Hi
Here’s a little input from the other side of the fence. I spent 7 months working as a baggage handler for Ryanair in Dublin a few years ago living on my boat on the Liffey on the pontoons just upriver from the opening bridge. I’d say that the majority of damaged, delayed or lost baggage is the passenger’s own fault.
So, here are some tips to help you ensure that your luggage arrives at your destination at the same time as you do, and in one piece:
1: Never check in a bag with an old tag from a previous flight on it.
We saw this a lot. Of course, the girls at checkin should have spotted it and removed the tag, but often they didn’t. I always did if I spotted an old tag. Ryanair have the same flight numbers out of DUB every day. Tags can and will get ripped off as bags rub against each other on the belt. So if there are two tags on the bag and the new one gets ripped off, the bag is left with the old tag which may be from the flight before or after the one you’re now on, only it was a week ago. So, the bag ends up on the wrong flight.
That flight gets delayed because the bag count is wrong. There’s one bag too many. Might be a bomb or a bagful of cocaine or whatever. So the aircraft stays on the ground until the extra bag is found. It’s not too difficult to identify because while the flight number may be right, the serial number is wrong. Your bag will probably be on the next flight to your destination. If the bag count still doesn’t add up after the bags are recounted and checked, all the passengers have to come out and identify their bags. If a passenger doesn’t identify it, it doesn’t go back on the aircraft. Meanwhile your flight went out on time because nobody’s going to hold a flight back because of a missing bag.
2: Always put a piece of paper with all your details including name, address at home and at destination, flight number, date etc. in each bag right on top of everything else. (Carry ons too just in case they insist you check it in.)
As already mentioned, tags sometimes get ripped off. If we got a bag with no tag, we would call the girls from lost and found and one of them would open the bag (with witnesses) to search for evidence of the identity of the passenger. If some identification was found, the bag would often make the flight with a new tag on it. If there was no identification, there was nothing we could do until the passenger reported the luggage missing.
3: Always tie your zippers together in the closed position (string is fine, the little padlocks tend to break) and never put anything in outside pockets with zippers or velcro flaps.
Zippers often open accidentally when bags rub against each other on the belt. Velcro flaps are almost guaranteed to open when the bags rub against each other or roll down the belt. I’ve seen all sorts of stuff come down the belt including cameras (What kind of idiot packs a fragile item like a camera in an outside pocket?), MP3 players and even wallets and once a passport (!) (Not sure how the passenger got on the flight without that.) There is usually no way to identify which bag it came from. There was a steady trickle of coins. One of my co workers got all his lunch money from the floor under a 90 degree bend in the belt.
If I saw an open zipper or velcro flap I would always close it, but of course something might already have been lost. The passenger would almost certainly assume it was stolen, but even if I was criminally inclined I would not steal in a location with closed circuit cameras all over the place and 4-5 co-workers around.
4: Pack everything in plastic bags inside your luggage.
The bags will be taken out to the stand some time before the baggage handlers start loading up the aircraft. If it rains they get wet. So you arrive in Paris which is much colder than where you left from and all your clothes are wet and your camera, phone and mp3 player are drowned.
5: Pack anything fragile inside multiple layers of clothing or towels.
The conveyor belts can be quite rough with bags. Sometimes I’ve seen bags on castors come down the belt at around Mach 3 and slam into the bag that was just coming up to the wall before the last 90 degree bend. (The bend is there to protect workers from speeding bags.) It also happens quite often that bags fall off the trolleys on the way out to the aircraft. Often the least experienced staff is loading the trolleys and those who drive them out sometimes have to cope with bumps in the road etc. The road is of course the responsibility of the airport, not the airline.
This is one of the few cases where a lost or delayed bag is the airline’s fault. (Or the company that handles the baggage for the airline.) The driver wasn’t keeping half an eye astern and never spotted the dropped bag. In most cases it would be spotted by another driver who would check his lists to see where that aircraft was parked and drop the bag off. However, we were expressly forbidden from touching another airline’s bags except for moving them to the side of the road. I would always place them so the tag could be clearly seen from any passing vehicle.
6: Employ some common sense!
Don’t check in extremely fragile stuff like unprotected TV sets or guitars with no case (I’ve seen it!). Don’t check in buckets of paint! I don’t know why the staff at the other end had allowed it, but I once had an aircraft come in with a bucket of yellow paint in the hold. The low pressure at altitude had caused the bucket to open and half the bags on the flight were yellow. The hold was a mess too. Why does anyone bring a bucket of paint to Dublin?
7: If you check in a fragile item make sure the staff know.
It will be handled apart from the other baggage. In many cases it will be carried in the cab of the vehicle and it will be loaded onto the aircraft last.
Well, that’s all I can think of for now.
OK, I’m not saying that there aren’t some real idiots working as baggage handlers and even some criminals, but what I said at the beginning stands. In most cases things get damaged or lost because the passenger wasn’t taking basic precautions. If I was flying with a harp, I would make sure it had a good strong box, take then tension off the strings and make sure to let the checkin staff know that it was VERY fragile and VERY valuable. If it really is valuable, I’d insure it too.
If you’re still worried, consider going by sailboat instead. Much more pleasant and you can play your harp while you’re sailing. 
Regards,
Owen Morgan
Yacht Magic
Anchored in the lagoon, St Maarten
My new blog.
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