Where does our luggage go?

[Coadysmom]

While I'm sitting here trying to figure out which flights to take to Australia next January, I was pondering the layover times in LAX and wondered. Where does my luggage go when I get to an airport 12 hours before my flight out? I mean I know it's in the "great luggage cave" but does anyone know how the airlines queue up luggage for flights which haven't yet arrived and how do the luggage systems know that my luggage is sitting somewhere for 12 hours waiting to be loaded onto my flight?

I've got way too much time on my hands I know, but the question does set my mind to wandering:confused:

[paul929207]

Baggage is stored under the terminals until it is ready to start loading a flight. The luggage tags the airlines put on are coded to direct it to the appropriate flight.

[FlyerTalker]

Luggage handling areas are amazing places, with bags moving every which way in a large ballet of incoming, outgoing and transfering bags. In the "old days", the brightly colored paper tags indicated where bags were headed -- the ticket counters had racks of tags, each preprinted with the airline code. Now, they are printed on-the-spot, with bar codes to assist in tracking and routing. As bags go on and off aircraft, rampers use hand held scanners to log what bags are going where, for real-time tracking (much like your FedEx and UPS packages). The bar codes are also used in the sorting within the baggage facility.

 

On a 12 hour connect, your bags will be transfered to the proper terminal at LAX (if you have a terminal change), and will be put in a holding area for your next flight - along with all of the other transfer bags also going to Oz. When it comes time for your flight to be loaded, the bags will be put into containers, and loaded into your aircraft.

 

However, if your luggage was smart, it would head over to the In-N-Out burger near LAX and grab a bite to eat before the long stretch in the hold. :D:D Seriously, nothing to be concerned with.

[JJPNYC]

However, if your luggage was smart, it would head over to the In-N-Out burger near LAX and grab a bite to eat before the long stretch in the hold. :D:D

 

Like minds think alike as I was going to put a wise-crack about heading over the In-N-Out on Sepulveda during the lay-over.

 

In addition to awesome burgers, the views of incoming planes, especially onto runways 7L and 7R, are just amazing.

[steve20832]

Interesting piece on luggage. This is the basic idea but each airport is a little different. Las Vegas uses RFID tags and everything is automated. Minneapolis just installed a multi-million dollar luggage system also and it works well. Northwest Air has one of the lowest lost luggage rates who is the main carrier at MSP.

 

http://travel.howstuffworks.com/baggage-handling.htm

[FlyerTalker]

Just thinking....if you have a 12 hour connection at LAX, I assume you are planning to do something, such as renting a car and doing sightseeing. Or checking into one of the airport hotels and catching rays at the pool. Something other than just sitting at the airport for that time period.

 

Just be sure to factor in enough time for driving back to LAX (in potentially bad traffic) and the time to return the car to the offsite lots that are used there.

[megr1125]

FUnny...you say airline ramp workers use scanners for the bags to know where they are....but each time my bag went one way and I went another, the airlines in question...(jetblue or delta) had no clue where the bag was...except that it left the originating ariport!!! i always thought they had a better clue...maybe i am not flying the correct airlines...

 

and, when i am in the LAX area, i think i WILL try that in-n-out burger place.....mainly to watch planes....

 

pretty interesting topic! i'd like to see a special....a day in the life of your luggage...or a day in the life of a FedEx package.....

[Coadysmom]

Like minds think alike as I was going to put a wise-crack about heading over the In-N-Out on Sepulveda during the lay-over.

 

In addition to awesome burgers, the views of incoming planes, especially onto runways 7L and 7R, are just amazing.

 

 

I must have directions to the burger place! I am a cheeseburger addict :p and simply must try any burger that comes highly recommended. I will simply hire a taxi to take me while on a layover....:D

[SelectSys]

I must have directions to the burger place! I am a cheeseburger addict :p and simply must try any burger that comes highly recommended. I will simply hire a taxi to take me while on a layover....:D

 

This in-n-out is a legendary southern california plane spotting location. See the photos:

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0567515/M/

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0404698/M/

 

Here is the location:

http://www.in-n-out.com/location_details.asp?id=117&refer=all

 

If you go, consider something off of the secret menu in addition to what is shown on the sign:

http://www.rajuabju.com/literature/innoutmenu.htm

[phoenix1181]

Once you experience In & Out Burger, nothing else will be good enough!

[Globaliser]

FUnny...you say airline ramp workers use scanners for the bags to know where they are....but each time my bag went one way and I went another, the airlines in question...(jetblue or delta) had no clue where the bag was...except that it left the originating ariport!!!

Big airlines are very big organisations, and in many of the airlines that have been around for a while, systems are grafted on to existing systems. So sometimes it can take a while to get information out of the right system - if it's possible at all.

 

Take a situation in which there are, say, 400 people on an aircraft, who may have something like 600 pieces of baggage between them, all loaded in containers: Just think what happens when one person fails to arrive at the gate to board the aircraft. How do they find his bag(s) and take them off the aircraft? And how long does it take?

 

We all know the answer to that: about 15-20 minutes. That's because the baggage handlers aren't randomly rummaging in every container looking for them. They have the list of which bag is in which container, so they only have to open one of them to search it.

 

The problem is that if your bag doesn't arrive, it obviously wasn't on that flight. Where do you go looking for the record of which flight it got on to by mistake? That's why the airlines often can't readily retrieve that information.