International Travel Part 3: Pack Carefully

Just like death and taxes, it is a foregone conclusion that the airlines will eventually lose your luggage.  If they haven’t lost yours yet, prepare; your day is coming!  Normally, it’s not such a big deal.  Sure it’s inconvenient, but they deliver your bag to your hotel for you and usually it comes on the same day so actually; you could think of it as valet service for your bags, since you didn’t have to carry them.  Things don’t go quite as smoothly when they lose your luggage on the way to an international destination, however.  There are several reasons for this and it pays to be prepared for this tragedy.

So why is the lost luggage issue so much different when you travel abroad?  First, there are scheduling problems.  If you live in Houston and you fly to New York and they lose your bag, they’ll simply put the bag on the next flight to New York which is probably scheduled to leave the same day.  If you live in Houston and you’re traveling to Italy, you very likely made a connection in New York and then probably another one in London or Amsterdam before you finally arrive in Rome.  If your bag misses its connection to New York, now it has to wait for the next flight, then it has to wait again for another flight to Amsterdam, and again for the next scheduled flight to Rome.  Since there are far fewer scheduled international flights to wait for, it can take several days for your bag to find your destination.

Another thing that happens frequently overseas is that the bag’s owner (that’s you), doesn’t stay in the same place!  If your bag finally does make it to Rome, how is the airline supposed to know that you’ve already taken a train from Rome to Florence to see the statue of David?  From Florence, you might head to Naples, or even Switzerland… Sadly, the airlines are only responsible for delivering your bag to the airport at your listed destination.  If you aren’t there to get it, it will sit for a predetermined amount of time before being listed as “unclaimed,” and eventually sent back to your point of origin.  A buddy of mine is in a band, and this happened to his amplifier.  He found it in the Minneapolis airport, waiting for him, after a two week tour of Europe.  The Amp went “pin-balling” all over Europe, always two or three days behind him before the airline finally quit trying to find him and they sent the Amp back home.

Now, what can we learn from this?  The first thing that comes to mind is, “Don’t leave anything important in your checked bag!”  This includes keys, prescription drugs, money, cell phones, etc.  The next thing that comes to mind is, “Have some spare clothes with you in your carry-on bag!”  If they’re going to lose your luggage they’ll likely lose it catastrophically, so you’ll need something to wear.

Personally, I never check bags when I go overseas.  The wide-body jets that fly over there have much larger capacity in the overhead bins and I take advantage of it!  On a ten day trip to Italy, I took along a bulky 24” roller bag, and a generous “briefcase” that was expandable.  That’s all I needed.  I had the peace of mind that A) My more valuable stuff was safe back at home because I didn’t really need it, and B) Wherever I went in Italy, I always had my stuff with me.  Sacrificing the “luxury” of bringing along additional stuff isn’t worth the extra time I spend in the airport looking (and hoping) for my bag to come out of the international chute. 

One last bonus advantage of returning home with only one roller bag in tow is that the customs officer usually waives you through.  The lady with the steamer trunk in tow is the one who might be smuggling contraband!

EXTRA: If you have questions for Ken regarding business travel, hotels, airplanes, etc, please send an email!  Your questions will be recorded and Ken will answer the best ones in his Ask the Expert podcast show.