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NY Times: Lost Luggage Is Rare, but the Trauma Can Be Acute
New York Times
Lost Luggage Is Rare, but the Trauma Can Be Acute By SHARON McDONNELL Published: June 8, 2004 Picture1: http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/...medstorexl.jpg Caption: Rick Owens for The New York Times Shoppers at the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Ala., look through clothing that was recovered from luggage left at airports. Picture2: http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/...LOST.scott.jpg Caption: Rick Owens for The New York Times Scott Roberts shops at the center with sons Ian, 3, and Andrew, 6. Even for business-travel lore, which is as rich in horror stories as lost luggage, Valerie Bent's ordeal stands out. Ms. Bent, then an executive with a dot-com company, arrived in Buenos Aires two years ago on a Varig Airlines flight from São Paulo, but her suitcase did not. She had to rush out to buy clothes for a business meeting the next morning. When the bag did not show up the following day, she made a second shopping trip. On the third day, Varig found her suitcase and promised to deliver it to her hotel within 45 minutes. After several hours ticked by, however, the airline informed Ms. Bent that the driver had been involved in an accident and her suitcase had been hurled onto a highway. Varig then sent a second car to retrieve it, but by then the suitcase was squashed. "My suitcase had tire marks all over it; everything inside had exploded - the shampoo, toothpaste - and my three suits were completely destroyed," said Ms. Bent, now a public relations executive for CCG Investor Relations in Las Vegas. Varig said the mix-up was the fault of American Airlines, which had flown Ms. Bent to São Paulo from Los Angeles, she said. But American blamed Varig. Neither carrier would compensate Ms. Bent for the loss, though American upgraded her to first class from business class for the return flight, she said. Tribulations like Ms. Bent's are actually rather rare. In the United States last year, just 4 of 1,000 passengers arrived without their checked baggage on the 17 biggest airlines, according to the Transportation Department, and the loss rate has declined substantially for nine of those airlines over the last five years. But such statistics are scant comfort for the 2.2 million people whose checked bags ended up missing in 2003. The airline with the worst record in 2003 was a Delta Air Lines subsidiary, Atlantic Southeast, which mishandled 15.41 bags per 1,000 people, the department said. American Airlines, the world's biggest carrier, lost 4.45 bags per 1,000 people, the department said, while the carrier with the best record, Alaska Airlines, lost 2.56 bags per 1,000 passengers. Three low-cost airlines - AirTran, JetBlue and Southwest - had rates of 2.84, 3.21 and 3.35, respectively. It is bad enough for people without their luggage to have to buy clothes, but it is even worse when they can't. According to Tim Bruins, a senior account executive at the Maritz Travel Company, a corporate travel agency in St. Louis, that was the fate of 40 passengers who arrived on an Iberia Airlines flight in Barcelona for a cruise that his firm organized. Deprived of their luggage, they were unable to buy new clothes at the first port, Villefranche, France, because it was Sunday and shops were closed, or at the next port, Corsica, because it was a national holiday there. "At this point, my staff and I began swapping clothes with the participants to make them as comfortable as possible," Mr. Bruins said. "At Rome, our next port, all guests without luggage went and bought new clothes. Of course, all the luggage showed up that day." What are frequent fliers to do to prepare for the worst? It helps to pack a change of clothing in a carry-on bag, to include identification inside of luggage in case the luggage tag falls off, and, if checked bags fail to arrive at the airport, to file a claim immediately with the airline's baggage services agent. Passengers can collect up to $2,500 for each lost, stolen or damaged bag on domestic flights, but only a flat $9.07 a pound for lost goods on international routes. John K. Hawks, co-author of "Traveler's Rights: Your Legal Guide to Fair Treatment and Full Value" (Sourcebooks, 2003) and executive director of the nonprofit Consumer Travel Rights Center, recommends taking photos of the contents of luggage before it is packed, as well as writing a packing list. "It comes down to persistence and documentation,'' he said. "Don't walk away unless you've gotten what you needed from the baggage services agent. The key is to get in writing what the airline will do and the person's name who took your claim." Mr. Hawks has two other pieces of advice: "Never pack any item in your checked luggage that you cannot afford to lose. And never leave anything on the plane you wouldn't want to never see again, no matter what the airlines say." For passengers who wonder where vanished luggage goes, the answer is often Scottsboro, Ala., home of the Unclaimed Baggage Center, a store that buys unclaimed bags from airlines and sells their contents to the public. Begun in 1970 by Doyle and Sue Owens on card tables stocked with lost luggage from Greyhound buses, the center has grown into one of Alabama's biggest tourist attractions, selling more than a million lost luggage and cargo items each year. Some of the more interesting objects that the company has seen include artificial limbs, a 40.95-carat emerald, a United States Navy guidance system for a F-16 fighter jet (which was returned to the government), a suit of armor, mummified Egyptian artifacts from 1,500 B.C. and a Barbie doll whose head fell off to reveal $500 in bills stashed inside the body. "It's a little like Christmas every day, and it never ceases to amaze me what we find in the luggage," said Bryan Owens, owner of the Unclaimed Baggage Center and son of its founders. To reduce the rate of lost luggage, the airline industry is turning to technology, like tiny radio transmitter chips with unique identifying numbers on luggage tags that allow bags to be tracked continuously. McCarran Airport in Las Vegas plans to start phasing in this system, known as RFID for radio- frequency identification, in the summer. McCarran can use the initiative because it supplies the computerized check-in process for virtually all the airlines that use it, according to Samuel Ingalls, the airport's information systems manager, while other airlines typically use their own systems. "While the optical scanning rate with bar codes on the tags is 80 to 90 percent, our target is 99.8 percent validity with the chips," he said. McCarran's RFID technology is from Matrics, a Rockville, Md., company that is working with six American and three overseas airports to improve the baggage-handling process. Delta Air Lines also has a trial under way with Matrics on its flights from Jacksonville to Atlanta. Once burned, twice shy. After Merle Ward's luggage was delayed for a day on a United Airlines flight, he got only an overnight kit with a toothbrush, toothpaste, shaver and mouthwash from the airline. So the next time his luggage was delayed - for two days after flying to Cologne, Germany - he was prepared. "Now I always pack a change of underwear, fresh shirt and a sport coat in a carry-on," said Mr. Ward, manager of the Ford Motor Company's Arizona Proving Ground for trucks in Yucca, Ariz. "It was a real learning experience." http://travel2.nytimes.com/2004/06/0...ss/08lost.html COMMENT: Always put a tag with your name, address and telephone number INSIDE your luggage, as well as an identifying tag outside. Many household insurance policies and floaters limit compensation to bags that are so identified. |
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NY Times: Lost Luggage Is Rare, but the Trauma Can Be Acute
"Sufaud" wrote in message
. .. New York Times Lost Luggage Is Rare, but the Trauma Can Be Acute snip To reduce the rate of lost luggage, the airline industry is turning to technology, like tiny radio transmitter chips with unique identifying numbers on luggage tags that allow bags to be tracked continuously. McCarran Airport in Las Vegas plans to start phasing in this system, known as RFID for radio- frequency identification, in the summer. McCarran can use the initiative because it supplies the computerized check-in process for virtually all the airlines that use it, according to Samuel Ingalls, the airport's information systems manager, while other airlines typically use their own systems. A lot of people (needlessly, I think) fear RFID, but this is a great example of how important this technology will be in the very near future. The cost savings for virtually all industries is astounding. |
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NY Times: Lost Luggage Is Rare, but the Trauma Can Be Acute
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