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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I remember both in Vegas and DC, there used to be someone who would match your baggage receipt with the one on the luggage. Seems to cost a lot less than have at least $3,000 charge to the airline for stolen luggage.
They used to do the same thing at Laguardia. Don’t know if they still do it though. I know that in many airports, not only do they not check claim tickets, they don’t even have airport or airline employees visible in the baggage claim area.
I guess this serves as a reminder to travelers, that unless and until airlines and airport security step up to the plate and do more than the minimum required, it’s best to hustle yourself to baggage claim in the hopes that you’ll beat the bags to the luggage carousel. Yeah, it’s not so fun waiting with the herd but at least you’ll be there to see if someone slips your bag off the carousel.
We’ve talked about this on the forums, and there are some technical and non-technical solutions the airlines could engage fairly quickly. At least apparently there ARE officers keeping some kind of an eye on things.
But you know what, lets say the airline has to pay out $500 for the average totally lost bag (not counting admin costs).
Now, this case is extreme, but using that as a baseline, this one thief cost the airlines $500,000. I’d have to wonder if a little security might not be cost effective…
I guess this is another reason why I not only rush to the baggage claim, but in view of the part of carousel where the bags come out (as opposed to halfway around the carousel). I’m always paranoid about someone mistaking my bag and not seeing them walk off with it, much less someone stealing it.
Well, there you have it. It’s probably cheaper to settle a claim then hire additional employees who, gasp, want a livable wage, retirement, vacation, health benefits and a break for lunch while watching over the baggage claim area.
I have two thoughts here:
First, the guy who was caught got away with his crime 999 times before he was caught. That’s terrible!
And second: how hard would it be to have someone standing at the carousel with a hand scanner (like they use at Target) matching bag tags for each bag. If I’m paying the airlines to take care of my belongings, they could at least take care of my belongings. I wonder if the fact that this is not a “free service” any more should change the rules of the game a bit.
Well, I live in Las Vegas, and I’ve never had my bag claim checked….so that must have been awhile ago if they were doing it. I do remember Oakland used to have very good baggage security…the area was set up so that you could not leave without showing your tags and your claim checks to someone….
A couple of years ago I was returning from SE Asia with a group of friends. Upon clearing customs in Chicago we were told to take our bags to the United re-check counter where there were a couple of baggage handlers. Strangely they were not putting the bags on the moving conveyer but were insisting that we leave our bags in front of the counter and they promised to take care of the rest. We had plenty of time until our next flight from ORD to JAX but when we got to JAX one of our group did not find her bag which had many collectibles from her travels through VIetnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Thailand. Her bag was never found. I am convinced that the purpose of our being ordered to leave our bags in front of the re-check counter was to allow the workers to go through bags and determine what they wanted to keep. Since that event I have been ordered at least one more time to leave my bags for others to put onto the conveyer in Chicago but I make a point of staying and watching until the bag is on the conveyer and out of sight (where it may still be in danger but not the same danger) even though the baggage handlers seem displeased by my lack of cooperation.
Peter Greenberg says there are only two kinds of luggage – lost and carry-on. So learn how to travel light! If you HAVE to check luggage through, some good strategies have already been mentioned: 1) put your contact number and itinerary inside the bag, as well as out and 2) watch the bags as they enter the carousel. Another strategy is to own a bag that doesn’t look like every other black bag. Most “lost” bags are not stolen and are subsequently found. Best way to avoid that scenario is to make certain yours are tagged with the correct 3-letter destination code which can be very similar to others (DTW=Detroit, DFW=Dallas) And fly non-stop or allow sufficient time for you and your bags to connect to ongoing flights. Many computer generated connecting times may be okay for computers, but are absurd for humans. Use a travel agent who can override those or make the airline do it for you.
I agree with Angela. It would be very easy to match the tag on the bag with the passingers bag reciept using a simple bar code scanner.
What’s the big deal? Just take a good looking piece off the turnstile. Take the valuables and drop the remainder off at Goodwill. The owner has homeowner’s insurance to replace the missing goods (and has the opportunity to claim more than the loss). It helps the economy and redistributes wealth to the poor who probably could never afford to fly, but could use a good suitcase when taking the bus. If the owner catches you, big deal–luggage all looks alike. If he gets tough, he has no weapons having come off a plane. The police advise not to risk your life confronting an armed robber over replaceable items. So the worst that could happen to you is getting a parking ticket on your “luggage service” panel truck while you’re loading it with luggage sent on different flights than the flyers.
Flyers shouldn’t get all worked up ove material things. Even if you went to the giant reseller warehouse of unclaimed lost luggage in Alabama and found your valuables, you couldn’t claim it no matter how much proof of ownership you presented. You don’t own it any more. And there’s a good ol boy sherriff that gets revenue by arresting flyer/owner/protesters at the warehouse.
