It’s a traveller’s worst nightmare: you’re standing at the luggage carousel, weary and impatient, waiting to be reunited with the bag that contains personal belongings vital to your trip.
As time passes your irritation slowly mounts, finally becoming full-blown outrage when it becomes apparent that your luggage has been “mismanaged”.
The wrath that follows in such a scenario tends to be considerable – even by airport rage standards – and this is for two reasons: inconvenience and entitlement. Firstly, clearly the trip will not now be as smooth as you had hoped; and secondly, there is a sense of injustice, that your right to expect your property to arrive in one piece has been violated.
The truth is, however, that none of us really have any rights at all. When you get on a plane and check in your luggage, you do so at your own risk. In particular, if your journey involves a range of airlines, airports and countries, this leaves you – and the destiny of your luggage – at the mercy of variations and quirks in industry and national policies.
“If your bag is delayed, the minimum airlines will do is give you an amenity kit,” explains Nick Gates, Baggage Portfolio Director, SITA. “Above and beyond that it is really down to the airline. If you’re a premium passenger they may offer you more, but there’s no hard and fast rule. There is no legal outline. It’s really down to the terms and conditions of the ticket… what you pay for is what you get.”
A review of major Asian airlines’ online Conditions of Carriage, including Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines and Singapore Airlines, reveals that there are indeed no guarantees regarding the safe delivery of your luggage, but rather a host of loopholes that protect the carrier in such instances. When asked whether there are any minimum international industry guidelines on this matter, Albert Tjoeng, manager of corporate communications at IATA replied that in terms of compensation and assistance, “that is very much a commercial decision by airlines”, adding that “on the responsibility of airports, it depends on the services that the airport provides”. The only concrete laws that apply in this area are the Warsaw and Montreal Conventions, which outline the upper limits of liability, ie the maximum amount for which airlines can be sued.
This is bad news for travellers who have lost their luggage, temper and, on occasion, their mind. However, there are certain things you can do to minimise the chances of luggage mishandling, beyond purchasing the best insurance and ticket that you can afford. Improvements in luggage management systems and technology also indicate a brighter future for baggage-carrying travellers.
Pick an airline ally
Unofficially, everybody has their own subjective opinion about which airlines are lousy with luggage. Officially, statistics reveal better rates of luggage handling among low-cost carriers (LCCs) compared to full-service carriers. This is not necessarily due to a higher quality of staff or system, but more because they often fly point-to-point, and do not have the ability to through-check or transfer baggage, Gates explains.
This is significant since transfer bags account for 53 per cent of all delayed luggage, according to the SITA Baggage Report 2012. “Every time there is a change of responsibility between a machine and a human, human to human, or a human to an aircraft, that’s where things will go wrong,” says Gates.
Unless you want to go through the time-consuming and inconvenient process of collecting your luggage and checking in for your connecting flight, which can take hours and leave you vulnerable to missing your next flight, through-checking is your best option. For extra safety, doing so with flights within the same airline, carriers that have interline agreements or that are members of the same alliance is your best bet.
Star Alliance, for example, is in the advantageous position of being able to coordinate procedures between its 27 member carriers to produce the best possible bag transfer environment. Among these are a standardised tagging and code system, increased communication and cooperation between carriers, and Star Alliance Connection centres at all major hub airports. The alliance is also in the process of attempting to move all member airlines into the same terminal in major hub airports to facilitate bag transfer, according to Gates.
Cathay Pacific’s General Conditions of Carriage also further highlight the importance of through-checking, stating that the carrier does not through-check any baggage for carriers they do not have an interline agreement with. This leaves you responsible for clearing your baggage, having it checked in and re-tagged for the next flight, and “In such circumstances we are not liable for any loss, damage or delay to your journey or baggage”, the carrier emphasises.
Airport matters
Varying levels of infrastructure among airports also affect chances of safe baggage transportation. Newly built airports and terminals are easier to work with, according to Markus Ruediger, director of media relations at Star Alliance Services GmbH, as they have already been designed to handle large-scale baggage transfer, while older airports often present problems due to more primitive infrastructure.
Gates also points to regional discrepancies in luggage handling. “We tend to find that in general the mishandling rate is lower in Asia-Pacific, since there are better airport facilities, cheaper labour costs and a better customer service ethos.”
The results of SITA’s baggage report also illustrate this, highlighting 2010’s disruption of aviation in Europe due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland and labour disputes, when baggage mishandling rates rose significantly across that region.n Improvement in baggage mismanagement rates in Asia, meanwhile, appeared relatively unaffected by the 2011 Japan earthquake and flooding in Thailand.
Technological advantages at newer Asian airports range from the Radio Frequency Identification Devices (RFID) which Hong Kong International Airport has in place, to the destination coded vehicles system being installed at Kunming Airport in China, which is capable of speeds of 10m/s, and 2,840 bags an hour.
Installing such technological updates in older hub airports can be difficult, particularly in what is a financially challenging time for the aviation industry. But it is happening. Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, for example, features an underground network of baggage transportation tunnels that transfers bags at 30km/hr and keeps them moving continuously from one point to another. “This is less prone to issues of mishandling than the old system of throwing bags into the back of a truck and driving bags between terminals,” Gates comments.
A technological helping hand
The good news is that technological improvements are ensuring that instances of bag loss or delay are becoming fewer and further between. According to SITA’s report, total mishandled bags have decreased 45.1 per cent in the past five years, and a record 99 per cent of luggage was successfully delivered in 2011.
These improvements look set to continue, as 54 per cent of airlines and 49 per cent of airports are confident of increased IT budgets in 2012. “The big push, particularly over the past year, has been self-tagging of luggage with implementations by a number of airlines and airports in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Europe,” says Gates.
With increased use of smartphones, bag tracking systems, RFID and sophisticated mechanical transfer technology, it seems the age of tearing one’s hair out at the baggage carousel may finally be passing us by.
Luggage tips
• Place labels with your phone number and email both on and in your suitcase
• Describe your bag and its contents in as much detail as you can to the appropriate desk, which you should report lost or delayed baggage to immediately
• Do not travel on separate tickets, and wherever possible through-check your bag. If possible, connect using airlines that are within an alliance
• Buy insurance
• Don’t pack anything that might be considered suspicious
• Don’t lose your bar code; usually they stick this onto the back of your passport or boarding pass
• Pack an extra change of clothes in your hand-carry if you are travelling to a “high-risk” airport
• Never place valuables or medicine into your checked luggage
Alex Andersson
