Everyday, thousands of travellers come to a town in Alabama to sift through lost bags filled with everything from wedding dresses to medieval suits of armour.
“We all lose [things] sometimes,” said Kritner, who is also director of the company’s Reclaimed for Good Foundation, which gives about one-third of incoming items to charitable organisations. “Our goal is to do the best with what comes in… some [items] are sold, some are donated to those in need and some are recycled. But they all receive a second life. The question, really, is: ‘What is on the other side of loss?’.” She paused. “Being found.”
Except in this case “we” didn’t lose something, a major corporation lost it for us.
It dawned on me there was more happening here than simple consumerism. There’s an archaeological aspect. A thrill-of-the-hunt search for the bizarre and unexpected.
After boasting that everything [Dian H, an Unclaimed regular for decades] wore or carried was found here – shirt, shoes, trousers, necklace and Peruvian tapestry bag – she pulled another recent purchase out of her bag: a 28cm Art Deco statue forged in France in 1930 and valued at nearly $2,000. She paid $2.99.
When I find something like this, it reminds me why I love coming here: for the passion of owning something so special for a little while. And look at me. I’ve got a Peruvian purse. I have a French sculpture. Why would I need to travel?
That seems like simple consumerism to me. Why travel away from *checks notes* Alabama if I have nice stuff that was sold to me without consent of the previous owner!?
Capitalism breeds innovation, y’all–and that innovation is selling stuff that doesn’t belong to you. What’s next: selling rentors items out from under them during evictions?
So glad this whitewash bullshit article exists to brainwash rubes of atrocities committed in the name of profit.
You do understand that they don’t send bags here because they missed their flight? Airlines do try to send stuff back to their owners whenever possible. Usually it comes in on the next flight, sometimes a day or two later if things got unlucky. But sometimes, when you run over a million flights a year with dozens of checked bags in each, you get a freak accident where you can’t trace the owner.
Meanwhile, the passenger can file a claim per the contract of carriage that they did, in fact, consent to when buying the ticket.
Do you understand that airlines have a relatively low amount of liability for lost luggage and don’t cover at all many items that people commonly travel with?
Do you think the original owner of the Rolexes, statues, or signed memorabilia might actually want to retain ownership of them? Cause an airline isn’t liable for timepieces, art, or unique irreplaceable items. Also airlines don’t necessarily assume ownership of lost items even if the airline is liable for the loss (though contract terms following a successful claim are not available in all contracts of carriage).
TL:DR
Airlines don’t owe you shit for anything but normal clothes and it’s still your stuff even if they lost it.
So… What do you propose should be done when they literally can’t find the owner (or figure out who the owner is), knowing the contents of the bag don’t change that?
I’ll chime in as someone who has had some expensive stuff stolen out of my luggage. And the airlines I handed the bag over to before the theft gave zero fucks.
The airlines should be liable. You have no control over the bag once you give it to them. Why are they allowed to shirk responsibility? Lobbying and capitalism.
Edit: Forgot to add, if you think they are trying hard to reunite these bags with owners you are wrong. That is driven by the customer harassing them. Been there done that. Again, they do not care about your stuff. At all.
If you have something that you can’t afford to part with, you don’t let it leave your person. It goes in your pockets, or in your carry-on.
If you have something that needs to get somewhere safely, and you can’t afford to lose it, and you can’t carry it with you onto an airplane, you don’t put it in your checked luggage - you ship it. With insurance.
Everyone either knows someone, or has had the experience themselves, of losing luggage due to an airline’s neglect. It’s a known risk.
Sure. But see…. they’ve successfully convinced you it’s your fault when your stuff gets stolen while in their possession. Your whole response is completely practical, everyone does know that. It’s still victim blaming.
I’m not here to argue how the airline should or should not be liable to the passenger for things that went missing forever. I have my own thoughts on that, but for now I’m trying to focus on the fact that when (however rarely, for whatever crazy reason) an airline cannot track down the owner of a bag, that bag doesn’t just magically disappear. They have to do something with it. And I haven’t heard what they should do other than “but something was expensive” as if that makes the owner magically appear.
Do you have anything to back that up other than “my bag got lost once”?
I was trying to focus on the fact that sometimes you just can’t find the passenger for a bag, but if we agree to that I’m happy to offer my perspective there as well… If you care.
Sigh. Yes, but I’m not going to write up a peer reviewed thesis with annotations for an online discussion about how airlines are garbage at handling luggage.
Basically if your luggage doesn’t have identification in it and you don’t submit a claim (or the airline screws that part of the process up too, which has happened to me as well) they will not do anything at all for 5 days, then they will put your bag in storage for 2 months waiting to see if you come looking for it, AND if they can find it after that you’ll get it back. According to the US DOT, airlines generally don’t even declare your bag LOST until 5-14 days after your trip. If your trip was domestic it’s almost certainly long over by the time they decide your bag isn’t delayed and it’s actually lost. The onus is now on you to continue to devote time and energy to reclaiming your belongings, while they basically wash their hands of it if they can’t easily match the bag with a phone number.
None of this changes the fact that almost all unclaimed bags are the fault of the airline for not getting the bag to the destination at the same time as the person who owned it. That they are so easily able to dispose of these things (and sometimes even profit from it) after they caused the problem in the first place is pretty gross, to me. But when you have traveled by air as much as I have, you see a lot of gross shit that they pull.
Ideally, I’d see the bags just go straight to charity rather than providing a potential profit to both the airline and a middleman.
Yes, this store does give some to charity, but they are primarily looking to make a profit off other people’s stuff when that isn’t actually necessary to resolve what happens to lost luggage.
The airlines specifically tell you not to check valuables like that. While I agree yes, they should be held liable and try to see out the owners of lost luggage… what happens when they can’t? Trash or thrift resale, you pick. Personally I’m going with the latter.
So photographers/videographers, musicians, artists, tradesmen, etc shouldn’t travel? Or they should only travel with a backpack and a duffel even if their kit takes up more room than that?
As for what is to be done: give it to charity–don’t support a system that provides a profit means for both airlines and an unnecessary middleman.
I don’t know what else to tell you, the airlines tell you specifically not to check those items.
I fly monthly for work and I don’t check anything that isn’t replaceable, so basically just clothes and shoes. There is zero chance I would ever check my camera rig. If I did lose my bag, I can tell the airline exactly where it is from the tracking tag, and they can easily contact me because my contact info is found multiple places on and in the luggage.
This luggage is abandoned. The airline could not find the owner.
Except in this case “we” didn’t lose something, a major corporation lost it for us.
That seems like simple consumerism to me. Why travel away from *checks notes* Alabama if I have nice stuff that was sold to me without consent of the previous owner!?
Capitalism breeds innovation, y’all–and that innovation is selling stuff that doesn’t belong to you. What’s next: selling rentors items out from under them during evictions?
So glad this whitewash bullshit article exists to brainwash rubes of atrocities committed in the name of profit.
So you think these items should just be thrown out if nobody claims them?
I think they should burn it all as fuel for Delta’s agent AI.
You do understand that they don’t send bags here because they missed their flight? Airlines do try to send stuff back to their owners whenever possible. Usually it comes in on the next flight, sometimes a day or two later if things got unlucky. But sometimes, when you run over a million flights a year with dozens of checked bags in each, you get a freak accident where you can’t trace the owner.
Meanwhile, the passenger can file a claim per the contract of carriage that they did, in fact, consent to when buying the ticket.
I do understand this, yes.
Do you understand that airlines have a relatively low amount of liability for lost luggage and don’t cover at all many items that people commonly travel with?
Do you think the original owner of the Rolexes, statues, or signed memorabilia might actually want to retain ownership of them? Cause an airline isn’t liable for timepieces, art, or unique irreplaceable items. Also airlines don’t necessarily assume ownership of lost items even if the airline is liable for the loss (though contract terms following a successful claim are not available in all contracts of carriage).
TL:DR
Airlines don’t owe you shit for anything but normal clothes and it’s still your stuff even if they lost it.
So… What do you propose should be done when they literally can’t find the owner (or figure out who the owner is), knowing the contents of the bag don’t change that?
