Baggage Blues? Here’s How to Handle Lost Bags Like a Pro 🧳

In terms of “worst nightmares” for travelers, losing your bag isn’t the absolute “worst,” but it’s close.

            Maybe you know the feeling. You’ve arrived at your destination, anticipating the fun that is to come on the ship or at the resort, the sights that you’ll see. You might be in a country you’ve never visited before, and that in itself could be a source of unease. Or maybe you’ve just arrived home, and you’re tired and looking forward to your own bed just a few hours from now. You find the proper baggage carousel at the airport, and you wait. Eventually, the belt starts moving, bags tumble down from the chute or come out from the wall. It was a full flight, so it might take a while for yours to appear…but they never do.

            Time to panic, right?

            Not quite, says Zach Wichter, travel writer for USA Today. In a recent column, Wichter talked about that dreaded feeling of realizing that your bag isn’t where it should be, on the carousel waiting for you to scoop it up. Your bag has been lost, or maybe just delayed. (There’s an important difference.) Wichter advises staying calm and taking action.

·         Don’t panic. Not seeing your bag is frustrating and maybe a little scary, especially if you kept valuables inside. (You shouldn’t, of course; that’s what carry-ons are for.) Don’t yell at any airline employees. None of the people you are about to interact with are directly at fault, so be polite.

·         Notify the airline. Every airport has a baggage-claim desk for this very purpose. They’ll advise you on what to do next. It might be possible for them to locate your bag right away. It might have been routed to the wrong carousel and be patiently cruising along the belt just a few yards away. Or, it might’ve been inadvertently left back at your departure airport, in which case it can be put on the next flight to where you are now.

·         Make sure your flight’s bags have been completely off-loaded and sent to the proper carousel. You’ll look more than a little foolish if the airline tells you that the bags from the plane are still being loaded onto the proper carousel, or that you were at the wrong one to begin with.

·         Start the claims process. If you’re sure that your bag didn’t make it, you’ll need to file a report. Make sure you keep all your paperwork with you. Have everything handy as the baggage claim person takes your information. The more info you can provide, the better.

·         Keep your receipts. The Department of Transportation requires airlines to reimburse passengers for “reasonable, verifiable and actual incidental expenses” that you incur as a result of an airline losing your bag. Typically, these are essentials like toiletries and basic clothing. This doesn’t mean you can go to the luxury shops in the airport and buy the latest designer outfit, but when the time comes to get reimbursed, you’ll need proper receipts for your purchases.

·         Make sure your baggage fees are refunded. If you spent extra money on your bags for this flight, that has to be paid back to you.

·         Stay in touch with the airline. You’ll receive updates from the airline as they search for your bag, and they’ll tell you what you’ll need for expense reimbursement once your bags are found and returned to you. Each airline has its own process for this, and while they’re similar to each other, they do vary somewhat by airline, so make sure you know what yours is.

·         Use technology to help. Many U.S. airlines now have “Apple Find My” capabilities integrated into their apps, allowing passengers to link AirTags with their reservations to help keep track of their bags. Delta, which serves most of our clients out of MSP, is one of them.

·         Reach out to your insurance company. Once your bags have been returned or officially declared lost, get in touch with your insurance company. Your belongings, if lost or damaged, could be covered by your policy. Travel insurance might also provide coverage. Most companies will only cover expenses over and above what the airline covers, so file all your expenses with the airline first.

Remember, there’s a difference between bags that are “lost” and those that are only “delayed.” The DOT and international regulations draw a clear line between the two. According to the DOT, airlines are allowed to set their own policies on when a bag can be considered lost, typically 5-14 days after the flight.

Once a bag is officially declared lost, airlines are required to reimburse passengers up to $4,700 for domestic flights and up to about $1,700 for international flights. The amount will depend on the value of the items lost, though carriers can reimburse at higher amounts.

It’s also possible that your bags were taken from the carousel by someone else who mistook them for their own bags. This happened to me and my husband once. The people who took the wrong bags reached out to the other party once they got home, opened the bags and said, “What’s all this stuff?” Now, I’m not going to say which of the parties we happened to be, but it had a happy ending!

Ready to get your own bags in the air? Give us a call!

 

 Travel to Italy, Explore Sambuca’s €1 Homes, and Find Your Retirement Dream!

My husband and I were recently watching a Hallmark movie—yes, he indulges me occasionally—in which an American woman, visiting the Italian town where her parents met and married, decides to buy the abandoned villa the newlyweds had briefly lived in. The price: one euro.

            It just so happens that there’s a ruggedly handsome handyman who lives nearby, and who also happens to be an American (his grandmother runs the coffee shop in town), and he helps the overwhelmed new home buyer renovate the property. Romance, of course, ensues, and everybody lives happily ever after. (Except for the woman’s former fiancé, who shows up unannounced to reclaim his bride-to-be and is rebuffed, with the handyman lurking in the background.)

            This is a fictional story, but can the buy-a-home-for-a-euro thing possibly be true? One euro is worth $1.17US. The answer: yes.

            CNN Travel first reported the trend back in 2019. The small town of Sambuca, located on a hilltop on the island of Sicily, had put dozens of dwellings on the market for just one euro apiece. The idea was to lure Italians and foreign expats to the village in order to help reverse a depopulation trend, which was seeing young Italians leaving their small hometowns and moving to big cities. The city fathers of Sambuca were scrapping red tape to make sure anyone interested could make their purchase right away.

