What happens to all the lost luggage that nobody claims?

Have you ever wondered what happens to your bag when the airline loses it?

Lesson summary

Hi there everyone, I’m Jeff and this is Plain English, where we help you upgrade your English with current events and trending topics. And sometimes, instead of a current event, I just pick something that interests me. And that’s what we’re doing today.

I got to wondering. When an airline loses a suitcase, and despite its best efforts, it can’t match the suitcase with its owner, then what happens to the bag? What happens to all the stuff in it? And so today’s story here at Plain English is the answer to that question.

In the second half of the audio lesson, I’ll show you what it means to track something down (or track someone down).

This is lesson number 685, so that means JR, the producer, has uploaded the transcripts, exercises, and full lesson resources to PlainEnglish.com/685.

What happens to the world’s lost suitcases?

Last year, about nine billion passengers flew in a commercial airplane. Almost all of those passengers would have carried some kind of luggage—either carry-on bags or checked bags.

Over ninety-nine percent of those passengers walked out of their destination airport with their bags. But some of them—and this has happened to a lot of us, at some point—some of those passengers did not get their bags at their destination.

Airlines today are very good at delivering luggage. The airline industry says that 99.5 percent of checked bags do not get lost. That leaves only half a percent of bags that don’t make it to their destination as scheduled—and, around the world, that adds up . It’s about 25 million bags.

The vast majority of those get reunited with passengers within a couple of days, often within 24 hours. Airlines are good at tracking down lost bags: all bags have a tag and a barcode, and often, passengers can track their lost bags on their phones. In a minority of cases, airlines have to track down lost bags in far-flung cities.

Still, not every single one of those 25 million lost bags is reunited with its owner—worldwide, about eight out of every one thousand lost bags never makes it back to its rightful owner. These bags are just totally lost. So what happens next?

National regulations and international treaties say that airlines must compensate passengers for lost bags: that simply means, the airlines have to pay passengers. But that still doesn’t answer the question of what happens to the bags.

All those bags are somewhere in the system—usually unclaimed at an airport. Airlines store them in warehouses. They attempt to find the owner. They hold the bags for a while, in case the owner shows up to claim them. But after three months, the airlines give up on finding the rightful owners. This is where it gets interesting.

In most developed countries, the airlines are required to hold onto bags for three months. After that, they sell, auction, or donate lost bags. They don’t hold onto them forever.

There are two approaches to auctioning lost property: one is to sell the bags full of stuff, and the other is to open the bags and sell the property in categories.

In the United States, the airlines are responsible for disposing of lost bags. And the airlines have exclusive contracts with a single store to buy the lost luggage.

The store is called “Unclaimed Baggage” and it’s located in a small town in the state of Alabama. They have about a 5,000 square-meter showroom, which is like a department store full of abandoned property. There’s a section for clothes, a section for accessories, a section for electronics, watches, and much more.

Unclaimed Baggage buys suitcases, usually paying a flat fee per case or per kilogram. Company employees open the bags and sort the items. Everything inside falls into one of three categories: sell, donate, or recycle or throw away.

If it’s clothing, the company washes the items itself: it has the largest commercial laundry facility in the state of Alabama. The clothes then go onto the showroom floor. Electronics are wiped of all personal information before they’re sold. Jewelry is cleaned. Most other saleable items go right onto the shelves.

Any items that are not family-friendly (you can use your imagination)—these are removed and not put up for sale.

The “Unclaimed Baggage” store is one of the top tourist destinations in the state of Alabama: it attracts over a million people per year.

The U.S., though, is unusual in this respect. In most countries, airlines or airports host public auctions, where anyone can go and bid.

Bags abandoned in the U.K. or in Canada go to auction houses. In the U.K., some auction houses sell suitcases full. Others sort the items and sell the suitcases separately from the contents. At the auction in Canada, bidders buy pallets full of abandoned, unopened suitcases—shipping not included.

Sydney’s airport auctions individual items, so buyers at least know what they’re getting. The 2023 auction included the usual—laptops, cameras, sunglasses. But it also included a violin, an air fryer, and a 50th anniversary edition of the Beatles’ Abbey Road album on vinyl.

Iberia, Spain’s national airline, hosts an annual auction of lost, full suitcases. Once a year, in Chile, there’s an auction of full, abandoned suitcases—buyers bid on lots of about ten suitcases each. They’re all laid out in a large warehouse for bidders’ inspection.

In Germany, the airports host live auctions of lost luggage. They publish the dates on their websites and bidders are welcome to come and place a bid on suitcases. Many individuals go and buy single suitcases, full of unknown stuff.

Bidding on a full suitcase is a gamble. Some are full of dirty clothes. Some are full of clean clothes. A lot have a mixture of clothing and accessories—e-readers, neck pillows, watches, rings, glasses, things like that. Often, the most valuable item in a suitcase is…the suitcase itself . But sometimes travelers pack valuable or interesting items from their travels: souvenirs, liquor, and antiques are sometimes found in lost luggage.

Who buys this stuff? Most of the buyers are resellers. They have online businesses that resell items on eBay, or they have local resale stores. They take a gamble, paying a small amount for a lot of bags, and they hope to make up the cost. There was even a show on the Travel Channel called “Baggage Battles” about these auction house regulars.

Jeff’s take

“Baggage Battles” lasted five seasons from 2012 to 2017.

I don’t think I would want to buy a suitcase sight unseen. I mean, what if someone had come back from a beach vacation and hadn’t washed their clothes? Three months later, you open the suitcase up…no thank you.

You get a deep discount if you buy a full suitcase, I will say that. But I rather like the thrift-store approach: someone opens the suitcases, sorts out what can be sold, washes the clothes, and then you can shop like at a normal store. Less thrill, but at least more certainty. The store in Alabama says most items are between 20 and 80 percent off their new retail price.