Do you know what to do when you lose your luggage on a family vacation? Yes, it is an inconvenience. After all, what could be worse when you’ve arrived on your family vacation and your luggage thought they knew a better location? At first, you may think nothing could be worse. But that’s not true! So many things could be worse than losing your luggage for your family holiday. I won’t go down that rabbit hole today though. Instead, I am going to share how you can stop panicking at the thought of losing your luggage for good. And how you can still enjoy every moment of your family vacation while making memories you will cherish forever. Plus, I guarantee you will eventually laugh at how you lost your luggage on this family trip!

Losing Luggage on Your Family Vacation

The First Step to Losing Luggage

First and foremost, it happens, so just take a breath. Lost luggage happens every single day. Sometimes only for a few moments. And other times, well, honestly, the lost luggage is never found.

The key to keeping your calm is to know what not to put in checked luggage. And what to keep in your carryon.

I recommend a quality packed carryon. Then your lost luggage won’t foil your family vacation.

What to Place in Your Carryon Bag

Your carryon should include ALL valuables. Yep, everything that is irreplaceable, electronic, medicines (for absolute sure) and any jewelry or other costly items. This way you won’t be without anything important or irreplaceable if you happen to lose your luggage during your family trip.

It’s not a guarantee that you get to take your carryon with you, as full flights will force you to check some carry-ons. It all depends on what boarding zone you are in. However, ensuring you have a quality carryon will help alleviate some of the stress. In addition to your valuables, your carryon should also have what I call the “24-hour rule”.

The 24 Hour Rule is to pack everything you would need for twenty-four hours. This includes a change of clothes, something to sleep in, your toiletries, makeup and hairstyling accessories.

Pack a swimsuit in your carryon if you are traveling somewhere hot. Depending on your travel style, having a great outfit for dining out is a bonus as well.

When you pack this way, you have something to wear, something to wash, and something to still enjoy life with. Some destinations aren’t as easy for grabbing additional clothing, so a great 24-hour rule carryon ensures the vacation continues even when hiccups happen.

Medication absolutely needs to be in your carryon. You will risk items disappearing every time your luggage is not with you. And nothing can send a vacation sideways faster than worrying about trying to fill a prescription in another country. Medications are a hot commodity to be stolen from luggage, so keep it close at all times.

What to Do If Your Luggage is Lost or Delayed

Immediately report lost luggage to the airline. Do NOT leave the airport without filing a report. The airlines will assist in getting you reunited with your luggage, often even delivering it. But you need to have a report filed.

You also need to remember what your luggage looks like, the better the description the better. A great tip I’ve heard from colleagues is to take a picture on your cell phone (which you carry with you – never check) of your bag just before you leave. Take a picture of it open with all of the contents showing, and one with it closed up.

This way you will also be able to better list the contents for your insurance company should you need to put in a claim.

This brings me to the second thing you must do. File a report with the airline. Then contact your travel insurance provider to get a claim started.

I’m happy to chat travel insurance with all of my clients. I can’t recommend it strongly enough. Travel insurance is not for the things you plan, but rather the things that go wrong when you least expect it.

Some of the Weirdest Things I’ve Heard of with Lost Luggage

The travel industry is a tight industry. Us travel advisors discuss the things we’ve heard of happening to other people’s clients, so we can all help out our own clients.

Do NOT place your keys in your checked luggage. For real, this happens, and to those whose luggage doesn’t make it home, it complicates the drive home from the airport. Don’t check the keys.

You can’t take animals in your checked luggage. While there is the ability to transport some animals in the checked cargo hold, they are in special carriers with additional precautions. There have however been people who have decided that they are going to “rescue” an animal while on vacation and to avoid scrutiny have placed it in their check luggage – I can’t say strongly enough — don’t do that.

When you have a 24-hour carryon, ensure that you keep it set up that way all the way through the trip. A friend of mine went on a family cruise to the Caribbean. Once on board the ship the one son was missing his bag. Not to worry she thought, she had packed him a great carry on. So she told him, until we locate the bag, wear the clothes in the carryon. To which he replied, “those are all the dirty clothes from my time with Nana and Papa before you got here”. Yep, he had a whole carryon of dirty (14 years old, forgot to wear deodorant, boy) clothes.

Check the Tags on Luggage

We’ve all been standing at the luggage carousel where we have seen what looks like 35 of the exact same bags come off the belt. Double-check the tags every time you take a bag off the belt.

You will be surprised how many others now have that same ‘unique’ bag that you do. I’ve heard too many times before where someone has taken the wrong bag and didn’t notice until later that night when they were in the hotel room. Or even for days after, because they were at their final destination. Always look at the tags and make sure you have your own bag. Or you may realize days later you, and someone else, has lost luggage!

Travel isn’t meant to be stressful. Yet it somehow creates some of the most frustrating moments. Often before we ever leave the airport. By taking just an extra minute or two of preparation and planning, you can save yourself a whole lot of stress.

BONUS TIP

Here’s a great bonus tip for you. When you are traveling with additional people, shuffle one outfit from every person into another bag. That way if one bag is lost you will still have other clothes for enjoying the vacation until you can go shopping for some new clothes. And when you do go shopping, save the receipts for your insurance claim. Who doesn’t love a free shopping session?!

If you already do all of these things, you’re a packing pro. Sounds like you’ve earned a vacation!

So, are you ready to have me create a personalized family vacation itinerary for your next trip where you hopefully won’t be losing your luggage?

If you said yes, I would like to invite you to click here to schedule a personalized family vacation planning session with me. When you click this link, you will be taken directly to my digital calendar to schedule a time that is convenient for you.

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