randall Stempler, New York, NY Six musician Canadian friends have come to visit me in Greece for work. They flew from Edmonton to Toronto, Toronto to London Heathrow and Heathrow to Athens, arriving on May 10. Eight pieces of their luggage failed to turn up and they were told it had been located in London. I received a call the next day telling me the luggage would arrive at the bus station in Loutraki -- a 40 km roundtrip by car and a route NOT on public transport. When my friends arrived, only six pieces of luggage had arrived. Eventually, it was established the missing two pieces were still in London. We turned up the next day, as advised, and only one piece was there. The last item arrived and after four days and three 40 km journeys my friends finally retrieved all their luggage. They are due to leave on 16 May and spent the first four days of their stay in Greece dealing with their lost luggage. They have not been able to do the work that they intended to do and which was the purpose of their visit to Greece and consequentially have lost thousands of dollars. To make matters worse the last item to arrive (the guitar) was in a very strong guitar case clearly marked "FRAGILE" in several places but in spite of this the case was badly damaged. Fortunately the guitar itself is Ok. Paul Gebhard, Loutraki, Greece I paid much attention to your report about missing luggage, but could not find any solution nor questioning about my problem last March 30. A fellow passenger on the domestic flight Beijing-HKG o/b CX took my luggage by accident instead of his/hers. The luggage left on the belt was almost exactly the same as mine (color, material, size etc), but only, the name label was not mine. Question/Challenge: What can airlines/airports do to avoid passengers from taking other people's luggage outside the airport, even though luggages seem to look the same from a two-yard distance? Gery Emonds, Sri Lanka My personal experience in the past few years is the growing number of damaged luggage. I don't remember anymore how many suitcases of mine came out of the plane with cracked handles, wheels missing or just totally smashed. Of course after complaining to the airport I arrive in they put the blame on the airport from departure and afterwards vice versa In other words, a hopeless case trying to get an airport responsible for the abuse and following damage. But the one that has to buy new bags all the time is me. Arne Blezer Many years ago, in the mid-1970s I was on a TWA flight to Columbus, Ohio and my bag was lost. I finally got the bag back about three days later. The bag had gone on to the next destination on this flight and I had called TWA about five times to check with that city. What was surprising was that my bag still had my oversize luggage tag that had in very large letters, IF FOUND PLEASE CALL 800 555 1234 (I don't remember the actual number,but you get the point) Did anyone ever call? NOPE. Peter Scher I had a stroke of bad luck some years ago. I was working in Geneva for some weeks, and instead of going back home for the weekend, I decided to go to Spain to visit some family. Got an evening flight with a connection in Barcelona, and was looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend. Problems started when there was a delay on my Geneva -- Barcelona flight which resulted in losing my connection for Malaga. I was fortunate to catch the next and last flight and thought all was well. Upon arrival in Malaga around midnight, I found my luggage had not been so fortunate as to make it all the way. Reporting the luggage as lost in my somewhat lacking Spanish was a bit of an ordeal, but I was comforted by the fact that they would send me my luggage early next morning. The airline brought me my luggage at 10am the following Sunday -- five hours before my return to Geneva. Convinced that lightning does not strike twice in the same place, I checked my luggage in for the return flight to Geneva. I had much less problems reaching Geneva than my luggage did. Upon arrival, I again found myself without my bags. I discovered that reporting luggage lost in French was much more difficult than in Spanish, and that the lack of service in Malaga, match the arrogance in Geneva. It took three days before I was reunited with my first bag -- the one without my clothes. The days passed, and at the end of the working week, I continued to Paris for the next week's meetings, and despite several promises -- still missing one bag. Upon returning from Paris I spotted my second bag at the airport -- out on the floor -- in the open -- in the baggage "service" area. It took much negotiation, but I returned to Oslo with all pieces as carry-on luggage. Since then, I have: never traveled without carry-on with spare clothing. Martin Olsen On my way from Khartoum Sudan to Washington DC I stopped in London to shop for books; and when I went to Heathrow to continue my journey I found, as a student, I had too much weight. So, I decided to lose one piece of my luggage; and I just abandoned in the airport (it was 1978) and checked in for Washington DC. Two weeks after my arrival in Washington DC, the airline brought the "lost" piece of luggage to my home address -- free of charge! Ushari Mahmud Khalil, Dubai, United Arab Emirates As a very experienced traveler (100 plus flights a year), I would just like to give your viewers one tip. KNOW THE AIRPORT CODE OF THE AIRPORT YOU ARE FLYING TO and then visually check the label as it is put on your suitcase. I was once checking in with BA at LHR fro Antwerp (ANR) and I was horrified to watch her check my luggage to Arlanda (ARN) in Sweden. My reaction was: "But I am not flying to Stockholm," was greeted with an extremely red face and an apology. As I was one of the last passengers to check-in, I was not surprised to see only three cases arrive in Antwerp -- one of which was mine! Jon Hemmings, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Many years ago, when my wife and I were living in Barbados and needed to go on a short business trip to Martinique, we labeled our luggage clearly on the outside with our name and street address so that if our luggage was lost on the way out, it would not be sent on to arrive at the hotel after we had returned home. Our luggage was not lost but when we got back home again, we found that the house had been burgled. We were told that kind of labeling is ill-advised since in many locations, airport baggage handlers are paid by burglars for such information on the theory that the occupants of the house at that location are very likely to be away for a few days. Derek Thornton, Pforzheim, Germany 
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