Lost All our bags...Advice

[reeran]

A few years ago our friends were going on a cruise out of Fort Lauderdale but flew down 4 days early to stay at a family condo they had. When they got off the plane, none of their luggage was there - they checked for 3 days and finally went out and bought everything they would need including suitcases.

When they got on the ship, all their old luggage showed up in their room - seems they had put the cruise ship tags on their bags and the bags were pulled right off the plane and put aside to go to the cruise ship - not sure if they still do this but because of this I would never put my cruise tags on until we pick up luggage at the airport.

Hope the same happened to OP and they receive their luggage on the ship.:)

 

 

Rule of thumb remove all tags from previous trips and don't put your cruise ship tags on until you get to the pier. If a scanner picks up the wrong UPC (from another tag) your bag could go to Timbuktu.:eek:

[TravelerThom]

Rule of thumb remove all tags from previous trips and don't put your cruise ship tags on until you get to the pier. If a scanner picks up the wrong UPC (from another tag) your bag could go to Timbuktu.:eek:

But probably only if your previous trip had been to TOM [the airport code for Timbuktu, Mali]:p

 

I certainly agree with removing previous tags. If I get organized enough two things that I do:

 

1) Start with a new tag and put on the date and location of any hotel, and the date and name of your cruise ship. Example:

 

26 Feb 2010: Radisson Hotel, Cape Canaveral, FL

28 Feb 2010: Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas, Port Canaveral, FL

 

2) put my itenerary and ship baggage tag in the most obvious unlocked pocket of my suitcase [such as the small "ticket pocket" at the top front of most rollerboards]

 

Thom

[mspink98]

Not cool, although not as unusual as we'd all like to think. We had both of our bags delayed when flying to see my parents one Christmas. We've been crosspacking for years, but it did us no favors then. All old tags were removed. Fortunately they arrived the next morning and we were still in the same place, I think I would have a meltdown if I was the OP.

[akb5k]

Man, what a scary situation to be in with lost luggage. We are flying to Rome in April for a cruise and I could only imagine the cost of buying new clothes there. Cross packing seems to be the best idea that I have learned from this thread. Thanks

 

 

Here's an estimate for you- suit pants start at 320 euros- the cheapest ones we found in Venice (my husband unfortunately discovered he left his pants at home the morning of my sister's wedding!)

[reeran]

Here's an estimate for you- suit pants start at 320 euros- the cheapest ones we found in Venice (my husband unfortunately discovered he left his pants at home the morning of my sister's wedding!)

 

 

 

Wow...thats $235.00 at today's rate. They had better be pretty nice pants!!!

[madforcruising]

Wow...thats $235.00 at today's rate. They had better be pretty nice pants!!!

 

Not sure where you looked but according to my math it´s more lile $489;)

[aruvqan]

:eek:Don't check bags??? Ok the OP sounds like it was just the one person. However not checking bags is not realistic for everyone. Our next cruise will be a 7 night cruise for 4 people. No way we could handle that much luggage without checking it.

P.S. 2 of our party will be teenage girls... LOL no packing light there!:rolleyes:

Why? I was a teen age girl once, and I have always been a light packer. I went to europe once with 2 pair of jeans, 1 pair of slinky quiana pallazos in a nice black, 2 fairly dressy tunics [one cream, one slate blue] 2 t shirts, 1 norwegian hand knit sweater, 4 sets of underwear [bra panties and socks per set] 2 sleep t-shirts a terry cloth robe and a bathing suit, with a small toiletries kit. I had these great black leather mary jane shoes that were comfortable enough for walking, and dressy enough to go out to dinner. I did a month, and other than washing something every night and hanging it to dry in the bathroom, I had no troubles carrying everything in a single backpack [and a small purse with a long shoulder strap]

[lcguy]

Don't check bags????? Very hard to do for any cruise over 7 days....and the airlines are not cooperating with that theory!!! :eek:

 

***

Sorry... I can go 21 days in a rolling carry on bag and a shoulder bag. :D There's a rumor that there is laundry service on board and in hotels. :eek:

[MrsPete]

I am planning on buying "The Packing Book" by Judith Guilford. She tells you how to pack it all, in a carryon, and I am going to try this for our upcoming cruise. Should be interesting. ;)

I'd like to read this book, but I probably won't unless it's available at the library.

