How Secure is your luggage?

A customer of mine had an issue this week with some luggage not turning up on his flight. It had been left behind by the airline and was going to be flown on to him in a day or two.

This blog is not however about lost luggage but something far more disturbing in my opinion.

I was discussing this with a colleague and recalling luggage issues we had both had previously.  My colleague said she had once been waiting for her suitcase at the carousel and waiting and waiting until there was just one bag left circling. The bag was identical to her bag but did not have her tags etc… The awful reality of the situation began to dawn when she realised the owner of this bag must have picked up her bag by mistake.

I joked and said that nearly happened to me. I saw my bag coming out of the curtain and was stood at the far side of the carousel. As I watched a man stepped forward grabbed my bag and pulled it off, putting it on his trolley. I left my family stood at the other side and dashed round. I knew it was my bag as I had very distinctive tags to identify it.

I approached the man and said I thought he had my suitcase. It was a genuine mistake as it was the same as his suitcase but not only had he not seen the bright tags, he had not bothered checking to ensure it was his.

If I had not noticed him take the bag he would have collected the rest of his luggage and left the airport oblivious of the fact that the case was not his.

In this instance as I said it was a genuine mistake but with all the added security in place in airports this could take on a more sinister twist if taken advantage of by the wrong people.

So it begs the question if bags are dropped very securely at the check-in desk, questions are asked about the bag not being left unattended and you having packed it and not carrying anything for anyone else. Then it is tagged and securely processed onto the plane, or not in my customer’s case.

Why at the other end is it just thrown onto a carousel where anyone could pick it up and leave with it or worse take it off the carousel put something in it and return to the carousel.

Surely a better and more secure system would be for everyone to have a luggage ticket of some sort and have to show this to collect their bags.

I know this may be time consuming but surely the security for customers is just as important.

I am quite sure that someone would come up with a faster way of doing this than I have just mentioned although to be honest it is more or less what we do at check-in so why not at check-out but really it needs some serious consideration.

What do you think?