Arriving to your holiday destination can bring a sense of bliss, but not being able to find your checked-in luggage is when that feeling can soon dissipate.
Many people took to Reddit to share their unfortunate experience of having had their luggage lost or sent to the wrong place.
One Reddit commentator said it’s happened “twice” to them. “Once it was delayed two days (sent to Venice instead of London), and once four weeks (sent to Lisbon, then Brazil, instead of London).”
Somebody else shared that it’s happened three times to them: “One never recovered, two were lost for months.”
Now, because of the bad experiences, the affected person tries to do “everything” in their power to never check in a bag.
Another posted how they have known of one bag being lost, but the person they knew retrieved the lost luggage two weeks later.
Most of the time, lost luggage is actually delayed luggage, but there is something simple you can do to help reduce the risk of such a mishap.
“My luggage used to get lost every single time I flew! But then I realised it’s because I left the old labels/tags/barcode stickers on my bag,” one Reddit user revealed. “Now I take the stickers off once I get home and I haven’t lost a bag since.”
It’s best to give any suitcase a once-over before packing it for a new flight, just in case an old sticker is on there from another trip.
Others recommended adding in an Air Tag so that you can track your luggage in the unfortunate event it doesn’t arrive at the same destination as you.
“The one time I lost a bag, it stayed in Stockholm as I went to Rome,” one Reddit user noted. “I knew exactly when it got to Rome so I contacted the lost bag desk there and told them to hold it. Then I went to the airport and got it.”
To help mitigate the unfortunate event of delayed luggage, carrying the essentials in a carry-on bag is highly recommended.
“I follow the age-old advice of keeping the really key stuff – camera gear, laptop, medications, eyeglasses, etc – in my carry-on,” said another contributor. “Plus a couple necessities like a toothbrush.”
To help ease any feeling of frustration should this happen to you, somebody stated: “If your bag is delayed, remember that the baggage desk people at your destination did not misplace your bag, but are the ones that will try and find it.”