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Comment by pcurve | Hacker News Reader

Don't book flights with layover in London if you have checkin luggage.

You WILL lose your luggage and it will take days to get it back! DAYS! If you HAVE to, make sure to have enough supplies in your carry-on.

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I learned this the hard way. No luggage, airlines blame heathrow, and heathrow has no communcation channel, I think my only option is break in and try to find it myself. How you manage to get yours?

Throw an airtag in there before you leave and then bluster your way through! Shouldn't be that hard if they're all that overworked /s

A guy was on Irish radio and he said he bought the cheapest outbound ticket he could find. Managed to get to the arrivals lounge and find his bag there.

I'm not following this strategy. Did he need to buy an outbound ticket to go collect his lost bag?

To get through security and make his way to arrivals from within the airport, I guess.

To get on the other side of security. Presumably this was in the international baggage pickup or something.

The slightly cheaper tactic may be to actually to buy a fully refundable fare (usually for thousands) for much later in the day, and then cancel it and ask for a full refund.

(This is also how airport lounge abuse is done.)

Fully refundable tickets are awesome. My old company had a contract where all international business travels to customer sites must purchase fully refundable business class tickets. I remember someone had to cancel their travel just before boarding, and the airline refunded everything no questions asked.

People should consider using Air Tags with checked luggage this summer: https://www.cnn.com/cnn-underscored/travel/travel-apple-airt...

extremly underrated tip! thank you

Just because you know where your baggage is doesn't mean the airline will actually give it to you.

It can help a ton. There's been reports of people calling up an airport and telling an employee exactly where their bag is, and then getting it delivered.

Often the biggest impediment to getting lost luggage back is finding out where in the airport it actually is.

Or even which airport it's in.

Yeah we just recovered a lost bag thanks to an Airtag. The airline’s system thought it was still at the origin city, but we knew exactly which terminal it was at, and we just went there and asked in person. Never checking any bag without an airtag ever again.

Like I dummy, I waited around in line for an hour in Costa Rica before remembering to check my tag.

... Turns out, they move "military looking" (lol, pelican) boxes to a separate spot instead of running them on the carousel. I'd have had it in minutes if I remembered to check the tag first.

Another Pelican Box Luggage Fan!!! I've got a few Pelican trunks too (1615s). They are often (but not always) treated as "Out of Gauge" at various international airports for me and I'm asked "What's inside?" as if they are loaded with some sort of weapon. Nope! I just like large & durable luggage that can be tied to roof of a cab if it doesn't fit in the back

I have Airs, which are definitely weaker, but light enough that I don’t mind.

Have considered its a tastier looking target for thieves, but esp in Asia they seem to have no idea what it is at all.

the pelicans themselves are nice but I find they are theif magnets - people assume whats inside is expensive and you are conspicuous when using them.

I don't often check luggage. United does have a pretty good online tracking system you can use these days but I always throw an AirTag into checked luggage now and it seems like a really good idea.

Yeah and if you want some order them now, there's been a flood of articles (and comments!) recommending this approach, so no doubt they are flying off the metaphorical shelves.

I hit up 2 Apple Stores and a few authorized resellers in my area and everyone was out of stock. I ordered mine online and it still took a few weeks to get it.

I've used airtags when travelling the past month, they are amazing. Sometimes I sit down on a nice chair instead of crowding around the baggage reclaim belt waiting for it to arrive, and my airtag will show when its there

What should those of us with Android phones do? As far as I can tell, you can use an Android phone to locate any random airtag nearby, but no way to hunt down your own tag unless nearby. Other tag systems won't have the Find My network advantage.

You don't get as much coverage since far fewer people have them but there's always Tile.

If you have a Samsung phone you could consider using a Galaxy SmartTag. It uses a network of Samsung devices, so its coverage should be quite good too.

I foresee big profits for Apple and Chipolo this summer.

Just went through Heathrow on a redeye and walked through baggage claim at 6:30 in the morning. THOUSANDS of bags sitting there that had not been claimed the day before. Crazy.

BA lost my bag on BOTH ways in my layover at Heathrow last week.

I don't think I'd want to ever travel after that. How long did it take to get yours back?

Your point is clear but I do not think there is a need for such hyperbole (or for the exclamations).

I could not find a reference reliable enough to quote here, but I would be surprised if any major airport loses more than a few percent of checked luggage. So you will most likely not lose your luggage.

It's incredibly rare and the fact it happens more at Heathrow (anecdotally) should not be a significant factor in your booking decision.

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