The end of mishandled baggage?

Airlines getting with the program
On their own, and often with a little encouragement from the IATA program, airlines are making changes that make a difference. For example, American Airlines has slightly increased the amount of ground time between flights.

“Just a few minutes does two things: it gives us more time to handle baggage and it also gives the crews a little more breathing room to unload and load bags when the aircraft is late arriving on the inbound flight,” airline spokesman Tim Smith said.

Like Alaska, Delta, Southwest and other airlines, American has also adopted technological improvements, such as handheld scanning devices that help track bags through its system. The previous system was paper-based and outdated. Smith said American now has computer terminals installed in many baggage tugs that can provide real-time information for getting connecting bags to the proper flight.

Mission accomplished?
Clearly, we’re not at the point where a passenger checking a bag has no need to wonder if they’ll ever see that bag again. SITA’s Mayer, however, said there’s technology available that, if implemented, would show “real benefits throughout the world and not just at some airports, with some airlines or on certain flight routes.”

Meantime, IATA’s Lott said there are low-tech strategies passengers can adopt to give their checked bags better odds of arriving safely.

For instance, in addition to putting your contact information and travel itinerary inside your baggage, Lott suggests travelers inspect the outside of their bags before each trip. If there are old tag stubs and bar code labels stuck on your luggage from a previous journey, remove them so they don’t confuse the automatic barcode readers in the baggage handling system.

The war to end lost luggage has not yet been won, but airlines are making honest efforts.