a plea to all cruiser's

[kegraties]

pleas check tags on you bags befor you just take then. my luggage was missing from the dock because someone didn't check tags and it ended up in salt lake city Utah.

funny part was he was yelling at the airline for losing his luggage till i told him he got the wrong luggage and his is probably still in san juan he got real quiet then :p

gave him royal carrib number to try to get his luggage.

 

once again i plea check you tags before you grab :eek:

[Blizzard54]

I would also suggest that you mark you luggage is such a way that it is distintive.

 

We have black luggage. (very common)

Using plastic tape we added some green strips and a couple large X's.

Not only can we see it coming from a long way away, others know it is not theirs.

[Sea Island Lady]

How did you find your luggage? Did the guy call you?

[hstrybuf]

We have huge yellow and blue pom poms attached to the handles of our (black) luggage. You can't miss those!

[NiniB]

some people can be soooo ignorant....... :rolleyes: i have followed your advice from another thread Hstrybuf,,,, i just made several neon yellow pom-poms for my luggage......... :)

[hstrybuf]

Those things stick out pretty well. People would have to be blind to mistake them for their own luggage. Hope they work as well for you as they do for us!

[rangerdog]

great tip hstrybuf; thanks!!

[micdee]

Funny story here. After disembarking from our last cruise, we found all but one piece of luggage. The luggage is a tapestry print, which I marked with a large X on both sides using yellow neon duct tape. As were franticly searching for it,my husband spots a woman wheeling it towards the exit. He takes off running after her and stops her just in time. Tells her it's his luggage and points to the taped X on it. She looks at him and says,"I was wondering how that tape got on my suitcase".:confused:

[Blizzard54]

Funny story here. After disembarking from our last cruise, we found all but one piece of luggage. The luggage is a tapestry print, which I marked with a large X on both sides using yellow neon duct tape. As were franticly searching for it,my husband spots a woman wheeling it towards the exit. He takes off running after her and stops her just in time. Tells her it's his luggage and points to the taped X on it. She looks at him and says,"I was wondering how that tape got on my suitcase".:confused:

You gotta wonder how some people survive

[attitudeda]

The problem is that must luggage looks alike. Even if it a different kind of marking or pom pom, some people don't just look. This happened to my Farther in law when we all got back from Voyager of the seas. Someone else grabbed his garment bag. Luckily while walking to get the car a Bayonne he spotted the bag someone grabbed it by mistake. It looks a like please take a few extra moments to check the nametag.

 

[Rick R]

I saw a guy grab one of my suitcases at the airport. I walked up and asked him if that was his. He said it was. I asked if he was sure. he said yes and gave me a dirty look. I than said "Oh you tie red and white ribbons around your luggage handles too"? He looked down and checked, turned a little red, said sorry and handed me the luggage. You have to watch cause some people don't pay much attention.

[splinkaone]

We have bright red luggage, but even that is becoming common. So I bought 2 inch wide bright yellow ribbon and wrote our last name on it in BIG letters then tied it around the handles of all the suitcases (each ribbon hund down about 8-10 inches), it made it very easy for us to spot and very obvious to others that it wasn't theirs.

Happy cruising

 

Mariner of the Seas 12/03

Mariner of the Seas 12/05

[Croozin Soozin]

Happened both ways to us - we were the perpetrators (my husband!!) and we were the victims.

 

First, after our second cruise my husband and I went out searching for our luggage. I found one and he found the other - or so he thought. It was identical to ours, but he didn't look at the name tag. We were sitting on the bus to the airport when someone came up to us and asked if we had all our luggage. My husband, of course, said yes - but this guy said that one of our bags was still inside the building so maybe we picked up the wrong one. Of course, that's exactly what happened. Thank goodness this guy knew who we were and found us before the bus left.

 

Last month, we were watching for our luggage on the carousel and knew immediately it was ours - but the people standing right next to us grabbed it thinking it was theirs. We both had the same neon green handle on our bags. Fortunately, we were standing right next to them and told them of their mistake. Our last piece of luggage was missing our name tag - but fortunately our name was on the airline tag so we were able to positively identify it.

 

Even when we're 99% positive it's ours, I still insist on checking the name tag.

 

Soozin

[kegraties]

finally got my luggage tody had to pay to have it delivered. going to gall rc to grt them to pay for the delivery since it was missing from there surured luggage site. i tried to get continental to charge the csutomer for the delivery since it was his fault. to teach him a lesson to check tags on luggage but they said they would'nt do that but they left the little stick tag with the persons name on the luggage. :confused: should i give him a call to let him know he needs glasses :cool:

[safety300]

When traveling working motorpsorts safety many years ago a group cuiseing out of Seattle grabbed my suitcase, when I tried to recover it they called security. I happily presented my idetification in the form of my badge and department ID along with luggage identification. My bag was same color but had large maltese cross on one side. The mature woman who thought it was hers would have in terrible shape with my fire suit and other clothing for her cruise. The group leader who called security was forced to produce identification for every piece of luggage they were taking.

[Happy ks]

Make sure you remove any prior travel tags from your bags. Many times when luggage goes missing, it is because the person did not remove the tag from a prior flight or cruise. Then, put two luggage tags on the outside of your bags, plus one on the inside, along with a copy of your itinerary.

