Lost Luggage

Anyone ever had their luggage lost on a flight to their port of embarkation? Cruising without your main suitcase?

Anyone ever had their luggage lost on a flight to their port of embarkation? Cruising without your main suitcase?

Thankfully no.....but I do put a copy of my trip information both inside my suitcase & in the outside pocket.

Probably doesn't help.......but couldn't hurt.....

Anyone ever had their luggage lost on a flight to their port of embarkation? Cruising without your main suitcase?

A girl's worst nightmare !! :eek:

Not to jinx myself, but so far thankfully our luggage always arrived with us.

Almost.

We were cruising out of Fort Lauderdale and my suitcase wasn't on the carousel with all the other luggage!

Good thing we flew in a day early. My suitcase showed up in our hotel around 7 that evening.

We were lucky.

The reason we cross-pack now. (Some of my stuff goes in DH's checked suitcase, and some of his goes in mine).

I pack lighter now, but I still need to check a bag.

Anyone ever had their luggage lost on a flight to their port of embarkation? Cruising without your main suitcase?

Luckily no but I have now probably jinxed myself :rolleyes:.

Nope, but have had luggage lost a few times a year. DH travels a lot for work. We live an hour from the airport. They've lost our luggage so often that DH is on a first name basis with the guy who delivers it and he says he no longer has to look our address up on the map.

DH flew back east for business. They lost his bag and he arrived around 1 am and had a meeting at 7am, so no time to shop. He was able to shower, but had to wear the same clothes again, and he wasn't exactly dressed for business at the meeting lol

This should be common sense, but....Don't pack your car keys in your checked bag! DH was flying home. There was bad weather in several states and lots of delays and cancelled flights, so he got in really late. His bag didn't arrive and he discovered he had packed his car keys in it. I had to drive an hour to the airport to give him the spare keys so he could drive our SUV home. He has since done that a couple of times. I've learned to carry my car keys in my purse when I fly with him.

Some good advice is take a day or 2 of clothes in your carryon and any meds or personal toiletries you'll need. Cross-pack checked bags if you're traveling with some one, like half your clothes and half spouses clothes in each suitcase so if one gets lost, you'll both still have clothes.

Yes, I have and it was a nightmare. Fortunately I flew into Miami 2 days in advance. My large suitcase was not there. Fortunately I had a carryon with enough in it to get by for 2 days. I went shopping and bought some toiletries and clothing just in case my luggage did not find me by cruise time.

I found out my suitcase went from Atlanta to Salt Lake City(instead of Miami) and then went to Seattle and then made it back to Miami the morning of my cruise day. So all of this took 2 days. The morning of my cruise when I was notified that my suitcase was at the Miami airport I was told it would be delivered to the hotel in late afternoon because that is when they made hotel runs. Well of course by this time I would have boarded the ship so I took a cab to the airport to pick it up myself.

The travel insurance paid me for all the clothes and toiletries I had purchased. Thank goodness for travel insurance.

Yes, on our first Mediterranean cruise; flew from Canada to Athens, and the only thing we had with us were our carry-ons. Of course, we packed everything in our suitcases, using our carry-ons for magazines, snacks, travel pillow, etc. Lesson learned. We didn't see our luggage until the first port of call 3 days later at Istanbul.

We purchased a couple of t-shirts from the ship's shop, and we were given complimentary overnight laundry, but we felt awful because we missed the first formal night, and ended up having to eat our dinner in the Lido instead of the dining room. One upside was that another couple had lost their luggage as well, and we became good friends on that cruise; we have subsequently taken other cruises together.

Now when we cruise, I cross-pack for both of us, as well as pack our formal wear (including shoes) in our carry-ons along with an extra change of clothing just in case. It's amazing how much you can get into a regulation size carry-on when you really want to - and it doesn't have to weigh a ton, either.

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

Gerry

So far our luggage has always arrived at the embarkation port.

We always take 4 suitcases. Split all clothes between all 4 suitcases -- 1/4 of mine and 1/4 of his clothes in each suitcase.

