Tip - photograph your suitcases

edda

As many people take a camera when flying, I think it's worth taking a pic of your cases before check-in at airports if you have a digital camera.

If the airline then misplaces any luggage (mentioning no names here!), you then have a photo of what they look like. Having had a case temporarily gone missing once, they asked me to describe what it looked like. And a picture is worth a thousand words!

Although, I hope you won't need to use the photos you take.

jembie

This is a bit off topic but maybe my sister should have done this.

Last week she went on her present giving visit to Coventry. She managed to get a straight through train but when she reached Cov and went to get her suitcase, it was gone!
She got a guard to help her look and they searched the whole train but it had disappeared completely.
She involved the Police and they took a report but to no avail.
So either someone took it by accident thinking it was their case full of clothes and they got a case full of presents instead or someone actually stole the thing and had a real ball discovering what theyhad taken.

moonrakerz

In the same vein - take a few shots of your hire car, assuming that you haven't damaged it !

xxMandyxx

edda wrote:

As many people take a camera when flying, I think it's worth taking a pic of your cases before check-in at airports if you have a digital camera..

thats a real good idea :T

IvanOpinion

I hate it when they lose my luggage when I am going on holiday and love it when they lose it on the way back (because they will deliver it to my house).

Good tip .. we go on holiday soon and I am guessing DW will as usual pack the entire contents of our house and expect me to carry them half way around the world.

Ivan

Nile

jembie wrote:

This is a bit off topic but maybe my sister should have done this.

Last week she went on her present giving visit to Coventry. She managed to get a straight through train but when she reached Cov and went to get her suitcase, it was gone!
She got a guard to help her look and they searched the whole train but it had disappeared completely.
She involved the Police and they took a report but to no avail.
So either someone took it by accident thinking it was their case full of clothes and they got a case full of presents instead or someone actually stole the thing and had a real ball discovering what theyhad taken.

Hello jembie

I'm sorry that your sister lost her suitcase and presents. A similar thing happened to me years ago but fortunately mine had a happier ending.

When I reported the case missing, I was informed that I would probably never see it again. Apparently it's a well known scam. You've settled into your seat and just before the train departs, a thief will take your suitcase from the storage racks and disappear down the platform with it.

One of my suitcases was taken off a train but thankfully it was returned to me some days later. Someone must have taken my case by mistake and they returned it to the station lost property.

Ever since that day, I never put my case(s) where I can't see it all times. I always try to place the case(s) in the space between seats, rather than the luggage rack at the end of the carriage.;)

I hope my story prevents anyone else losing their property.

Regards

Nile

ginger_nuts

jembie wrote:

This is a bit off topic but maybe my sister should have done this.

Last week she went on her present giving visit to Coventry. She managed to get a straight through train but when she reached Cov and went to get her suitcase, it was gone!
She got a guard to help her look and they searched the whole train but it had disappeared completely.
She involved the Police and they took a report but to no avail.
So either someone took it by accident thinking it was their case full of clothes and they got a case full of presents instead or someone actually stole the thing and had a real ball discovering what theyhad taken.

your house insurance may cover this sort off thing

lisyloo

If we can't have suitcases close to us then we take a steel cable a lock it to the bars of the luggage rack.

your house insurance may cover this sort off thing

They might.
They might also say she left it unattended.
Insurance will not always pay out if you leave items unattended.

What are you supposed to do?

I would suggest getting a think metal cable with a lock and locking it to the rack. Available for all bicycle shops.
Make sure you get to your cases though a few minutes before the train stops so that you have time to unlock it.
Of course I'm sure somebody with the right equipment can cut through these but firstly they are less likely to attempt it as they might be spotted using bul cutters and secondly your insurance won't say you were negligent.

If you leave it unattended it's deal easy for someone to pick it up and no-one to suspect a thing.

Bokken_2

moonrakerz wrote:

In the same vein - take a few shots of your hire car, assuming that you haven't damaged it !

Slightly differnt vein,
we have copies of all holiday documents and phone numbers and potocopies of passports,copies of travel cheques numbers,holiday insurance details in each case in the event only one case turns up.I back the phone numbers up onto our phones.We also put a change of the other person clothes in your case again just in case two cases are lost at least we all have a change of clothes in one case .

eamonn321

I've scanned copies of our passports and sent them to my own Yahoo email address so that if they are lost on holiday we can get copies by going online.

catz747

I should take pictures of our luggage - in one piece on arrival at airport and then on return at Manchester airport - then I can ask them why they keep causing rips and damage to the cases - every time :rolleyes: