Outraged? No, those of us who fly suspect this kind of thing is happening at every major airport in the country. It’s the only explanation.
The Unclaimed Baggage Center would have to be ten times its size if every piece of lost luggage ended up there.
And so we see this when we pick up the morning paper: News of nearly 1,000 pieces of stolen luggage being found while police served a search warrant at a home near Phoenix.
Here are details from the Phoenix police department.
What the heck?
The Arizona Republic has the following disturbing details:
The suitcases were stacked without identification tags, the owners’ names erased from the bags they never picked up at Sky Harbor International Airport.
Detectives uncovered nearly 1,000 pieces of stolen luggage Tuesday while serving a search warrant at a home in the northwest Valley, linking the items to Keith King, who’s accused of plucking the bags off airport baggage carousels.
Phoenix police found the bags at a home in Waddell, 35 miles from the airport, many emptied – a property crime considered rare despite the flow of more than 200,000 people each day through Sky Harbor.
Police officers arrested King three weeks ago at the airport after an officer noticed him grabbing a random bag off one of the carousels. He was given a misdemeanor-theft citation and released, though police said he returned to the airport days later.
That prompted reader Joseph McNeely to make the following observation:
Remember when you used to have to match your luggage with a luggage tag!
This is outrageous to caution travelers on what to do and not do when the airlines and the airport have totally abandoned any pretense of securing the bags. Anyone at any airport can simply take your bag from the carousel and leave with it.
They are now charging you for checked bags. But they don’t want to accept responsibility for them. I barely secured my own bag on my last trip as some one removed it from the carousel … also I always put identification inside the bag, not just rely on tags. If they are found whoever finds them are without excuse as to notifying me. I even put a copy of my flight itinerary.
The airlines take your money and then by “law” are limited to pay nothing for your stuff!
That’s true. The problem is not just lax security. It’s that airlines don’t have to pay you much if they lose your luggage, or if it’s stolen.
Here’s what the government rules say about “lost” luggage:
If your bags are delayed, lost or damaged on a domestic trip, the airline can invoke a ceiling of $3,300 per passenger on the amount of money they’ll pay you. (This limit is $3,000 for flights before December 22, 2008.) When your luggage and its contents are worth more than the liability limit, you may want to purchase “excess valuation,” if available, from the airline as you check in. This is not insurance, but it will increase the carrier’s potential liability. The airline may refuse to sell excess valuation on some items that are especially valuable or breakable, such as antiques, musical instruments, jewelry, manuscripts, negotiable securities and cash.
In other words, the most an airline would pay now is $3,300. Truth is, it’s almost always significantly less.
So the airlines don’t have much incentive to safeguard your luggage, even though they now charge a fee to transport it. The government’s luggage rules are wishy-washy. Airport security, when it comes to checked luggage claims, is at best porous. (And who is responsible for the bag between the plane and the carousel, anyway?)
No wonder this happened.
Whose fault is this? Apart from the thieves who stole more than 1,000 pieces of luggage, it’s hard to find someone not to blame.
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{ 71 comments… read them below or add one }
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To the issue at hand…
`1) All baggage claim facilities should be sterile and secured areas. Part of the problem is at some airports, anyone can enter the baggage claim area. Even though there is supposed to security checking bags against claim tickets, there are still places where this is non-existent.
2) I have seen some of the best and WORST examples of security in the baggage claim in foreign countries. Same as in the US. Just because you are in a foreign airport does not mean shoddy security.
3) Unfortunately, since no regulators view the baggage claim area as a security risk, I doubt that any capital investments will be made to securing this area, even though they should
For everyone who is being critical of this, please remember that most airports in the US were designed for convenience and aesthetics. After all, 20+ years ago, security was an afterthought. Unfortunately, we live in a different world now, where security (including theft and other harm) is part of our lives.
As several posters said, many bags look the same. A few years ago, I was missing a bag. Apparently, someone else took it home, then realized their mistake, called the airline and delivered it back to the airport. I was fortunate that the person was honest. I wonder how many “lost” bags were really lost that way!
My wife, dresses up our bags to the point of being obnoxious. She puts numerous smiley faces on the bags using duct tape. Yes, it looks ridiculous but there is never a doubt that its our bag when it pops out!
I think alot of this could have been prevented, if they just put me on the case! ( or luggage)
Happy
@Estuardo, you wrote:
“With this last comment you imply that all non US based Airlines are not good”
Um, no I didn’t. I did not imply that at all. And frankly I am completely mystified how you could take my one word (“rediculous”) and extrapolate it to mean something so off-the-wall and unrelated. My “rediculous” comment was about ONE airline…I didn’t mention a single other airline. It was about everything that I had previously just stated: the $60 clothing allowance, the max $300 compensation, the delay. The fact that it is a foreign airline was brought up simply to point out that my friends have no recourse – they do not live in Ecuador, and are hamstrung in their options by the fact that it is a foreign airline.