After weather delays and missed connections that continued over 24 hours I once had my luggage show up on the 5th day of a 7 day cruise... and missed an excursion and wasted part of the port day having to go claim it

I used to wonder why people used the disposable airline- provided paper ID tags - now I know to write in my destination or attach my itinerary there. It doesn't help your trip if they return your luggage to your home if that is the only ID on it. That happened to me on a 18 day European trip.

Before I started carry-on only travel I had lost, stolen, or missed connection with my luggage on several occasions. I began to think there was a hidden sign on my luggage "Lose Me"

Traveling light isn't a desired style for most but it works for me!

YES!!!! long story short, my flights to Copenhagen were severely messed up and my luggage was lost for 9 days. I had no choice but to purchase underwear, a jacket, and a few tops before the cruise. I've submitted those receipts and am still waiting for United to reimburse me. Good thing I was wearing a super comfy outfit because I pretty much wore it for 9 days. Borrowed jackets from my travel companions (males). A very nice passenger loaned me a dress and shoes for formal night.

PRINCESS WAS AMAZING!!!!!Customer Service worked very hard to track down my bag, it was super complicated. On day 9 my bag showed up in my room in Estonia.

Lots of our travel companions noticed when I finally got my clothes. Everyone was so happy for me! Honestly, it wasn't much of a big deal for me, everyone was super helpful and it didn't matter a lot.

When I cross packed for DH and me, I always made sure every suitcase had underwear for each of us, shoes for both of us in each bag, tops/shirt/blouse in each. I didn't just share the bags but rather made sure each bag had basic necessities. We normally were away about 14-17 days and usually took three checked suitcases.

I know people it has happened to.

This is another reason to fly in a day or more before your cruise.

Keith

Not yet:)

Connecting Flight cancelled in Phoenix. We made an alternate flight to LA but our luggage didn't. We barely made our flight on Air New Zealand. At the stopover in Fiji they called us to the desk to tell us not to bother looking for our luggage when we arrived in Auckland. It was a little dicey getting through customs without any luggage.

Four days later I sat on our balcony and watched them take our luggage out of the trunk of a taxi.

Three airports, two airlines, one cruise ship and a taxi ride. Our luggage was very well traveled. But it eventually got to us.

We travel almost exclusively with carry-ons these days. Getting free laundry really is a blessing.

Anyone ever had their luggage lost on a flight to their port of embarkation? Cruising without your main suitcase?

Just two weeks ago when flying to Boston for a HAL cruise. I was taking the cruise with my 17 year old grandson and his luggage made it to Boston but not mine. The cruise started on Saturday and my luggage caught up with the ship on Monday in Halifax. When we realized that my luggage was AWOL my grandson told me not to worry as I could wear some of his clothes. I asked him what his waist size was and he said 32. I said, Liam your grandfather hasn't had a 32 inch waist since high school! We made out ok but it was a pain in the butt.

We have lost luggage quite a few times. It has always turned up eventually. We do cross pack and always carry at least 1 change of clothes in our carryons. In the past we have used re-sale shops to fill in until we got the bags.

I 'very had three "events" re checked bags on airlines (none cruise-related, but could have been).

1) A checked bag vanished and never turned up- fortunately it was mainly old clothes - airline gave me $100 - perhaps a third of the value.

2) A checked bag missed a flight to San Diego - airline tracked it down - and left it on the front porch sometime after 2:00 AM the next morning - annoying that they just left it unannounced.

3) Could not find my bag on carousel at La Guardia - after all others had claimed theirs and left, I went to report it at the lost luggage office. While I was there an airport employee showed up with it - he had found it next to one of the exit doors about 100 yards from the carousel - presumably whoever took it from the carousel in error discovered his mistake before leaving the building and wanted to rush back unhindered to get his own, so he left it by the exit. Since then, as I use fairly standard looking black bags, I always have a distinctive symbol on both sides in white packing tape - won't prevent theft, but will keep others from taking it in error.

