It can also be frustrating to the possibility that the airline will lose your checked luggage, as if there weren’t enough pitfalls in the air travel. According to a 2024 survey by SITA, an IT company that provides bag tracking systems to airlines, 36.1 million suitcases worldwide were mishandled in 2023. This is about 6.9 bags per 1,000 passengers.
Incorrect charges have been declining in recent years. In 2022, 7.6 bags per 1,000 passengers were followed by SITA in 2007, at 46.9. Airlines have implemented a variety of systems to minimize such occurrences, such as digital bag tags and in-app programming, to enable travelers to track their luggage in real time. Still, there are aggressive steps you can take as an Air Force traveler to reduce the chances of your luggage being delayed or misplaced.
Read what you can as a traveler and track your bags and help the airline track them.
1. Use a luggage tag. every time.
Even if you plan to take your bag as a carry-on vehicle, please use a luggage tag that includes contact information. I don’t know when the gate check will be forced. Please make sure to include your name, phone number and email address for that contact information. Avoid placing your home address as it can cause safety concerns. Make sure the tags are attached firmly.
2. Enter your contact information in Bags too.
Place your phone number and address in your bag in a very visible place. How you do it is up to you: stickers. Memo card. Additional tags. That way the airline can easily contact you. You may also consider putting your travel itinerary in your luggage. It helps airline staff route faster.
3. Book non-stop flights whenever possible.
There is less chance of foul-up or mishandling between flights when there is less connection and layover. This is especially true for international flights where the bags need to settle customs.
4. Take the old stickers from your luggage.
Airlines place barcode stickers on checked luggage so that they can be scanned and tracked. This can be useful if you lose your suitcase, but if the airline staff can’t know which stickers are the latest stickers, it may work against you. According to SITA, 4% of all false bags are due to tagging and sticker errors. Therefore, before checking your luggage, remove the old bag tag sticker from your luggage.
5. Add an Apple Airtag to each bag you want to track.
The FAA allows travelers to put air tags in their bags, but please note that not all branded trackers meet safety requirements. “Roll-tracking devices equipped with lithium metal cells with lithium below 0.3 grams can be used for checked luggage,” the FAA said in a statement shared far away. “Apple Airtags meet this threshold. Other package tracking devices may not.” You can share your current location by submitting a missing bag report with your airline. This should help the airline find it faster. As of November 2024, travelers can now share safe links to Airtag locations with certain airlines to help carriers find their packages more quickly and efficiently.
6. Prepare a detailed description of the bag.
If your luggage is incorrect, be prepared to provide the airline with the exact manufacturer, size, color and distinguishing features of the bag. It really doesn’t help saying “black” and “big enough to check”; Also, please keep an itemized list of what you have in your suitcase. You can provide it to the airline, especially if your bag contains unique items. It’s also a good idea to take a picture of what’s inside your bag when packing your bag. This can be useful if you need to submit a lost package request. The airline can no longer object to what the bag contains.
7. Arrived early for your flight and check in your luggage in advance.
“Arriving early will give you a less stressful travel experience and minimize the chance of baggage errors due to the last minute rush,” says Matthew Robb, senior vice president of technology operations at Denver International Airport. Arrivals early will allow airline staff to properly tag and load their luggage onto the correct flight, reducing the chances of bags being handled incorrectly.
8. Protect (or remove) loose parts.
Rob added: “The loose straps must be tightened or ideally removed from the backpack and duffel bag to ensure they do not get caught or damaged during travel to and from the plane.” For example, if you cancel a baggage buckle, you will be caught in a machine on your way to the plane, causing you to be delayed.
9. Make sure your bag is easy to identify.
Try bright ribbons or luggage tags with distinctive patterns and printing, or use your luggage in one of the great colors sold by your favorite stylish luggage brand. It also makes it less likely that someone will mistake your bag for your own. (Don’t know what bags to get? We have a guide to shopping for luggage.)
10. Permanently (but polite!) with follow-up.
If the bag is lost, staff will need to manually search. Caring for someone can come a long way.
11. Carry on board only whenever possible.
Checking my bags is at the mercy of airline travel, cargo handlers, occasionally at the mercy of conveyor belt meltdowns. But unless you are carrying on a carry-on vehicle, you know exactly where your belongings are always. Carry-on only is a particularly good advice if you are traveling outside the US. According to SITA, only 2.4 per 1,000 bags are mistreated domestically, but 6.9 of 1,000 in 2023 were mistreated internationally, with Europe being mistakenly criminal at a rate of 10.6 per 1,000 bags.
12. We will ship instead of checking your package.
If you have bulky items like bags and golf clubs to check, you can choose to check them and skip the worries and costs of using a delivery company. There are many companies that handle package delivery and usually offer perks such as guaranteed arrival, door-to-door pick-up and delivery, insurance, 24-hour phone service, so you can always call if you’re worried about your bag.
This article was originally published on December 11th, 2023 and updated on March 5th, 2025.
