Lost luggage becomes nightmare for travelers

05 August, 2008, 20:51

Lost luggage is air passengers' third biggest complaint, after delays and cancellations. With August being the high season for holiday-makers, the problem is hot and burning among Russian travelers.

The good news is that official statistics, based on a report by SITA (Air Transport Communications and IT Solutions), say only 3% of lost items are lost forever, others usually make it back to owners within two days. However, even the waiting can cause major headaches.

Two and a quarter billion pieces of baggage are handled by airlines every year. And about 98% of those make it direct to their destination.

Nevertheless, the number of those left waiting for their luggage has been on the rise for the last six years

Andrey Cheremnikh, a civil aviation expert from SITA Russia/CIS, explains the reasons:

“First, the number of passengers and luggage is annually rising. Second, the reinforced security standards often can delay baggage, so it misses the flight.”

The airline companies are the ones officially responsible for your luggage, but airports are now joining the effort to improve the situation.

Eldar Tuzmukhamedov from Moscow’s Domodedovo airport press service says:

“We have recently installed the latest automatic system that examines and sorts the baggage, thus decreasing the human factor. And the results seem to be good.”

Natalia Korotkova is no stranger to such situations. Her cases went missing twice on a return trip to Paris.

“The biggest problem was moral damage, not physical. Because when you find yourself in a foreign country without your personal belongings you feel really bad,” she complains.

And, also, you can never be sure that your bags won't be mishandled. However, there are few tips to cut down those chances.

First of all, place a sticker on your bag or anything else to make it stand out. Second, avoid connections, since that's where most of the problems occur. Finally, if your luggage is lost, don't loose your head – it won't help.

If you failed to find your luggage upon your arrival, the first thing to do is to come up to the Lost-and-Found service. Here you'll have to fill in the form. And most likely within 24 hours your luggage will be found.