Do you keep your airline baggage tags on your bags?

[flyingfan]

No, too paranoid that my bags will end up AWOL. Take off all tags and stickers on arrival

My thoughts exactly. All printed out ribbons and stickers come off after reaching the destination. I extend to making sure my travelling companions remove theirs too - I have no desire to wait while they fill in a missing bag claim!

 

[Boris spatsky]

It's happened to me a few times. Might have been Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, various countries in Africa or even (as Hvr says), Japan domestic...

Anyway - to avoid any issues, I always wait until I'm out of the terminal before removing luggage tags.

Have been through majority of those places (admittedly a few years ago now) and never been checked. It concerns me as i always remove my tags at the carousel!

 

[Austman]

Have been through majority of those places (admittedly a few years ago now) and never been checked. It concerns me as i always remove my tags at the carousel!

As with lots of things in the FF world, YMMV!

 

[Jurahn]

My thoughts exactly. All printed out ribbons and stickers come off after reaching the destination. I extend to making sure my travelling companions remove theirs too - I have no desire to wait while they fill in a missing bag claim!

+1.

We always remove all printed luggage tags, barcodes, stickers etc as I'm another one whose paranoid about our bags heading off to a different destination than the one we're going to! I usually put a small pair of nail scissors in the outside pocket of my checked bag (to save unlocking the case) to facilitate removal of those occasional stubborn tags that seem to be made of an unrippable plastic paper. I think it's just commonsense - with the automation and scanning of so many systems these days, leaving the old tags on your bags is just asking for trouble - the machine will either throw a big spack and your bag will be shunted off the belt as unreadable (or however the system works "out the back") or it could read the wrong tag and lord knows where your bag will end up. When we flew into LAX, we were connecting to Southwest, so of course no interline agreement there so as soon as we got outside T5 we made sure the numerous VA tags and labels came off before we headed over to T1.

I was at Perth domestic airport a few weeks ago seeing hubby off, and an Italian family arrived - grandma and grandpa had obviously been visiting from the "old country" and there were numerous bags being hauled along to check-in by the young male members of the family. All the bags were absolutely festooned with labels and tags from previous flights, which must make it an absolute nightmare for check in staff trying to find a spot to attach the current label and for the baggage scanning system and baggage handlers as well!

 

[JohnM]

I have drink coasters on all of my (Dom) luggage. On more that one occasion I have had to check hand luggage , usually because someone had some last minute shopping to do . So if that makes me pretentious , I will go with that over lost luggage.

I keep one of my WP-labelled drink coasters (the original faded-looking ones that look like PS :-| except for the white 'roo), INSIDE my wheel-aboard. In that way I have it at the ready in case I ever need to check it in.

My DYKWIA accessory is my AFF tag - to which, thankfully, the vast majority of other pax would answer a resounding no .

 

[Mardi]

I use the QF coasters on hand luggage - after all they are address labels as well as coded thingies. But on the address part I just put our surname and my husband's mobile number, so no address for burglars to read

Came in useful too when I travelled with my brother who has no status. We went to use the self serve bag drop not realising you need to go to the other machine first for a bag label, so instead of having to go back and line up he used my coaster off my hand luggage for his bag.

We've got zillions of the coasters so might as well use them! I've had silver and gold, husband has had gold, silver, gold and now will be getting platinum in the next week or so.

ETA: in my experience the check in staff take the old tags off the bags but mostly I take them off when packing for the next trip.

 

[serfty]

My WP "coasters" are still in the original OTT packaging and I am unlikely ever to use them - should I put them on Ebay?

 

[Hvr]

What about people who leave the Dash 8 premium tags on their hand luggage? For some of them that is the closest they'll ever get to status.

 

[Fantic125]

The tags come off when I get to my accommodation and certainly before the next flight. For a while after I started using a poly Samsonite suitcase I tried removing all the stickers, but gave up. Easier just to use black texta to cover the bar codes.

 

[legroom]

Which ones? Can you recall? I have never seen this nor heard of it.

NHA

Jan 2013

Unusual, but yes, it does happen

 

[Simo]

Generally I do.

The Q tags make this a little a little easier as don't have to do anything about the tags but prey that they arrive at the destination.

 

[Hvr]

Generally I do.

The Q tags make this a little a little easier as don't have to do anything about the tags but prey that they arrive at the destination.

Nothing to worry about unless there is something in them that the prey wants. Still have faith and you'll be fine.

 

[jetlagger]

What about people who leave the Dash 8 premium tags on their hand luggage? For some of them that is the closest they'll ever get to status.

You might be surprised.. A little dog could possibly morph into the alpha dog some day.. From an observed experience..

 

[Sprucegoose]

Never, they are a security threat.

 

[kevrosmith]

I had an interesting experience in USA last year with the QF coasters. I flew AS from LAS to SEA, and had my QF tag either on my luggage or inside it (can't remember which one), and when I got to SEA, discovered that they had wrapped it in alfoil. My guess is that it was causing confusion with the baggage handling system, so this was a way to help get it through the system - I had AS paper tags for that specific flight. In hindsight, I guess I'm lucky the bag made its way through, and am grateful they didn't throw it away on me. Now, if I'm not going to use the coaster, I carry it with me in my carry on, and yes, sometimes wear them on the bags too.

I guess they are a bit like toll tags: if you carry your own around, and get into a car with one already, you're going to be charged too!

 

[seanpodge]

Which ones? Can you recall? I have never seen this nor heard of it.

Have had this happen regularly at HRB and also at PEK.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Destination tags - off
Name tags - stay on

My nice new Amadeus tag got mangled last trip. Initially I couldn't see the logic in them, but the fact it's difficult to get to the business card inside, makes it more secure as a name tag I guess, so I'm a bit sad now

 

[Archphoto]

They stay off until I get to my hotel. (With my job, travelling with up to 10 bags, that tiny hotel room bin, fills up rather quickly.)

A colleague got caught out removing his tags before we cleared the baggage hall in Japan - thankfully I had kept them in my pocket because I was too lazy to try and find a bin. Since then, they remain attached, until we get to our rooms. (The gazillion hotel tags though seem to remain until they almost fall off - makes an interesting collection of memories after several months on the road.)

Had one lonely bag that got lost for over 9 months. The routings it took to arrive back in ADL after going missing ADL-SYD-LHR-DUB made my eyes pop!!!! I've since tossed the tags attached to that one - but they told an incredible story of the crazy way airlines route lost baggage back to it's point of origin. :shock: