Lost Luggage - Lessons Learned

Two years ago I embarked on a pretty awesome two week trip to the US and Canada which involved multiple destinations and therefore multiple flights. It was on this trip that I experienced the loss of my hold luggage. At this point in my life I had been on a fair few trips but was by no means a seasoned traveller and I certainly didn't think that my luggage would ever go astray that was something that happened to other people, not me! How wrong I was.

To give you some context myself and my parents set off from our local airport Newcastle (NCL) headed to Toronto (YYZ) Canada, as this wasn't a direct flight we had a stop over of a few hours in Heathrow Airport's (LHR) new Terminal 5. It was at this stage of the journey that we made our connecting flight but our luggage did not. If you aren't aware Terminal 5 has an all singing all dancing new baggage system behind the scenes. Unfortunately on the day we travelled this all singing all dancing system failed and there was no viable back up in place. So not only was our flight affected but also thousands of others were affected too. So when we arrived in Toronto we were informed shortly after landing in baggage reclaim that the bags were not loaded onto the flight. I think if we were staying in Toronto for the full two weeks of our trip there would have been a good chance that our bags could have been reunited with us but as we were only there for 3 days and moving on to Las Vegas and Los Angeles it made tracking that bit more difficult.

We waited at the British Airways desk that was opened in Baggage reclaim to be issued with a credit card with money loaded on, so that we were able to buy some essentials etc. We were advised that this could be done on-line through a website that British Airways had provided, but this link wasn't working so we decided to wait in the queue and have something there and then to ensure we could buy some essential items. I would certainly advise you take this option as it seemed as though the link to apply for money wasn't working its thought due to the high number of people trying to access this site so those travellers who didn't wait likely were unable to claim this emergency fund.

I have learned quite a few lessons from this experience that have made me a more savvy traveller and I've also realised how little I actually need to pack for a two week holiday, before this I was the notorious over packer! If at all possible try and pack everything you need into a carry on eliminating the need for a checked in bag, you can always get essentials such as liquids you are unable to pack etc. at the other end. If you do need to take a bag to be checked in make sure you pack a few items in a cabin bag so that you aren't left short at the other end should you need anything.

I was finally reunited with my bag on my return home from my two week trip, British Airways decided by the time they had located my bag and my location it would be easier to send this to my home address than to my Hotel in Los Angeles. Thank god for travel insurance is all I can say!!

Have you ever had your luggage go missing? What was your experience with being reunited with your luggage? Please let me know in the comments below.