We had our checked bags not get to Fort Lauderdale when we did before one cruise. Our flight was delayed taking off, and we missed our original connection in Orlando, but the airline put us on a different flight there. We barely had enough time to get from gate to gate. Fortunately we were staying overnight in a hotel, and the airline delivered them during the night.

When we flew back from our Alaska cruise a couple of years ago, one of our bags did not make it. That time we had two flight changes--Phoenix and Charlotte. The airline delivered the bag to my office the next day.

Yes - family cruise from Vancouver. Fortunately I cross pack so we all had essentials in our carry on - sleeping gear, toiletries, and underwear. Of the three bags - one arrived with us, the next was brought out by the airlines in time for sail away and the third caught up with us on day 4. The guys were happy to wear tennis shoes with dress slacks and shirts. RCCL was great - did our laundry daily for free.

Once, 1 bag did not show up in Rome, we had a transfer in Paris to a codeshare flight on Air France. We had flown a day early, Air France found and delivered the bag to Rom, so we picked it up before we left for the ship.

We try to fly direct/non stop as much as possible, we avoid codeshares if we can and we pack our carryons with our dress clothes and a extra change of day time wear. So what we least want to lose is in our carryons.

We always pack our suite cases with an itinerary inside, just in case.

If I'm doing a trip with multiple legs**, before we leave I make luggage tags for EACH leg in which we're putting the luggage into someone else's care, giving next destination, specific location contact numbers, etc. Two copies. After every leg, I'd change them for the next part of the trip. I just print them off the computer: 1. small type and to be folded into the exterior tag holder and 2. big print, open right on top of the clothes in the luggage as it is opened.

As somebody mentioned, if your generic luggage tag gives a cell phone (that may not be working due to location or whatever) and an address where you won't be for weeks, it's no good.

***: Last summer: Flight to London, train to Dover, Cruise to Norway and back, Train to Canterbury then London, flight from London to Belfast, Ferry/Bus from Belfast to Glasgow, train Glasgow to London, flight home. (Oh, and several rented cars and lots of public transportation in between those.) Two months. It was GREAT! And, yes, I did ALL the planning, reservations, etc. It's something I love to do! And no, we're not young and foolish. We're early 60's and having fun!

Barb ("feathers")

OOPS! I left out the part about lost luggage.

Yes, once, but not arriving for a cruise, but on the way home from one, which is WAY better. There are always more clothes in the closet at home. And the luggage arrived within 24 hours.

But I've been paranoid ever since.

Barb again

While cross packing is not a bad idea it does have the pitfall when both your luggage don't make it. This happened to us on a tight connection due to weather delays. We made the connection but our luggage didn't.

I now pack enough in my carry on to make it through a cruise if the worst happens.

I also make custom luggage tags for each trip with information for each trip using a business card template. This template is the perfect size for most luggage tags. When cutting leave the outside edge. This makes getting the tag out easier. I also put a more detailed trip information inside each piece of luggage.

Shak

If I'm doing a trip with multiple legs**, before we leave I make luggage tags for EACH leg in which we're putting the luggage into someone else's care, giving next destination, specific location contact numbers, etc. Two copies. After every leg, I'd change them for the next part of the trip. I just print them off the computer: 1. small type and to be folded into the exterior tag holder and 2. big print, open right on top of the clothes in the luggage as it is opened.

 

As somebody mentioned, if your generic luggage tag gives a cell phone (that may not be working due to location or whatever) and an address where you won't be for weeks, it's no good.

 

***: Last summer: Flight to London, train to Dover, Cruise to Norway and back, Train to Canterbury then London, flight from London to Belfast, Ferry/Bus from Belfast to Glasgow, train Glasgow to London, flight home. (Oh, and several rented cars and lots of public transportation in between those.) Two months. It was GREAT! And, yes, I did ALL the planning, reservations, etc. It's something I love to do! And no, we're not young and foolish. We're early 60's and having fun!

 

Barb ("feathers")

That's a great idea. Our upcoming trip has several parts to it and I'm going to put my computer to work.