What to do when the airline loses your checked luggage
When airlines lose or delay checked luggage, travelers are left without basic clothing and personal items, forcing them to spend precious vacation or trip time buying emergency replacements and doing laundry. This disruption leaves people stranded without essential belongings for days or permanently.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Tracking luggage location using devices like AirTags2 people mentionedDid this help you?
- 2Packing a few days worth of clothes, toiletries, and medications in a carry-on or backpackDid this help you?
- 3Splitting clothes between travel partners' suitcases so each person has a backupDid this help you?
- 4Doing laundry during the trip and avoiding checking bags entirelyDid this help you?
- 5Asking airport agents for guidance on where to fileDid this help you?
- 6Packing a few days of backup clothes and toiletries in carry-on luggageDid this help you?
- 7Waiting for the airline to advise on baggage handling proceduresDid this help you?
- 8Creating a Property Irregularity Report (PIR) via airline apps or airport desksDid this help you?
- 9Waiting for the airline to put the bag on a subsequent flight and arrange deliveryDid this help you?
- 10Calling general airline phone numbers or submitting contact formsDid this help you?
- 11Visiting airport ticket counters or service desksDid this help you?
- 12Buying replacement items and filing for reimbursementDid this help you?
- 13Filed a delayed-baggage report with the operating carrier's ground handler (Batik Air/Swissport).Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“2 week trip to Switzerland. Luggage never arrived. Had to buy lots of things and do laundry every night.”source ↗
“If the flight gets delayed to the next day we can just go back home, but we have one bag to check. Do we have to pick up our bag or does it stay at the airport?”source ↗
“My checked in luggage did not make it.”source ↗
“How likely is it that I’ll get my bag? I’m travelling to nearby countries soon… so won’t be able to able to wait too long for this bag.”source ↗
“His made it there, but mine only made it as far as Frankfurt. It caught up to me relatively quickly but I spent a day or two of vacation with nothing but the gross clothes I’d been traveling in.”source ↗
“United Airlines lost my check in luggage from my husband's funeral. I never got it back.”source ↗
“I tried filing a report at baggage claim when they landed but they referred me to their general phone number because my baggage tag wasn’t found in their data.”source ↗
“The self service portal doesn’t work because of my invalid baggage number :(”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 4Can you check bags to an intermediate stop on a layover?
- 4Why are so many customer shipments getting lost with UPS and FedEx?
- 5Someone took my bag at airport security or on a train
- 25What to do when flights are canceled at the airport
- 3Bridal boutique hasn't delivered my wedding dress with weeks to go
- 8Why are wedding invitations taking weeks or months to arrive in the mail?