That was quite a bizarre stretch. I will thank you to refrain, in the future, from putting words in my mouth that I did not say, or even remotely imply. Thank you!
Btw, I have flown on numerous foreign airlines. Some of my WORST flying experiences have been on them (Air France…horrible). And some of my BEST experiences have also been on them (Cathay Pacific from Hong Kong – absolutely fabulous!) So I have no bias against foreign airlines. I sure hope one of them doesn’t lose my luggage, tho! ;-)
As for the *rest* of it – I acknowledge that my calling the offensive poster on the carpet publicly brought the issue to a head. Was it a bit painful and annoying for everyone? Yes. Do I regret it? No! The problem had gone out of control, and was rendering this comments section useless and unpleasant. Clearly I am not the only person who felt this way. By publicly bringing to Christopher’s (and everyone else’s) attention, it is now being addressed. And I strongly suspect it will now get better.
I, for one, would be happy to move on and get back to the REAL discussions. Please, folks, let’s consider the “LeeAnne & Barbie” show officially over. Agreed?
What baffles me is that basically ANYONE can take your bag without requiring a tag check…and in a “first world country”! I guess that’s what happens when we pay “only” $20 to the airline to check our bags…Perhaps they’ll come up with “Baggage First Class”?
Paying the airlines to transport the luggage into your hands is similar to paying the post office to deliver a package. They will take the fee, but there is no guarantee that it will get into your hands at the destination. The post office requires that you pay extra for insurance/delivery confirmation; I’m sure the airlines would be thrilled to have an additional fee to put on their roster.
it’s crazy all the security checks we have to go through just to get into the terminal, the constant update & guess work of what you can & can’t take in your carryon-is deoderant a solid or liquid? depends on who checks your bag. However, there is no security for our luggage and disappearing luggage and/or contents is probably more common yet nothing is done to improve this problem.
Just one note to those of you that think that a ticket should be required to get into the baggage claim area. I disagree with this idea – a better idea would be to have someone at the exits from baggage claim and require that anyone leaving the area with the bag has the matching claim ticket for the bag. If only ticketed passengers can enter baggage claim, then it also requires airports to have people like porters available to help those that cannot handle their own bags (an elderly person, a solo parent traveling with children, etc). If you just require the claim ticket to leave with a bag, then people can have their families, friends, drivers, etc meet them and help them with the bags – the passenger will still be with the bags. This way you only need a few people checking claim tickets (depending on the size of the airport) versus multiple people checking tickets to enter, plus porters, etc.
@chris in nc
thank you for your rationality; the vitriol was starting to erode my computer screen.
@chris
i know i don’t post often, and i know i’ve probably written stupid things, but i have always appreciated the fact that you DO allow comments. i’d like to think we’re all adults here, and we should all be able to use our “indoor voices”, and it really does make me uncomfortable when people start attacking each other. yes, we have opionions and we should be allowed to express them, but really, name-calling? it’s like trying to moderate my niece’s preschool class. so, chris, thank you and good luck?
that being said, if anyone is in phoenix, would someone go check that house for a zebra-print bag with red trim? i lost it there about three years ago…
My travels to Peru, Guatemala and Ecuador have all included airline personnel (i.e. someone from TACA if I fly TACA) waiting by the luggage carousel and not allowing me to leave the area unless I can match my luggage tag receipt to the tag on the bag. Of course, in America, the likes of US Airways would NEVER justify paying an employee to assume this responsibility…
I share everyone’s concern regarding airport security in the baggage claim area, but stolen suitcases are the least of our worries.
The baggage claim area is the weakest link in the airport’s chain of security. The airlines, the airports, and Homeland Security know this but seem content to wait until something catastrophic happens before investing the manpower and money required to tighten up security. For many people the baggage claim area is the meeting point for travelers so there is a continuous stream of people coming into the area from outside, usually with no security or inspection whatsoever..
imagine a scenario where some evil doer is intent in planting an explosive device at an airport to cause chaos. How easy would it be for someone to pack a suitcase full of explosive material then simply wheel it in to the baggage claim area from outside and just drop it off near a pile of unattended luggage then leave and grab a taxi.
A terrorist act like this would throw panic into our entire airline system and would cause millions in lost revenue for the industry. What is most amazing is that something like this has not yet happened. Our government and the industry needs to be preparing for this eventuality now.
Greatly intensified security in the baggage claim area
would go a long way in preventing baggage theft and in creating a safer environment for travelers.
In my opinion,putting your tour and flight itinerary in an outside pocket of your luggage is futile. Twice my luggage was delayed. The luggage finally arrived–two days before I left Italy for home and fourteen hours before my departure from Kiev after a two-week cruise of Ukraine. Both times when the luggage finally made its appearance, the itineraries were still in the outside pocket, never having been consulted. Also in both instances the airline luggage strip with my name and destination and my personal tags with my home information were intact. The airline simply made no effort to deliver my suitcase to me in a timely fashion.