Flyers would have less worry going in with the expectation that they are giving up forever whatever they put on the conveyor belt when checking in.
Here lies the former owner of
Donated luggage at the airport
Thought authorities would protect him
Died of expectations
RIP
Nobody was faster
Why don’t we sue the airline for breach of contract when they “allow” bags to be stolen, now that we are being charged for allowing them the privilege of transporting our bags. When they began to charge for bags, they established a duty to carry our baggage safely with that separate charge. Failing to transport and deliver the baggage safely has to be a breach of contract, and that contract is separate and distinct from the contract of carriage for the passenger IMHO. I am not an attorney, but it seems to me that a few of these suits would change the way the airlines protect our bags.
Jim November 5, 2009 at 9:27 am
I agree with Angela. It would be very easy to match the tag on the bag with the passingers bag reciept using a simple bar code scanner.
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Just what the traveling public wants……ANOTHER LINE. Arrive at a HUB and you’ll see dozens and dozens of aircraft arriving all at once. All the carousels suddenly packed with passengers and bags. Now, drag your bags to a LONG LINE to prove it’s yours.
On Octorber 10, 2009 I flew into LAX and looked to retrieve my bag, the first time I’ve ever checked a bag as I always use a carry on but this was for a two week cruise so needed many more clothes. When the carousel was nearly empty, I noticed bags standing in another area some ways away. I walked over out of curiousity and found my bag standing there among several others with no one around. I grabbed it and left to find my shuttle without ever being approached by airport personnel.
I felt extremely lucky that I got away safely with my belongings, and from now on it will be back to the carry on bag and hope I can find some accommodating flight attendant or fellow passenger to help me lift it into the overhead bin since I am very healthy but at 76 lack some of the muscle I had a couple of years ago.
At one time, Newark Liberty had a Security Guard in the luggage area. You couldn’t remove a bag without a luggage tag check. That went the way of the Dodo Bird. I wonder how many bags ‘walk off’ the carousel since the security system disappeared.
In San Juan Puerto Rico , they still check your luggagew tag before you leave the claim area, I have had them also check my luggage name tag aginst my ticket stub.
Make your luggage horribly distinctive, it helps. I have swathes of reflective tape in a particular pattern on all my luggage and my initials in 4″ high reflective letters on the handle end.
You need to be both blind *and* stupid to grab my bags by mistake.
Mind you, this happened once..someone took one of my bags off the carousel…then they noticed it wasn’t theirs. Problem was they just left it on the deck and didn’t put it back on the carousel..thanks so very much.
This was at one of those airports where the carousel wanders around like a line at Disneyland so it wasn’t until all the luggage came and people started to disperse that I saw my bag about 100′ away on the far end of the line.
LAX used to have some matching luggage tags to check stubs but I have’t seent hem there in years….and you could usually just walk right past them if they were occupied anyway.
As 99% of the airlines is charging you for carrying your bags, I would believe a law suit via Interstate Commerce laws would possibly make them “back up and regroup” regarding bag security. I do remember when there was a person(s) at the entryways into baggage claim that mandatorily matched your claim check against your bag(s) BEFORE you could leave with a bag(s). Of course, since it costs the airlines money to operate these locations, it went the way of the DoDo bird — extinct. What really gets me is the “Has anyone other than you handled your bags? (high tech security question) and still the airlines will place UNACCOMPANIED bags on aircraft because they “screwed up” and did not get it on the plane with the owner. Definitely tells me about the wonderful security we have NOT!
Mel Said, “Failing to transport and deliver the baggage safely has to be a breach of contract, and that contract is separate and distinct from the contract of carriage for the passenger IMHO.”
I’m also not an attorney but I suspect that Federal law has already addressed the issue and there are regulations regarding lost luggage from the DOT. These specific regulations might supercede contract law, as the regulations specifically address the issues and laws governing contracts don’t. At least if I were an airline, that’s what I would argue.
Just another reason to:
1) not check luggage
2) if you do check luggage, use a TSA lock (not that it couldn’t be broken into with good lock cutters…).
3) get off the plane quickly when it arrives and be at the luggage carousel right by the shute when the luggage comes out…
Reminds me of my arrival at New York’s JFK last year. It took me so long to get through customs that by the time I made it to my suitcase, it had been pulled off the now stationary carousel by some helpful person and left standing in the middle of the hall pretty much on its own. I’m just glad over zealous security officers had destroyed it in a controlled explosion!
Oops, that previous comment should read: I’m just glad over zealous security officers *hadn’t* destroyed it in a controlled explosion!