Brilliant: How a Simple Picture Can Prevent Headaches and Hassles if an Airline Loses Your Bag

Last year, I interviewed Blue Ribbon Bags executive CD Lazear and it was an eye-opening 15 minutes as the service the company provides may at first sound too good to be true. Their $5 luggage service guarantees your checked airline bag will arrive or they’ll pay you $1,000.

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CD Lazear is South African, lives in Israel and bounces around the world to attend travel conferences and for other related business. He told me all about how their service works and gave me some valuable tips on how to prevent an airline from losing your bag.

Obviously, the best way is to travel with carry-on only but he has plenty of other tips including popping an Apple AirTag or Samsung SmartTag for Android into your bag to track it. You can watch my full interview with him below:

Well, CD just posted a tip on his LinkedIn and tagged me and another travel journalist, JT Genter, saying: “this is another example of a simple picture that could save you and the airport staff hassle.”

CD’s travel tip is this: “Take a picture of your suitcase with the printed tag at check in. You may need to remember which tag is on which bag, the brand, colour etc.”

The reason he tagged JT, I believe, is because JT just lost his bag while flying Copa Airlines and he tweeted a few days ago a disturbing photo of bags falling off of the luggage cart. He said: “I knew it was a bad sign when we were taking photos of our Copa plane at ATL and watched as the ground staff scattered bags across the apron. Even worse that the driver didn’t realize it and a CBP officer came out to help retrieve the bags.”

I knew it was a bad sign when we were taking photos of our Copa plane at ATL and watched as the ground staff scattered bags across the apron. Even worse that the driver didn’t realize it and a CBP officer came out to help retrieve the bags. pic.twitter.com/LEkZeIqJEr

— JT Genter (@JTGenter) January 23, 2023

JT followed up with this tweet: This morning, I opened a case with @BlueRibbon_Bags using my annual subscription. BRB seems to have lit a fire under Copa. Our bag was found almost immediately, flown to Cartagena on the next flight, and delivered just a couple hours after arrival!”

He also tweeted shortly after: “If you check bags and haven’t heard of @BlueRibbon_Bags, you should take a look. For such a reasonable fee, you can get a powerful advocate to help you locate and get reunited with your bags. It’s a no-brainer for us to renew our annual subscription ($50).”

CD and JT are absolutely right. A couple of years ago, I wrote this post: 8 Ways To Make Sure An Airline Doesn’t Lose Your Bag … And That You Don’t Get Robbed or Stalked

Two of my eight tips were about just this topic. I wrote: Always take a photo of your bag(s) so you can show the lost and found agent on the other end in case it does get lost and always check that the agent puts the right flight number and three-letter airport code I’m flying to on my baggage tag. I’ve seen them accidentally take the wrong tag from the customer in line next to me. Above is a photo of my suitcase and below is an American Airlines agent showing me that my bag tag and names are correct.

More Baggage Tips: 
–Airline Lost Your Luggage? Do This If You Want to Get Compensated
–How to Save Money With a Secret Third Carry-On
–Airline Executive’s Number One Travel Tip For Avoiding Lost Luggage When You Fly

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