[Ambrosia64]

Haven't read the entire thread, but here's some suggestions I follow:

 

I put an odd color luggage strap on my luggage to distinguish it from the other 154328543243535 black shell suitcases.

 

I buy clear plastic self laminating luggage tags at Target or Wally world. They are meant to put a business card inside and laminate. It doesn't help my luggage catch up to me if they have my home or biz address.

 

What I do is type up a standard Avery address label for each of the points of my intinerary. Two labels will fit on each side. This way if my luggage is found - they don't have to match my name with a phone call or report - my intinerary is on the actual luggage. I think it was $4 for 4 of the tags.

 

For instance, my luggage tags in January had 4 stickers, 2 per side:

 

1

1/20/10

Full Name

JetBlue Flight #xxx

IAD to MIA

 

2

1/20/10 - 1/21/10

Full Name

Hotel in Miami

Address and Phone number of Hotel

 

3

1/21/10 - 1/25/10

Full Name

Royal Caribbean

Navigator of the Seas

Cabin #xxxx

 

4

1/25/10

Full Name

JetBlue Flight #xxx

MIA to IAD

[waterbug123]

I don't understand the airline saying no rollerbags, all the effort to compact packing to carry on and THEN they say, sorry no rollerbags. Not right. :eek:

 

It could depend on the aircraft. All overhead bins are not created equal. So it is entirely possible that a rollerboard that fits overhead on one plane literally does not fit overhead on another and has to be gate checked. Not sure if that's what happened in this particular instance, but it is a possibility.

[cantw8togo]

Haven't read the entire thread, but here's some suggestions I follow:

 

I put an odd color luggage strap on my luggage to distinguish it from the other 154328543243535 black shell suitcases.

 

I buy clear plastic self laminating luggage tags at Target or Wally world. They are meant to put a business card inside and laminate. It doesn't help my luggage catch up to me if they have my home or biz address.

 

What I do is type up a standard Avery address label for each of the points of my intinerary. Two labels will fit on each side. This way if my luggage is found - they don't have to match my name with a phone call or report - my intinerary is on the actual luggage. I think it was $4 for 4 of the tags.

 

For instance, my luggage tags in January had 4 stickers, 2 per side:

 

1

1/20/10

Full Name

JetBlue Flight #xxx

IAD to MIA

 

2

1/20/10 - 1/21/10

Full Name

Hotel in Miami

Address and Phone number of Hotel

 

3

1/21/10 - 1/25/10

Full Name

Royal Caribbean

Navigator of the Seas

Cabin #xxxx

 

4

1/25/10

Full Name

JetBlue Flight #xxx

MIA to IAD

 

Thanks for the idea of the itemized luggage tags. I would be tempted to include a #5, being home, in case of the worst case scenario of your luggage not finding you until you get home.

 

N.

[Ambrosia64]

Well - I never put my home address on luggage - it just advertises that I'm not currently in the home :) And - with my name and flight info they can track me down to return it to me. At that point it wouldn't be so time sensitive.

 

Thanks for the idea of the itemized luggage tags. I would be tempted to include a #5, being home, in case of the worst case scenario of your luggage not finding you until you get home.

 

N.

[NorbertsNiece]

Well - I never put my home address on luggage - it just advertises that I'm not currently in the home :) And - with my name and flight info they can track me down to return it to me. At that point it wouldn't be so time sensitive.

 

I agree.

 

I've never thought about putting further stops on the luggage before. I love that idea. I've always just put the first stop. Really appreciate that bit of advice and will act on it.

[madforcruising]

I alway print my complete itinerary with addresses and contact information as well as my home address, phone number, email and cellphone number. This get´s laminated and inside my bags. This way there´s no way it will get lost / torn off and the airline still can access it.

This is in addition to regular luggage tags, which will have my home address, but will have it hidden.

[dawnn12]

did anyone hear from the poster yet?

[Prphan2]

**bump**

 

I see from doing a search that Ken has posted since returning from the cruise, so I'm hoping if I bump this up inquiring minds will find out whatever happened to the luggage. :D