I’ll chime in as someone who has had some expensive stuff stolen out of my luggage. And the airlines I handed the bag over to before the theft gave zero fucks.
The airlines should be liable. You have no control over the bag once you give it to them. Why are they allowed to shirk responsibility? Lobbying and capitalism.
Edit: Forgot to add, if you think they are trying hard to reunite these bags with owners you are wrong. That is driven by the customer harassing them. Been there done that. Again, they do not care about your stuff. At all.
If you have something that you can’t afford to part with, you don’t let it leave your person. It goes in your pockets, or in your carry-on.
If you have something that needs to get somewhere safely, and you can’t afford to lose it, and you can’t carry it with you onto an airplane, you don’t put it in your checked luggage - you ship it. With insurance.
Everyone either knows someone, or has had the experience themselves, of losing luggage due to an airline’s neglect. It’s a known risk.
Sure. But see…. they’ve successfully convinced you it’s your fault when your stuff gets stolen while in their possession. Your whole response is completely practical, everyone does know that. It’s still victim blaming.
I’m not here to argue how the airline should or should not be liable to the passenger for things that went missing forever. I have my own thoughts on that, but for now I’m trying to focus on the fact that when (however rarely, for whatever crazy reason) an airline cannot track down the owner of a bag, that bag doesn’t just magically disappear. They have to do something with it. And I haven’t heard what they should do other than “but something was expensive” as if that makes the owner magically appear.
That’s fine. My point stands that they don’t try very hard to find people.
Do you have anything to back that up other than “my bag got lost once”?
I was trying to focus on the fact that sometimes you just can’t find the passenger for a bag, but if we agree to that I’m happy to offer my perspective there as well… If you care.
Sigh. Yes, but I’m not going to write up a peer reviewed thesis with annotations for an online discussion about how airlines are garbage at handling luggage.
Basically if your luggage doesn’t have identification in it and you don’t submit a claim (or the airline screws that part of the process up too, which has happened to me as well) they will not do anything at all for 5 days, then they will put your bag in storage for 2 months waiting to see if you come looking for it, AND if they can find it after that you’ll get it back. According to the US DOT, airlines generally don’t even declare your bag LOST until 5-14 days after your trip. If your trip was domestic it’s almost certainly long over by the time they decide your bag isn’t delayed and it’s actually lost. The onus is now on you to continue to devote time and energy to reclaiming your belongings, while they basically wash their hands of it if they can’t easily match the bag with a phone number.
None of this changes the fact that almost all unclaimed bags are the fault of the airline for not getting the bag to the destination at the same time as the person who owned it. That they are so easily able to dispose of these things (and sometimes even profit from it) after they caused the problem in the first place is pretty gross, to me. But when you have traveled by air as much as I have, you see a lot of gross shit that they pull.
Ideally, I’d see the bags just go straight to charity rather than providing a potential profit to both the airline and a middleman.
Yes, this store does give some to charity, but they are primarily looking to make a profit off other people’s stuff when that isn’t actually necessary to resolve what happens to lost luggage.
The airlines specifically tell you not to check valuables like that. While I agree yes, they should be held liable and try to see out the owners of lost luggage… what happens when they can’t? Trash or thrift resale, you pick. Personally I’m going with the latter.
So photographers/videographers, musicians, artists, tradesmen, etc shouldn’t travel? Or they should only travel with a backpack and a duffel even if their kit takes up more room than that?
As for what is to be done: give it to charity–don’t support a system that provides a profit means for both airlines and an unnecessary middleman.
I don’t know what else to tell you, the airlines tell you specifically not to check those items.
I fly monthly for work and I don’t check anything that isn’t replaceable, so basically just clothes and shoes. There is zero chance I would ever check my camera rig. If I did lose my bag, I can tell the airline exactly where it is from the tracking tag, and they can easily contact me because my contact info is found multiple places on and in the luggage.
This luggage is abandoned. The airline could not find the owner.
Yeah, that’s the same vibe I got…
I get that sometimes it’s not possible to return luggage for a number of reasons. But why sell it rather than donating it to charity?