3 ms·

If an airline had to compensate people for the full value of their luggage, no airline could bear the risk of transporting luggage at all.

barrkel 6y ago
Sure they could. They'd get people to buy insurance before the trip and offload the costs and complexity that way.
- nogabebop23 6y ago
  You can buy insurance for everything, so I was surprised something as obvious as this isn't available; a quick search found lots of 3rd party baggae insurance policies. If you want to find out the true cost of lost luggage it's some profit margin less than these premiums.
  - ghaff 6y ago
    Though I suspect there's quite a bit of adverse selection going on there. I know that on the rare occasions I buy travel insurance it's because I have expensive non-refundable reservations of some sort, typically requiring physical activity that I can't do if I sprain my ankle the week before.
jeroenhd 6y ago
They shouldn't have to compensate if they kept better track of luggage. Right now they have no incentive to improve themselves or prevent theft by underpaid, overworked baggage handlers. Every suitcase is labeled with a name and a flight. They know exactly who the baggage belongs to, they just can't be bothered to call people who forgot a suitcase or send people their luggage back. I don't see why we should accept anything other than either return of the baggage or full compensation.
- amadeuspagel 6y ago
  >Right now they have no incentive to improve themselves or prevent theft by underpaid, overworked baggage handlers. >Every suitcase is labeled with a name and a flight. They know exactly who the baggage belongs to, they just can't be bothered to call people who forgot a suitcase or send people their luggage back. They do have an incentive: The $3k compensation. The fact that that's not enough, shows that it's a bit more complex then calling people. >I don't see why we should accept anything other than either return of the baggage or full compensation. Because otherwise accepting luggage would be to risky for airlines, or, as another commenter suggested, they'd have to make people buy insurance.
- catalogia 6y ago
  > Every suitcase is labeled with a name and a flight. They know exactly who the baggage belongs to For whatever it's worth, I once lost my drivers license on an airplane and it was returned to me in the mail a few months later. Of course, returning a drivers license cost them a lot less (nothing) than returning luggage would have. I'm not sure they had an incentive to return it though, beyond basic courtesy. (Evidently if you drop a drivers license in the mail without postage or an envelope, the USPS will send it on to whatever address is listed on it.)
- crazygringo 6y ago
  The incentive is the $3K. It works. And no, not every suitcase is labeled, that's the entire point. Luggage gets lost when those tags get torn off, chewed up, etc. Luggage is handled by both humans and conveyor belts, and all sorts of things can go wrong. And how would you define "full compensation"? If your luggage is lost, you could just lie and say it was carrying a million dollars in cash. How is anybody going to prove what full compensation is? Or, if you were required to declare the value of your luggage when checking in, and you said it was a million dollars, the airline would just say nope, not gonna take it. Too risky for us if we lose it, which we can't guarantee because we employ fallible human beings. Smart people work on this. The current solution really is a pretty good one, for what's practically achievable given the price you pay for your ticket.
  - 6y ago
michaelmrose 6y ago
There is a middle ground where they actually make a small amount of effort and trash the stuff that is unclaimed instead of profiting off it. Then there would be an incentive to be slightly competent as everything that didn't get back to the owners added trivially to your trash bill instead of netting you a profit. In fact if you want to do one better charge a small conveyance fee for the cost of handling it say $10 and the incentives will be ever better aligned with doing a reasonable job.

barrkel 6y ago

Sure they could. They'd get people to buy insurance before the trip and offload the costs and complexity that way.

nogabebop23 6y ago
You can buy insurance for everything, so I was surprised something as obvious as this isn't available; a quick search found lots of 3rd party baggae insurance policies. If you want to find out the true cost of lost luggage it's some profit margin less than these premiums.
- ghaff 6y ago
  Though I suspect there's quite a bit of adverse selection going on there. I know that on the rare occasions I buy travel insurance it's because I have expensive non-refundable reservations of some sort, typically requiring physical activity that I can't do if I sprain my ankle the week before.

jeroenhd 6y ago

They shouldn't have to compensate if they kept better track of luggage. Right now they have no incentive to improve themselves or prevent theft by underpaid, overworked baggage handlers. Every suitcase is labeled with a name and a flight. They know exactly who the baggage belongs to, they just can't be bothered to call people who forgot a suitcase or send people their luggage back. I don't see why we should accept anything other than either return of the baggage or full compensation.

amadeuspagel 6y ago
>Right now they have no incentive to improve themselves or prevent theft by underpaid, overworked baggage handlers. >Every suitcase is labeled with a name and a flight. They know exactly who the baggage belongs to, they just can't be bothered to call people who forgot a suitcase or send people their luggage back. They do have an incentive: The $3k compensation. The fact that that's not enough, shows that it's a bit more complex then calling people. >I don't see why we should accept anything other than either return of the baggage or full compensation. Because otherwise accepting luggage would be to risky for airlines, or, as another commenter suggested, they'd have to make people buy insurance.
catalogia 6y ago
> Every suitcase is labeled with a name and a flight. They know exactly who the baggage belongs to For whatever it's worth, I once lost my drivers license on an airplane and it was returned to me in the mail a few months later. Of course, returning a drivers license cost them a lot less (nothing) than returning luggage would have. I'm not sure they had an incentive to return it though, beyond basic courtesy. (Evidently if you drop a drivers license in the mail without postage or an envelope, the USPS will send it on to whatever address is listed on it.)
crazygringo 6y ago
The incentive is the $3K. It works. And no, not every suitcase is labeled, that's the entire point. Luggage gets lost when those tags get torn off, chewed up, etc. Luggage is handled by both humans and conveyor belts, and all sorts of things can go wrong. And how would you define "full compensation"? If your luggage is lost, you could just lie and say it was carrying a million dollars in cash. How is anybody going to prove what full compensation is? Or, if you were required to declare the value of your luggage when checking in, and you said it was a million dollars, the airline would just say nope, not gonna take it. Too risky for us if we lose it, which we can't guarantee because we employ fallible human beings. Smart people work on this. The current solution really is a pretty good one, for what's practically achievable given the price you pay for your ticket.
- 6y ago

michaelmrose 6y ago

There is a middle ground where they actually make a small amount of effort and trash the stuff that is unclaimed instead of profiting off it. Then there would be an incentive to be slightly competent as everything that didn't get back to the owners added trivially to your trash bill instead of netting you a profit. In fact if you want to do one better charge a small conveyance fee for the cost of handling it say $10 and the incentives will be ever better aligned with doing a reasonable job.