 

The last time we flew, we were missing one bag on the carousel. I watched a bag that looked like ours go around a few times, but we had a rainbow stripe belt on our bag. I finally had DH pull that bag off, sure enough it was ours, the belt was gone, both luggage tags were gone. Everything was secure when we left, so the bag must have been handled pretty roughly to lose everything. We had ID inside the bag, but no one asked us about it, anyone could have walked off with our bag. I guess you can never be too careful.

[dougp26364]

We have several different styles of colorful tags on our luggage. I can usually spot it from across the airport. We put colorful luggage bands on the luggage, hospital ID bands with our address on them in several colors, standard luggage tags and two or three others. Some from a parking lot I used while on a job using on off site parking lot called SeaTac Parking. Some we purchased in Alaska and a few others.

 

Still, while collecting our luggage in Miami last Sunday, some guy came over and looked at ALL our name tags and most of our luggage. Somehow I have a hard time believing his luggage had 5 different name tags on each piece of luggage but he had a hard time believing that our luggage was in fact, our luggage. I wonder if he has to actually think about breathing in order to live?

[dna1990]

I think it has been covered in the above posts, but to emphasize two points....

 

1) the trick to 'marking' your luggage is mostly to prevent another person from taking it by mistake, versus you being able to recognize it on the carousel.

 

2) several years back, 'big orange tags' were very good uniques markers....but just like black roller bags, they too have now become commonplace. I would state that having a common ribbon or tag - is actually MORE likely to be picked up by another, because they too picked 'red' and simply grab the bag based on that alone.

 

We bought some large bright durable tags from WalMart last year. But as we placed them on the luggage, realized that WalMart must sell tons of these nationwide. for that trip, we punched holes around the perimeter....but will be looking for something more unique this next time.

[ducklite]

I solved the "name tag's off and no way to identify" problem. I used White-Out and wrote my last name and phone on the plastic base on every piece of luggage we own. It's been that way for over a dozen flights and hasn't scratched off at all.

 

Anne

[Cruisehappymn]

I have a small gym type bag that I use to carry on the plane. When I got out of my seat to leave the plane after landing, I checked and my bag was gone. I looked around and found an older woman with it. It had the name of the company I work for printed in huge letters on the sides. I almost had to call security because she wouldn't give it up. Finally I kinda yanked it from her and left. I'm trying not to smash into people and trying to get the zipper open as I walk just in case there are two out there but it was my stuff. The wierd thing is, I saw her getting in a cab later on with a suitecase and no carry on.

[dougp26364]

I have a small gym type bag that I use to carry on the plane. When I got out of my seat to leave the plane after landing, I checked and my bag was gone. I looked around and found an older woman with it. It had the name of the company I work for printed in huge letters on the sides. I almost had to call security because she wouldn't give it up. Finally I kinda yanked it from her and left. I'm trying not to smash into people and trying to get the zipper open as I walk just in case there are two out there but it was my stuff. The wierd thing is, I saw her getting in a cab later on with a suitecase and no carry on.

 

Some people will attempt to steal luggage and claim they thought it was theirs. Still others might have a touch of dementia and actually think it was their luggage.

[Lauri32]

Not just luggage but bookbags too. My 14yo daughters stayed after school to watch a pagent last week. They made them line their book bags up around the walls while attending. One of my daughters couldn't find her bookbag afterwards but she found one that had been left behind that looked identical to hers but the coloring was just a shade different. Luckily, the principal was very helpful and called the parents, who came by and exchanged bookbags with us. I'm sure this 7th grade girl would not have wanted to do the homework in my 8th grade daughter's bookbag.

[xpcdoojk]

I apologize to anyone who has read me relate the following story previously. ;) Several years ago several of us where I work flew to a conference in Boston. One of my counterparts is a big man with the initials of GM. He has a suit bag that has his initials monogramed on the bag in gold letters. So we arrive at Logan get our suitcases and catch a couple of $35 cabs into the city. We are to go to a cocktail party at 5pm and we all agree to meet in the lobby at 4:45pm. We get to the lobby, and GM is talking to the hotel concierge, and then using the phone calling the airline. Turns out when GM got to the point of dressing for the evening, he discovered his suits were suddenly much too small. Turns out that he picked up the monogrammed suit bag of one Gabe Medina. Mr Medina was reported by airline baggage people as being very very upset. Needless to say our GM missed the 5pm cocktail party. We saw him in the bar later in the evening after spending $70 to and from the airport eating a burger and fries. We, of course, told him about the giant shrimp, fresh oysters, bacon wrapped lobster, and the great open bar.

 

Friends are great!:eek:

 

jc

[Tjukka]

Since you can't lock your bags we carry duct tape and tape the locks shut. This way we know is they have been opened and to check them before we leave the airport or the ship.

We always write our name on the inside so if by chance someone has taken one or the it is lost our name address and phone # is inside. on the bottom and top of the suitcase.So it can't be sold at the store in Alabama where they sell lost luggage.

Tj

[BunkerVA]

Hi all,

 

Just an idea for a unique way of identifying your bag. Webshots allows you to order luggage tags with a personal digital photo. I ordered one with me and my Westie on it. I would love to see someone explain why they have a suitcase with my me and my dog on it!

 

I use the same ribbon/pom pom identification markers as many have noted and we have never had a problem. We have had our luggage placed on the wrong airplane and had to drive back to the airport the next day to retrieve it...a perfect ending to a disasterous cruise wedding/honeymoon. (Though thankfully our marriage has been a dream!)

 

Enjoy your trips!

Sam :)