Lost Baggage – Don’t let it ruin your trip.

How annoying is it when an airline loses your baggage? Very! I speak from personal experience. My wife and I flew to Vienna on the 10th July. Our 2 bags never surfaced on the carousel on arrival. After 5 weeks one was delivered home yesterday, however the other is still missing.

The annoyance is not just the potential loss of possessions but the sheer inconvenience of it all. The first day of our holiday was spent shopping for clothes for the rest of our holiday, having virtually none in our cabin bag – and trying to locate the bags!

And importantly – as we were leaving Vienna on day 2 with no opportunity to shop for anything after that – we needed to find a chemist who could replace the missing medication that was in our bags. We found a brilliant chemist who told us “Your prescription will be ready at 2.30pm.” To our great relief it was.

Trying to make actual contact with the airline proved impossible and we were initiated into the joys of unanswered emails, phone calls that directed us to websites and thence to a phone number. “All our agents are  busy……please email ….”. An exasperating business.

So that was day 1. But the exasperation continued as we struggled in the weeks that followed to find a human being to whom we could speak. Eventually we did.

So, what is the answer to the problem of travelling and baggage? We all want to travel again now that we can do so. A good letter published in the F.T. last weekend suggested:

  • Take photos of the contents of your suitcase to use if you must make a claim
  • Make sure your travel insurance has baggage cover up to a reasonable sum assured
  • Take just hand luggage if you can. It’s amazing how little you can live with.

To these points I would add take photos of the outside of the case to speed up identification when the airline is tracing your luggage, and most importantly I suggest having distinctive coloured / patterned suitcases and buying Apple Air Tags (or other, similar devices). Put one in your bag and you can track your bag’s location from your phone. This seems like a great idea and we have just invested in some.

However, bags will still go missing, and it is important to have comprehensive travel insurance in place to protect yourself for lost or stolen luggage.

Pulse’s travel policies include cover for replacing lost, stolen, or damaged baggage and reasonable expenses incurred in purchasing essential replacement clothing due to a bag being lost or delayed in transit.

For more information, or to request a business travel quote please contact a member of the Specialty team.

If you would like to purchase a leisure or clerical business policy for yourself and your family, please visit our sister site www.policydirect.co.uk.

As for our second still missing bag….watch this space!