There’s a basic axiom in travel that there are only two kinds of luggage, carry on and lost. Sometimes you don’t have a choice in checking your bags. You might be flying on a foreign airline that weighs cabin bags, or simply have too much stuff to fit in the overhead bin. But you don’t want to waste your life in lines to drop off your bags, or standing around in airports hoping your luggage gets delivered back to you.
Here are 3 reasons why you don’t want to check a bag:
- You have to show up at the airport earlier if you’re checking a bag. Check-in cutoff time usually means 15 extra minutes, but bag check also often means standing in lines – to get the bag tagged, to drop it off – and the time that takes can vary pushing you to show up earlier still.
- You’re stuck at the airport longer after your trip. Alaska Airlines was first to offer a checked bag guarantee (in 2009) and Delta copied them. Both of those airlines consistently deliver bags quickly, but even there it takes longer than just leaving the airport. With other carriers, expect thirty minutes and sometimes sixty.
- Checked bags get lost. Your risk increases substantially on a connecting itinerary – your bag doesn’t get just loaded and unloaded, that process repeats twice and it has to be transferred. A delay of one flight influences whether it makes the next one. I’ve even had bags intentionally misdirected by baggage handlers as part of a job action against their company because contract negotiations were dragging on.
I often hear something along the lines of, “oh you have to wait 10 minutes extra at the bag carousel before leaving on the other end? Heavens what an inconvenience.” And that’s just the wrong way to think about it.
My favorite way to travel is without even a rollaboard. On a simple overnight I’ll bring just my laptop bag. Occasionally on a two night trip I’ll stretch things and overstuff the laptop bag. It’s liberating not to worry about needing overhead bin space, and therefore needing to board early. I can arrive at the airport close to departure or work longer in an airline lounge and stroll onto the plane close to the end of boarding or whenever is most convenient.
If I’m checking bags, though, because I simply must travel with too much stuff – I’ll generally go with a checked bag on trips over a week and when I’m with my wife and daughter we wind up checking bags as well – then consider these 4 simple rules.
- Pay attention to what credit card you use. Many rewards cards, especially from Chase, will offer delayed and lost bag coverage. You’ll initially be able to get up to $100 per day for 5 days when bags aren’t delivered on time, and have contents covered if the airline doesn’t find the bags.
- Once you’re checking bags anyway, make use of your baggage allowance. If you have to show up early at the airport to check bags and wait after your flight to collect them it doesn’t much matter if you check one or three so don’t worry about using your entire allotment of free bags.
- Don’t check anything that really matters. Checked bags aren’t a reason not to carry anything at all onto the plane. If you have prescription medicines, don’t check those. Anything valuable or difficult to replace shouldn’t be checked either. You need to carry those on, and if it’s enough stuff may still mean a carry on bag – and a fight for bin space – even though you’re checking a suitcase.
- Consider Airtags. I actually don’t think they’re worth it, considering the odds on a given trip of lost luggage are fairly low (less than 1% with most airlines) and since you shouldn’t have anything valuable in your checked bags to begin with, but they’ll give you a sense of control knowing where your bags are without having to rely on the airline (even though you’ll need the airline’s help – or law enforcement’s – to actually secure the bag once it’s lost).
To be sure, know your airline’s carry on rules. Make sure your bag is going to fit in the sizer, and if you have a rollaboard be sure you’re boarding among the first half of passengers. Otherwise you’re running the risk of having your bag gate checked, which means it might get lost and you’ll waste time waiting for it at the end of your journey.
Airlines are frequently aggressive requiring passengers to gate check bags even when there’s plenty of overhead bin space left. It’s one of the two most frequent complaints I see on twitter, and this is regardless of airlines (other than Southwest).
This is because gate agents don’t want to risk passengers wasting time looking for bin space, and worse yet not finding any and having to gate check their bags in the minutes prior to doors close. The plane might push back a minute or two late as a result, and with some carriers that’s a mark on the agent. They’d rather make sure they don’t get to that stage. It’s one reason that the lack of larger overhead bins is so frustrating on some carriers and fleet types, when those bins are readily available for installation.
If your bag definitely fits in the sizer, and you’re asked to gate check, be nice. You’re probably out of luck, but nicely tell the agent that you’re interlining on separate tickets and will miss your connection if you have to wait for your bags at baggage claim and re-clear security and please have sympathy and let you hunt for bin space. It might work!
My trips are of such length that I have to utilize a bag – or two – for my belongings. I will check any bag that will not fit into an overhead compartment. I look forward to gate checking my bag whenever they offer .I save a bag fee and I don’t mind being at the carousel to get my bag(s). I also take pictures of my bags in case they come up missing – which has never happened to me in over 40 years flying. I forgot to mention that I always fly non stop.
Spirit Airlines managed to lose both of my parents’ bags on a nonstop flight, and never recovered them.
