There's a lot that can go wrong when traveling. Your car can break down while driving to the airport. The security line can be so long, it causes you to miss your flight. Your flight might be delayed anyway. While these situations are out of your control, there are a few things that are, in fact, within your power to ensure your travel day goes as smoothly as possible. Namely, with your luggage.
According to Pietro Lanzarini, founder of Traxit , a startup building tech for luggage and asset tracking, and a previous airport worker with more than two decades of experience, there are a few main reasons your bag may be delayed —or worse, lost—during transit.
The things that are out of your control when it comes to luggage, Lanzarini explained, are still plentiful. They include "transfer mishandling when the connection between one flight and the other is not smooth," or a ticketing error, when, at the "time of check-in, your bag tags are mistakenly attached to other bags."
Lanzarini added there may also be loading error, when the staff that moves your bags from the airport to the plane either forgets them entirely or boards them on the wrong aircraft. A similar thing can happen on arrival, when the "unloading staff takes the bags to the wrong conveyor belt. And lastly, you could be on the unfortunate end of a space or weight restriction. "The aircraft can contain up to a certain amount of weight, and any excess bags are to be off-loaded," Lanzarini explained.
There are, however, two things Lanzarini said every traveler needs to be on the lookout for, even before they head to the airport, which could lead to your bag being delayed or, again, lost.
Failure to Load
According to Lanzarini, this one's on you. "A late arrival at check-in can result in a fruitless rush since you did not make it in time," he said.
The major U.S. carriers, including Delta , United , and American , all now require checked bags to be dropped at least 45 minutes before domestic departure, with international flights pushing that window to 60 minutes or more. JetBlue, Southwest, Frontier, and Spirit set their cutoffs somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes, so check your specific airline before heading out.
Leaving Old Tags on Your Bag
The other reason a bag may be delayed is you simply didn't take the time to clean it off after your last trip. "Old baggage tags left on the luggage or baggage labels tagged at check-in" could lead to confusion for baggage handlers, who may unintentionally scan your suitcases onto the wrong route.
"As you may notice, expert travelers avoid delays by removing all baggage tags and stubs related to old flights, and by arriving at check-in with enough time to enable loading of their luggage," Lanzarini shared.
He's also not the only pro to ever share this advice with Travel + Leisure .
“Removing old tags helps ensure the most current travel information is the easiest to read and decreases the chance of automatic systems having an error and delaying your bag,” Kate Boyer, Air New Zealand’s chief operating officer of ground and inflight, previously told T+L . “We recommend a quick ‘luggage refresh’ before you head to the airport by removing any stickers or barcode tags from previous trips.”
How to Keep Track of Your Bags
If you're worried about your luggage, be proactive and track it yourself. That means purchasing a luggage tracker or sticking an Apple AirTag inside your bag. According to T+L's testing , the Eufy SmartTrack is a top choice, as it's among the most accurate and sends regular updates on your bag's whereabouts throughout your travels.
The other thing you should do before heading to the airport is snap a few photos of both the outside and inside of your bag (to show everything you packed) plus any luggage tags. This way, if your bag gets lost, you can share the images with airport staff to help locate it, or use them in any insurance claims if it 's lost for good.
Where to Look for Lost Luggage
Worst care, if your bags do get lost, there is one final place you can look: Unclaimed Baggage . The company collects and resells baggage items that have gone unclaimed in airports around the world.
"Each year, I am amazed at the treasures discovered in luggage and what it reveals about our society," Bryan Owens, the company's owner, previously shared in a statement. "After more than 55 years of reclaiming the lost and rejected for good, we often believe we've seen it all. But then we uncover something like a matching set of Samurai swords, a fully-assembled robot, a Dolce & Gabbana jeweled jacket, or gold-plated golf clubs, and we are reminded of why the annual 'Found Report' exists."
The only thing to remember is if you filed an insurance claim for your bag and accepted the money, the contents of your luggage are forfeited for good. But if there's a particularly meaningful item in your bag, it never hurts to check the site and see if you can purchase it back. But note that an airline losing your luggage forever is rare. According to the Department of Transportation , U.S.carriers lost an average of 5.5 bags per 1,000 passengers in 2024. And as long as you follow the steps above, odds are you'll be among the 994.5 passengers who make it to their destination and back with their luggage intact.
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