Has anyone tried using “Luggage Locator Pro”? It is a radio frequency device in two parts one on the bag and one with the passenger. Supposedly it works up to 60 feet away. The device on the bag activates when contacted by the passenger. It might help if one was close by – at the very least it would scare a person with the wrong bag half to death, if the bag tag started flashing and beeping! Since there is no security in the baggage areas, at least I would not have to worry about any TSA or legal response to the beeping bag!
I wish the airports would go back to the system of only having one or two ways out of the carousel area and stationing a person to match the baggage tag and the receipt. It is a bother, but so much less bother than losing a bag. Maybe this incident can get tagged onto the Pasengers Rights discussions.
I remember when the airlines had personnel to check for the stub from your luggage tag. Now that we’re having to pay extra for baggage, why can’t we have that service back? Unless it’s because luggage fees are just a BS way to charge the same for a plane flight while getting better placement on Expedia and Travelocity when customers search by price.
I believe that when companies don’t behave in the best interest of consumers, it’s time for the government to step in. That’s what’s happening now. Time to change the rules, Uncle Sam.
In the mean time, we can vote with our wallets. Fly airlines that don’t charge baggage fees, and when you do, drop a note to your favorite airline’s customer service department saying “I flew Air NoFee rather than your airline because they don’t charge baggage fees. That’s $260 in lost revenue.” If the numbers start to add up, maybe they’ll see the writing on the wall.
And if they’re going to charge a baggage fee, for goodness sake, at least check the damn bags before we leave the airport!
Several years ago my husband and I traveled Delta to Panama with a small group of teachers. We were without our luggage for two days; despite calls from our group leader we received no no funds for basic essentials such as a toothbrush etc; It was quite hot and we swlterd in our winter clothes as the flight was from Boston. Luckily in my overnight case I had our medication ; on our first day we had to stop and at our own expensive purchase some cool clothing as it was hot hot hot; We had a wonderful time in Panama ; Our teacher guide was raised in Panama and gave anexcellent tour; she also took us to a fantastic little known shopping area duty free ; seeing the canal was a thrill,made up for our delayed baggage.
Yes, people other than those traveling do need to be allowed into baggage claim and check in areas. If you are dropping off someone who has never flown before or needs help collecting their bags, it just isn’t an option to have them fend for themselves.
I think the idea of having a person posted at each exit from the baggage claim area is an excellent one. I certainly wouldn’t mind waiting an extra five minutes to have my baggage claim ticket compared to my luggage when leaving. If we are all paying (in one way or another) to check our baggage, airlines should make every effort to make sure that we are rightfully reunited with it in one piece.
For Ames,
Maybe some enterprising company should develop a GPS locator beacon that you could include in your luggage, perhaps cleverly disguised as a can of shaving cream or something like that. Then when your bag turns up missing at the baggage claim you could turn it on by remote control to get the coordinates of where it is. Guess it would be kind of pricey but maybe worth it for those travelers carrying valuables in their suitcase. Of course you would have to get it through security when you first check you bag.
For Jerry Bonanno,
A GPS device would be even better, but this Luggage Locator gizmo already exists: http://www.etatravelgear.com/index.php?p=152&i=6798. I wonder if anyone has tried it – before I spend money for it or give someone a heart attack if it really does work!
I’ll play the contrarian. This discussion makes no sense to me whatsoever. According to the article, luggage theft is extremely rare. But to the extent that there is luggage theft, there are so many better ways to combat it.
The obvious way is to make your bag easily identifiable. That way as soon as it comes down (or up) the chute, you see it. Then you don’t have to worry about someone taking it because its never out of your site. I try to avoid purchasing black bags whenever possible.
That obviates the need for tracking systems, security guards and other expensive systems which will only drive up the cost of my $39 ticket
Is it possible for luggage to still be stolen from baggage claim. Yes. But its so unlikely, that it makes no sense to engage in these exotic remedies for a non-existent problem.
Carver, Theft of the whole bag may be rare but my brillantly yellow – brighter than a school bus yellow – duffle bag was grabbed off a carousel while I was watching. I spoke to the guy, nicely because I thought he made a mistake, asking to check the tag. It was mine, he was not very happy and left without any bag. So the most obvious bag will not always solve the problem and as a 5′-3″ tall, white haired woman, I am not always eager to confront a much larger and younger guy.
This is pretty disturbing to read, especially for those who travel a lot. I think this just proves the necessity of having a special microchip that is scanned when a bag is checked.
Ames
You proved my point. Because your bag was “brilliantly yellow – brighter than a school bus yellow” you were able to identify when the bag was taken off the carousel and retrieve it.
I am skeptical that the man was attempting to steal it. Common sense would have dictated that he go for a less obvious bag, say any one of the plethora of black roller bags.. I suspect that he was not happy because that meant that his bag was lost.
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