I have been unknowingly following Gary’s advice on this for many years, although on a recent weekend trip to Tokyo carrying just a backpack, I found myself unexpectedly stopped by customs at HND and asked if I had forgotten to collect my check-in bags. They seemingly did not expect a long-haul passenger to arrive with just a backpack!
One other advantage of traveling “light” is that there is little to carry around upon arrival. I find a backpack very useful for this as it leaves both hands free.as otherwise I would have to carry my check-in bags until I reach my hotel which could be many hours after arrival.
Also, when checking in bags I always take a photograph as it would be far easier to show a photograph when chasing up a lost bag than attempting to describe it. (Errr…. it’s black, with wheels, zips and handles and it’s about “this” size….)
After recently reading about baggage tag switching my photographs now include the bags with the tags attached, including a close up of the tag.
Carry-on-only, FTW! WFBF!
Woah, another non-bigoted post by @David R. Miller. Oh how ye hath atoned, sir!
Agree except on AirTags. I’ve had bags go astray several times, and the AirTag lets you know where it is, and maybe even reclaim it sooner than it would have been delivered. After all, the bag tracing website the airlines use usually does not tell you much. The tag gives peace of mind that the bag about whether the bag is on your flight, or can alert you that it is coming up to the carousel.
How about multiple luggage tags and other means of ID in and on the bags. If your bags can be identified they are rarely truly lost only misrouted or stolen.
You missed another important reason – if you want to be free to switch to an earlier flight or a different routing it’s a lot easier if you only have carry-on.
I never check bags unless forced and my entire family understands the program. If I have a 2wk trip I do laundry halfway (or just bill employer if applicable).
This generally works – except on Qantas, Aegean and rarely on LH.
I’m not checking bags on my JetBlue flight that I booked not even a month ago. Because they already changed it.
We go out of our way to check bags because we dislike lugging bags around terminals – most of our travel is between SE Asia and North America, and within Asia. Never had a lost bag in 30 plus years of travel. Maybe just avoid crap airlines.
The problem with checking bags if that if you run into irregular operations and need to change your flight your bag may not go with you making one more hassle to be dealt with.
@George Romey — Yes. Finally, common ground between us.
…as if TSA would allow more than 3.4 oz liquids in my carryon.
I want to bring certain health and beauty items, etc. which don’t comply with TSA carryon regs.
Yes, I nostalgically recall the days of my father bragging to the 110 pound young stewards that he lightly traveled with a brief case contaiing his work documents and a change of socks and underwear, and that he never had to check a bag. Those days are long gone.
@BigTee — Why such emphasis on “110 pound young stewards”? If going for a bygone era, why not highlight the smoke-filled planes instead? Or that they’d serve a whole turkey, carved in-front of you. No, no… ‘subtle’ misogyny was the right touch… well done. /s)
If I am not pressed for time, I am usually one of the people who volunteers to check his bag at the gate for free. It means I don’t have to lift the bag into the overhead bin and I can move more readily through the airport.
@BigTee (or anyone reading that might not know)
“I want to bring certain health and beauty items, etc. which don’t comply with TSA carryon regs.” You can exceed 100mls with prescriptions and over-the-counter meds, including contact lens liquids. And, of course, don’t take advice from people you don’t know on the website, but checking it out is easy online.
1990 -it pleases me to no end to know that you approve of my postings. All of my past postings were correct – you were wrong to criticize them – it is nice to see that you have come to your senses.
@David R. Miller — I donno, some of your stuff feels more like The Sixth Sense… “They only see what they want to see.”
It is pretty much impossible to only do carry-ons on longer trips. Yes – luggage can be lost but are usually found and can be picked up or delivered to you. We have flown from the U.S. to most part of the world over the last 30 years. Our luggage was missing/delayed twice (the fault of the luggage equipment at Heathrow Airport both times). We learned to cross-pack (putting my clothes and my husband’s clothes in both suitcases in case one gets delayed).
Don’t discount the AirTag as it saved my friend’s bag due to United’s incompetence at ORD. We ended up being delayed for two days due to severe weather in mid-April. My friend had checked her bag and was not able to retrieve it due to the delay so it hung out at ORD. When we returned to the airport for our outbound flight, United staff told us it was being routed to our plane. It turns out that was not the case as it did not appear in Milan, our destination. Luckily, my friend’s husband put an AirTag in her bag and shared the location with me, which indicated it was at ORD between B and C in Terminal 1. United claimed it was with Lufthansa and my friend told them no, it is there. As my friend’s husband was flying out of ORD the next day for work, he went to bag services, showed them the AirTag, and they went and retrieved her bag for him. The bag never made it to Milan, but it had an unexpected trip to London instead. Lesson is – airline may not know where your bag is and that AirTag may solve the mystery.
@Jackie — Depends. Some luxury cruises and safaris literally do your laundry for you.