what is worst part of lost luggage...?

When flying across the country, had flight delays and more delays so would miss connecting flight.... and so the gate agent then rearranges different connecting flight (on a different airline) and then have more delays and then missed those new connections and then more flight changes (back on the original airline) ... and then do get to destination several hours later than expected, ... but check baggage doesn't arrive.

Put in "lost baggage" claims with two airlines. And 12 hours later, One still says "arrived in Chicago", the airline after that says says "no scan".

So what is worse, being 3/4th the way across the country, away from home, and not having:

- your toiletrys

or

- any change of clothes

or

- your medications

or ......

or ......

- riding gear ..... and licence plate tab and proof of insurance for the bike that is here...?

.

.

That blows. The only time I rushed to make a connection, my bag didn't show. I had time to buy some clothes for the big meeting the next day. Bag showed up at the hotel at 2am.

To quote Animal House, My advice to you is to drink heavily.

Yes, have a couple drinks, then do something else for a while. rent a car, buy a new toothbrush, and go play tourist. your bags will turn up.

Some of the best trips I've ever had were ones that involved unplanned down time. :-)

My luggage was lost by the airline when starting a cruise. By the time the cruise was over and we got back home, it finally showed up.

Another time my bag had more frequent miles on a trip than I did as it was flown back and forth a couple of times.

In retrospect, no big deal, at the time GRRRRRRRRRR.

First business trip to Japan, fly forever, can't sleep on the plane, no luggage.

Next day i'm wearing blue jeans and a dress shirt and i'm going commando

Every time i fly now i have spare underwear and socks in my back pack.

Every time i fly now i have spare underwear and socks in my back pack.

 

Back when I used to travel to China for business, I kept a complete set of one days clothes in my laptop backpack. You can always have the same clothes laundered every day. You cannot however find clothes for a man with a 51 inch chest in China.

I use to travel to Asia on a regular basis a regular

and I learned early on, never never never checked luggage. One carry-on a briefcase and I was good to go. I would just send out my clothes for cleaning. Simple. GT

I've learned this lesson the hard way and had to buy some expensive clothes, and waste vacation time trying to find them, as a result. Now, medications, toilet kit and a change of clothes always go in my carry on (subject to TSA liquid limitations). The few times I've flown with riding gear, I've always taken my helmet as a carry-on "personal item", but other riding gear is just too bulky. I always end up checking a bag because I take a liquid joint supplement the volume of which will exceed carry-on limits for any trip beyond a couple of days.

Sorry for your loss (so to speak), Redman.

Sorry to hear.

I rarely fly. Never put meds in checked bags, alwas try to use just carry on.

When deciding whether to play at Boston College or Notre Dame, we flew to Boston first for a visit.

Went well.

Flew to South Bend via Chicago.

Winter.

Bags "lost" apparently in a snow storm.

Had to do 3 days at ND with what I was wearing.

Helped with decision to go BC.

Nowadays, I basically will drive 1,000 miles in a day before flying...

I keep toying with the idea of doing one of those guided rides in either Spain or New Zealand. If your gear didn't show up for one of those deals you'd really be screwed. In N America you can be pretty confident that if you package and send your gear Fed X it'll get where it needs to be in a week. But I'd have no idea how far in advance I'd need to allow to Spain or NZ. I saw a statistic recently that 4% of airline luggage gets lost. Some smaller percentage of that is lost (stolen) forever. I think Fed X probably has a better score than that.

Flew to Vegas a month ago to rent a bike and ride for 48 hours (spread over three days) with the idea to leave Vegas immediately and not return until the bike was due back. Hemmed and hawed over whether to check a bag or not (can do one "free" on the airline I was using).

Decided to stuff my motoport pants into a carryon with what little clothing, toiletries and other gear I was taking, wore my boots and jacket and carried my helmet.

My flight was very late to LA and I almost missed my connection - no way a checked bag would have made it. I'm sure my luggage would have arrived later that day, but then I would have had to stay in Vegas or ride out in the dark/cold or buy new gear. Very glad I didn't check the bag.

My case (no pun intended) was complicated by the fact that connecting flight was changed from original airline to another, and then more delays missed that one too, and then flights changed again back to original airline.

So I had "Lost Baggage Claim" with 2 airlines.

Did get my suitcase delivered to me late the next day (by a local private delivery company hired by the airline).

With all the riding gear, it was more than could have in a carry-on.

And without a carry on bag (just a personal item that can go under seat), then I can get Basic-economy tickets that are considerably less. And the one suitcase big enough for both of us and the riding gear is $25.