            There was a catch, of course: the new owners had to commit to refurbishing their new digs within three years, at a cost starting from about $17,000. They also had to pay a security deposit of 5,000 euros, which would be refunded when the work was done. The dwellings ranged from about 400 square feet up to 1,600, so they were on the small side, compared to typical American homes.

            Sambuca focused its marketing efforts on non-Italians, and it worked. Over a dozen homes were sold within a few weeks of the deal hitting the internet. New residents were drawn by the region’s natural beauty and Moorish culture. Soon, the one-euro-home trend spread throughout Italy. Sambuca, though, is still a hot spot, known as “Italy’s Little America.”

            Many Americans are choosing Italy as a retirement destination, even if the homes they buy aren’t that cheap. Tony and Francine Smarrelli, from Syracuse, N.Y., were visiting Venice for their 50^th wedding anniversary two summers ago when they decided to leave the States and move to a coastal town in the Calabria district of southern Italy. The retired elementary school teachers are both of Italian descent. They bought a 1,500-square-foot property in the village of Scalea for about $162,000 and wound up plowing half again as much into renovating the three-bedroom home. They lived in a nearby apartment during the four-month project. They say they enjoy the quality of life, views of the Mediterranean and slow-paced vibe, not to mention great restaurants. And, it’s cheaper; the Smarrellis have reduced their monthly expenses by about $3,000, to about $1,200 per month. Back in the U.S., their monthly mortgage alone was $1,500.

            What was the toughest thing about moving to Italy? Tony says it was giving up golf. He and Francine had moved from Syracuse to Pinehurst, N.C., in 2006 for the warmer weather, and Tony won the local country club’s senior championship 11 times. But in Scalea, he’s found other activities, such as painting and mosaic wall art. He and Francine start every morning with coffee on their balcony and enjoy evenings there with a glass of wine.

            Sounds tempting, doesn’t it? If you’re contemplating retirement abroad, it pays to check it out thoroughly first. That’s where we come in. Give us a call! 

Sue Tindell

✈️ Travel Confidently: Summer 2025 Tips & Insights with Travel Designers

  Depending on how you want to look at it, the summer of 2025 is already one-third gone. That’s if you think summer started on Memorial Day weekend. Or, if you go with the summer solstice viewpoint, it’s barely begun.

            Either way, people are traveling this summer, with weekend getaways, long road trips or flights around the country and abroad. A survey by Bankrate found that 46% of Americans plan to go somewhere this summer, an increase of only 1% from last year, signaling a possible slowdown in travel after the post-pandemic boom. Popular overseas destinations include Europe (the UK, Spain, France, Germany and Greece top the list), Mexico, and Canada. As always, we tell our clients to make sure they have a Real ID, required now for domestic air travel, and if going abroad, renew their passports if they’re less than 6 months away from expiration.

            It seems that Americans who plan to travel this summer are worried. USA Today travel writer Christopher Elliott noted recently that they’re worried about a lot of things. A survey by Aon Affinity Travel Practice found more than a quarter of travelers (28%) are concerned about illness preventing a trip, and almost as many (26%) are worried about cancellations or delays due to bad weather or a natural disaster. Nineteen percent say they’re fearful of global conflicts. Half of respondents have purchased travel insurance to protect their trips.

            It’s not unreasonable to be concerned about problems impacting your travel plans. AXA Partners found that 7 in 10 Americans experienced travel mishaps in the past year. Some of these undoubtedly were caused by the travelers themselves, through unavoidable situations like sudden medical problems or simply poor planning. Others were out of their control, like bad weather, flight cancellations or delays, or issues at their destination.

            It’s possible to worry too much, though. Elliott cites the case of a woman from Spokane, Washington, who months ago had booked a cruise on the Danube for this summer. She grew concerned that water levels on the European river might be too low to accommodate the cruise ship. When river levels are low, cruise lines sometimes substitute bus tours for that part of the itinerary impacted by low water. I just checked, and the Danube is currently experiencing fluctuations in its water levels, showing lower than normal levels due to a dry spring and warm temperatures. Particularly impacted are the upper regions of the river near Passau, Germany, where most upriver cruises disembark, and along the Hungarian section; our cruise back in 2012 departed from Budapest. We also went in October, when river levels are more stable and robust, rather than in summertime.

            The Spokane woman dealt with her anxieties by booking everything herself through her credit card, which offered cancellation insurance, and she also made sure her US-based health insurance would cover her in Europe. Just to be on the super-safe side, she purchased a medical evacuation policy through Medjet. (Undoubtedly, this was a lot of work for her. We do that work on behalf of our clients, saving them the trouble and making sure all their bases are covered.)

            Elliott advises his readers to do exactly what we tell our clients:

• Book tickets that offer flexible change policies, along with travel insurance that covers long delays and cancellations.
• Work with your travel advisor (that’s us) to avoid the most disaster-prone areas, like the Caribbean during hurricane season.
• Many US travelers are concerned about the political climate they’ll encounter overseas. Some who spoke with Elliott said they’ll pretend to be Canadians, just to avoid any issues. We always advise our clients to just be themselves, be polite and respectful of local customs, and express an interest in learning about the culture of the places they’re visiting.
• Health concerns can certainly be valid, but if your doctor clears you to travel, there’s no reason not to. Just take sensible precautions and make sure you have medical insurance that will cover you outside the country.

Elliott says that what travelers should really worry about is lack of preparation. Buying non-refundable tickets, ignoring insurance, or booking online through a third-party site without checking their policies are common mistakes. One of his strongest recommendations: “Book through a reliable agent.”

That sounds like pretty good advice to us. Give us a call, and we’ll help you get where you’re going, as worry-free as possible!

  Sue Tindell