What happens to lost luggage

Greetings. My name is Samsonite Aspire Lite and I am a lost luggage. I have traveled across many States but yet did not make it to my final destination. It all happened early this morning at the Tucson Iternational airport when I was dropped off at the check in counter by my owner, 45 year old passenger Brain Mc Michael. I was afterward carefully boarded in the cargo hold of a 757's belly with several other luggages directed to Newark, with a brief stop in Houston.

Most of us, pieces of luggage, are delivered safely accross the States and we are happily reunited with our owners upon arrival. However, sometimes things go wrong and we end up missing. This can be a very frustrating experience especially for passengers since we hold many valuable items. These incidences seem to occur the most on elaborate trips where there are one or more connections. For instance, I was accidentally boarded on an Alaskan flight with destination Anchorage once I landed at Houston International. My mismatch was due to human error as my label was accidentally read wrong by a rushed and distracted airline employee.

Once I reached Anchorage I was sent to baggage claims where I circled about twenty times unclaimed. By the time I was dead from being dizzy, an employee collected me and noticed the mismatch.

In the meanwhile at 2:30 PM. at Newark International a worried Brian McMichael watches the luggage circle at the carousel for an hour. His Samsonite Aspire Lite is AWOL. Worried, he contacts the employee in charge of the baggage claim counter. He files a report with enclosed an itemized description of the contents of his luggage and heads to his hotel without change of clothes. He uses an overnight kit of essentials such as toothpaste/toothbrush and as he brushes his teeth he keeps his fingers crossed that as the majority of lost baggage cases his case will have a happy ending. As a matter of fact, 98% of travellers who claim lost baggage are happily reunited with their personal belongings within 5 days. The sad 2% of unclaimed baggage ends up in Scottsboro, Alabama where contents are sold at the 40,000 square foot unclaimed baggage center for a bargain price.

Luckily, Brian's Samsonite has still a label that clearly witnesses that a major mismatch has occurred. The worse cases seem to occur to luggages whose lables are accidentally torn off or are lost upon loading and unloading. Still, these luggages can be claimed by detailed descriptions of contents and luggage brand, color and size. Many people have relied on placing a red ribbon on their baggage in order to be recognized easily, but more and more people are using red ribbons lately turning an initially bright idea into an all to common practice.

Two days later, a baggage claim employee calls Brian. He keyed in Brian's baggage tag number in the lost baggage database and his Samsonite was tracked sitting in Anchorage's lost baggage claim office. His Samsonite is then happily delivered to his door by expedited courier service.

Brian's case resembles hundreds of thousands of other misplaced baggage lost in the hussle and bussle of today's worldwide busy airports. While lost luggage cases seem to increase it is also true that this is the result of more and more people traveling. If your luggage is lost do not despair, very likely it will be tracked down within a week. Worse case scenario, pay a visit to Scottsboro's baggage center and buy your baggage contents back!