Where do all the bags go?

Lost luggage has become an industry, with bargain hunters worldwide buying up the contents, writes Shane Hegarty.

There is probably one in Dublin Airport right now, a solitary bag sitting on a carousel, going round and round while its owner stands in an arrival lounge at Guam International Airport wondering where his luggage is.

All passengers worry that they will arrive at their destinations with no suitcases or arrive home with no souvenirs - and the thousands of unclaimed suitcases piled in corners and filling up warehouses are reminders that bags get lost every day in airports.

Complaints about mishandled luggage have risen sharply in the past year. In the UK it has become the most common travel complaint. In the US 200,000 passengers a month report missing luggage. Around the world less than 0.5 per cent of luggage gets waylaid en route. It does not sound like much until you translate it as about one in 220 bags, the equivalent of one bag on every major flight.

Most bags are traced and returned to their owners within 48 hours, but a small amount - about one in 20,000 - never make it home. It is estimated that of the two billion pieces of luggage put in cargo holds in the US every year, 200,000 will never be reunited with their owners.

Much orphaned luggage eventually ends up in the Unclaimed Baggage Center, a giant warehouse in Scottsboro, Alabama, in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. It was a town with little going for it until, in 1970, Doyle and Sue Owens founded a part-time business buying unclaimed baggage from a couple of local airlines and selling it on at low prices. It is now a kind of heaven for lost luggage and a Mecca for bargain hunters.

An estimated 7,000 new items arrive at the warehouse every day, where 30 staff sort through the bags, throwing out the dentures and passing on to charity such items as babies buggies and crutches. They have discovered some unsavoury items, such as handguns, drugs and a rattlesnake. From one bag they pulled a guidance system for an F-16 fighter jet valued at $250,000.

What's left over goes on the shelves and gives the Unclaimed Baggage Center a unique selection of merchandise. There are wedding dresses for $30 and cameras for $10. There are children's toys, lingerie, fur coats and hammers. They recently stocked individually packaged shots of Communion wine, complete with shrink-wrapped wafers.

The one thing it does not stock much of is suitcases. Six months of being moved around tends to wear the bags out, and few are in good enough condition to be sold on.

The Unclaimed Baggage Center has a website where you can purchase a tiny proportion of its stock. It is unnerving to buy a toy you know some child misses dearly. The warehouse itself attracts shoppers from all over the world, who fly in cheaply - there are no tales of people then losing originally unclaimed luggage on their way home.

A sign in the warehouse attributes the shop's success to "the glory of God the Creator", although He would probably redirect your complaints to the airlines.

In the UK unclaimed luggage usually ends up at one of a network of auction houses. Some of these pass on items such as reading glasses to charities before selling the rest to eager bargain hunters. Cameras, clothes and cartons of cigarettes go cheaply. But not all goods end up under the auctioneer's hammer. EasyJet keeps unclaimed luggage for a year before passing its contents on to local charities; Buzz keeps it for just four months. Both Aer Lingus and Ryanair forward unclaimed luggage to Irish charities.

The rights of travellers are covered by the Warsaw Convention, which means airlines must compensate travellers for lost or damaged luggage, but not necessarily to its full value. Electronics, cameras, jewellery, business documents, money and fragile or perishable objects are not covered. Updated legislation, in the form of the Montreal Convention, came into force in 2001, but several European countries, including Ireland, have yet to implement it. It will increase the amount of compensation that passengers can receive.

Better technology has led to an industry in bag tracing. Aer Lingus uses a system called WorldTracer to help track mislaid luggage. Details given by the unfortunate passenger are cross- referenced with bags that turn up unattended across the world. Relieved of having to spend so much time on the phone to a customer-service desk, the passenger is given a reference number and can follow the search on a website, www.my lostbag.com. WorldTracer will host its annual Baggage Customer Conference in Dublin in the autumn, at which tales of lost luggage are sure to keep delegates entertained into the small hours.

The problem has helped make Ryanair the second most complained about airline in the UK, although the company points out that official statistics show it mislays less than one bag per 1,000, similar to Aer Lingus figures. It also claims it has reduced the number of complaints about mishandled luggage.

Like Aer Lingus, Ryanair will deliver your found luggage to your doorstep. Its much maligned customer services, however, can make the experience frustrating. One recent victim of lost luggage went to contact Ryanair only to find that the company is unlisted and that, were you to rely on a phone book, you would be unaware that one of Ireland's leading businesses even existed. It has contact details on its website, but the Dublin number leads only to a dead dial tone.

In the meantime there are ways you can minimise the risk of losing your luggage. Check in early, as late bags may not make the flight even if the passengers do. Put plenty of legible labels on your bags. If you are taking a connecting flight, then don't check your bags all the way through to your final destination. Carry documents, jewellery, medicine and any other important items in your hand luggage.

If you are travelling with someone else, then split your clothing between your two bags, so that if yours goes missing you will not be left with only the clothes you travelled in.

And, if your luggage does seem to disappear into a black hole, then the Unclaimed Baggage Center's website address is www. unclaimedbaggage.com. You never know your luck.

Lost in space: EU airlines most likely to lose bags

1 KLM

2 Alitalia

3 British Airways

4 Air France

5 Lufthansa

6 Luxair

7 bmi

8 Austrian Airlines

9 Croatia Airlines

10 CSA Czech Airlines

Voluntary June 2003 figures from Association of European Airlines members. Aer Lingus did not offer figures; Ryanair is not a member