lost luggage auction

Have you ever lost your luggage and never found them? There is a chance that they have ended up in a lost luggage auction.

Unclaimed Baggage is a store located in Scottsboro, Alabama, U.S.A. where the vast majority of items come from unclaimed baggage at airports. Baggage is officially declared unclaimed if it is still not found by its owners after at least 90 days of “intensive tracking by the airlines”.

Greasbys Auctioneers and Valuers in Tooting, south London U.K. is a small backyard and garage which, according to The Observer, auctions luggage and personal effects left in airports, airplanes, and London Transport that are still unclaimed after a period of at least three months’ probation in lost property. Profits, minus commission, are returned to the airlines. According to its own website, Greasbys “handles the sale of Antique and Modern furniture and effects, for a wide variety of clients including Local Authorities, The Treasury Solicitor, Various Airline Operators, H.M. Revenue & Customs and various others.”

I wonder how much of airlines’ revenues come from auction profits. Could it be more financially sound to find or lose your luggage? According to Wikipedia, compensation for lost luggage varies from nation to nation, but in the United States, it is limited to 9.07 US dollars per pound for international flights. According to the Telegraph, British Airways pays £14 per kilogram as prescribed by the Warsaw Convention. It also states that some airlines likeVirgin Atlantic, Britannia, and Airtours donate your lost luggage to charity.

So please follow these tips if you want to prevent your luggage from appearing on E-bay:

Put your name and contact information both outside and inside your bag in case your luggage tags fall off in transit. Luggage tags falling off and being re-attached to the WRONG bag happens a lot more often than we think.

Place a copy of your itinerary inside your luggage. An airline employee will find it a lot easier to locate you if your luggage becomes lost.

Avoid short layovers. Be sure to leave enough time for you and your bags to make the next flight. A good rule of thumb is to try and leave at least an hour in between legs.