Bad black bags

As I am packing for Rome-Rome and Fall TA on Celebrity I will bring this problem up from this Spring Europe cruise that really nags me. Got off to pick up shared van to FCO found here on CC. A sea of thousands of black bags in terminal, all similar. We wait 45 minutes for a couple. Guy comes out , says someone stole his(of Course), BLACK bag. No apologies. I may miss my one daily flight to DEN so had the nice driver find me a seat in one of many vans. Luckily I made plane. Cruisers, why do you buy these awful bags or at least personalize them? I have various colors and carry my bags off too. And Newbies, consider another color. Thank you.

As I am packing for Rome-Rome and Fall TA on Celebrity I will bring this problem up from this Spring Europe cruise that really nags me. Got off to pick up shared van to FCO found here on CC. A sea of thousands of black bags in terminal, all similar. We wait 45 minutes for a couple. Guy comes out , says someone stole his(of Course), BLACK bag. No apologies. I may miss my one daily flight to DEN so had the nice driver find me a seat in one of many vans. Luckily I made plane. Cruisers, why do you buy these awful bags or at least personalize them? I have various colors and carry my bags off too. And Newbies, consider another color. Thank you.

I don't check bags that are black, gray, or navy blue for this very reason! My current checked back is a pretty emerald green. I can spot it anywhere.

DD could only find a black suitcase on her trip. Ended up using nail polish to create stars.

Black doesn't show marks. Her light yellow bag is all marked up.

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I have red but I'm glad I wasn't on the same flight as the Olympians from Great Britain.:D

I have red but I'm glad I wasn't on the same flight as the Olympians from Great Britain.:D

 

Since it didn't involve me, I found that very funny :) Thanks for the reminder :D

The issue isn't buying a black bag. It's making sure you take two seconds to make sure you have retrieved your own bag.

I have managed, over many years of traveling, to avoid taking someone else's bag, black or not.

Put colorful tape & ribbons on your black suitcases!

My luggage is powder pink. I purchased pieces separately for my dd's at marshalls/Ross I found a large , medium and small ( same type ) in different animal prints. They love it and it is easy to spot...look for the zebra, leopard and snake patterns...lol.

I tie a strip of colorful fabric to all of the handles, very easy to spot. My MIL also gave me blue bags that were stenciled very pretty with white paint....

Non decorated neutral bags are soooo hard to figure out who's whos! The closest to a neutral anyone in my family has is an off muted green that shimmers. We don't check bags unless we have to due to size as well. Hope that guy found his!

You definitely want a distinctive bag - my new one is purple (with hot pink flip flop luggage tags) and my old one which I got on sale - at first I hated it - but came to love the dark brown with fuscshia and pink circles all over it - no chance of anyone else taking it LOL

Thanks everyone. I once saw 2 guys fighting over a black bag. Winners in color selection are Emerald green, animal and red. I have yellow, leopard and lime/grey. Search "discount luggage.com" for varied, affordable selections.

I once saw 2 guys fighting over a black bag.

Ridiculous. Easily solved just by looking at a luggage tag.

We have luggage straps with our surname woven on them which go round our suitcases. I'm sure you must be able to get them in the US?

Found this US link

https://www.labelweavers.com/personalized-woven-luggage-strap-p-32.html

I have a black suitcase with HUGE pink and white polka dots. It's truly the most obnoxious suitcase that I could find--for particularly this reason. I'm trying to convince my husband to take the smaller of the set instead of his black suitcase. He thinks having a little bit of red tape in the corners is good enough. I want to be able to spot our suitcases from far across the room for debarkment and as soon as it comes off the luggage carousel. Oh, well, I guess I'll find mine easily; he's on his own if he insists on bringing his black suitcase.

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Oddly enough, with all our traveling, we've never had a problem. All our bags are black.

Most problems occur on longer cruises where heavy packers find thousands of black bags are standing up very close to next one in port terminal at debarkation. Bag sides may be hidden. Cruisers in hurry for transfer to airport, stressed, do not look closely. So put any ID on top bag handle.

Put colorful tape & ribbons on your black suitcases!

There are many colorful and unique patterns of duct tape. Put some of your favorite one on your bag. My bag is red but even that isn't completely unique because it is of a common brand.

We have all our black bags covered with black and white checked duct tape; very easy to spot, easy to repair and replace.

Haha, my suitcase is purple and hubby's is orange! No problem here

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a couple of years ago we could not find one of our bags (of course it would be mine) when we got off now the case is shocking pink so we knew it was definitely NOT there. We went to the section where luggage goes if labels came off but since I put four labels on each case I didn't think it would be there. It wasn't after what seemed like an eternity (at least half hour) of searching and due to the terminal now almost being cleared of suit cases. My niece spotted at other end of the room in a different luggage section. One of the embarkation labels was still on it for some reason and they had put it at section 7 which was the number of the embarkation label for our deck. so the lesson there is make sure you remove ALL the old labels :o

I have red but I'm glad I wasn't on the same flight as the Olympians from Great Britain.:D

 

Hilarious! Thank you. :D

We stand out by putting Canadian flag duct tape on our luggage. We can spot it a mile away.

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We just tie ribbons onto ALL the handles on our bags....all the ribbons are the same color....and they do NOT come off....had the same ribbons on there for the last 10 years! Makes OUR suitcases (when we use the black ones) stand out....we see them quickly, and others should know if they tied something on their bags, or not.....

I painted out black luggage handles and an M and squiggly lines by it. After a few trips I was embarrassed by my "art" work, but we could always tell our luggage from others. My son won a set of grey luggage at his school's graduation party (A very fitting prize for him) and he wouldn't let me do anything to it to distinguish it. I wanted to iron on some patches. But I bet loads of people that I will be the only one on my flights and cruise on my next trip with the set I just bought. It's hardside with globes and maps as the design, bright teal, red and yellow. I love it!