Lost Luggage and Essentials for Travel

[MrMan]

I have travelled enough to know that there is a reasonably high chance of luggage being lost on a trip abroad. Here are some practical tips for travel.

If you take an international trip, take the clothing you will need to survive in your carry-on and personal bag. If you have a couple of changes of clothes, the one you are wearing, something else, whatever you sleep in, sandals, etc., whatever you need to survive if you get stuck without your luggage, and you could wash one set of clothes and wear the other set for a few days until your luggage gets there.

If you are moving or going for a while, medium heavy duty boxes from Home Depot or Lowes are good. Big boxes will exceed the maximum limit if you fill them with clothing. If you aren't taking a lot and weight is not an issue, bags with four wheels are good.

A large backpack for a personal bag, one that will hold a laptop bag and a bunch of other stuff is good. I've taking a hiking backpack before and they let me.

It is a good idea to pack snacks for a trip, especially if you have to fly across parts of the US, especially at night, where they don't feed you or charge you an arm and a leg. Beef jerky is good and hard to find in some countries. I always try to have an empty water bottle with me-- empty to get through security, but able to be filled up at water fountains in the US, so I can stay hydrated on the dry plane without pestering the flight attendance constantly. Airplane air can be drier than the Sahara.

If you plan to shop in some cheap country for clothes, it can be hard to find over a 9 and a half shoe or sock in some parts of Asia. In Indonesia, socks had a rubber band type thing at the top, not a tube sock, if that's an issue. The tube sock type dress socks were hard to come by. Dental floss can be hard to find in some countries. So bring that.

If you are flying to meet a girl you have been dating online, it might make sense to stop somewhere before your final destination, spend a night in a hotel, sleep, shave, shower, and put on a fresh set of clothes to meet her, rather than meeting her after a 10 to 30 hour flight.

Does anyone else have any travel tips?

[fschmidt]

Put an Apple AirTag in your luggage so that you know where your luggage is when the airline morons lose it.

[MrMan]

Put an Apple AirTag in your luggage so that you know where your luggage is when the airline morons lose it.

That sounds like a good idea. Can you track it like a telephone? How specific does it get?

I have never lost a piece of luggage permanently that I recall. When they opened the new airport in Hong Kong, I had a stop-over there and they lost a bag for maybe a few days. I was going home to the US, and I had clothes, so it was an annoyance. They delivered it to my doorstep in a rural area.

In Indonesia, we had maybe 15 pieces of luggage one time, mostly cardboard boxes. One or more pieces were lost, and one of them had a large piece of frozen meat in a cooler bag, but it was still frozen when we got it somehow, probably a couple of days late, after a 30+ hour trip. Those cooler bags are rather effective.

[MrMan]

Back when Garuda flew to the US and went through Hawaii and Bali en route to Jakarta, I had to wait on repairs for delayed flights in Bali twice. The first time, they delayed us 12 hours, but only took us to a hotel after 6 hours. I was exhausted, but it was in the middle of the day there, and it was hard to sleep. The hotel room was right on the beach, but I didn't have anything to swim in. I'd wished I'd packed a swim suit. That's something to consider packing in a carry-on. It can double as a pair of shorts to work out in, also.

I usually keep paper clips, rubber bands, dental floss, and sometimes plastic fingernail clippers in a personal bag or carry-on. I had a luggage strap I needed to pull luggage break on me (before the more efficient luggage designs with wheels on the bottom were common.) Having paper clips or rubber bands gives me a way to jerry rig a repair on luggage. Fingernail clippers give me something to cut with. A lot of the cheap ones are plastic made to look like metal, so they should be able to get by security.

I also keep tape in one of the boxes and have a key or something like that in my personal bag. If a box or bag turns out to be overweight on the airline scale and another is underweight, I can shift stuff around. My wife tends to push the limits and try to be over by just a small amount within their tolerance so we won't be charged. So I also try to have some kind of other bag in my bags. It can be a light tough bag that has quite a bit of space in it that goes in a personal bag. An overweight bag can cost as much as a new bag. Just taking an empty box with you just in case and tossing it may be worth the risk. If you end up with a box with a few items in it, you can throw stuff from a lot of other boxes in there, letting clothes fluff up and fill in the space in those, and throw stuff from personal bags and carry ons you don't really need.

This makes sense if you have the time for it, and if you are taking a lot of stuff. We've moved a relatively large family overseas in an airplane. Shipping stuff costs so much, sometimes it makes sense just to fly it over. Delta used to give really good discounts-- $35 a bag, if you used the Delta gold card. I think they have some kind of discount, but not as good these days, and I couldn't use the Delta gold at the airport in Jakarta and some other cities. If you book extra bags online you may be able to, but you may have to book directly through Delta or one of their partners. But it worked on the US end. I haven't flown in years, though.

I think the most we had was 18 big pieces of luggage, most of them giant boxes. My dad picked my family up at the airport in a U-Haul once, maybe a van or a small truck.

They don't weigh personal bags and carry-ons, so you could put an engine block in one of them if you wanted to and it were small enough and get it on the plane. If it's a personal bag with wheels, you can lift it into the overhead compartment, and it isn't so heavy it crashes on someone's head, you could put heavy items there.

[kangarunner]

Does anyone else have any travel tips?

1. Minimalism...because less really is more.
2. Don't get addicted to vaping or any other addiction. I'm still trying to find the cure for this. This shit is hard. Whoever invented the vape concept is genius though. Take something that's unhealthy and create a healthier replacement for it. I'm surprised in this day and age we still have an abundance of alcohol even when everyone knows how stupid it is. Maybe the people who control everything want us to keep drinking so we can't think sober.
3. Meeting a girl online. The older I get the more I realize this is worse because you can't feel someone's energy or personality through photos or chat messages.
4. When you see shady people, don't say anything to them, just walk away.
5. I've been traveling alone for years now and it's harder as the years go on. Definitely have a good attitude and go out and talk to people.

[MrMan]

@kangarunner

Traveling alone is rough not just the social aspect of it but the practicalities of the actual travel.

It can also be really difficult if you get sick or have a severe case of diarrhea or fever or something like that while you're traveling if you don't have anybody with you to help kind of take care of you and make sure that you don't die.

If you have too much junk you have to wheel all that stuff into the bathroom just to go there. one of the advantages of traveling with a partner or a family with grown children is that you can take turns going to the bathroom and have somebody watch this stuff. Traveling with little children can be difficult because you want to use all those personal bags and then you end up with Dad having to carry everybody's bag and push everybody's cart. But we got a double stroller many years ago when the kids are small and we made the kids walk and we were able to put many many more bags on a double stroller then we could have put on two single strollers. So we got more luggage to take over there when we were moving. They let you roll a stroller down that little tube that goes to the airplane and then they take it from you right before you step on the plane. so we probably had a stroller when two of our little kids were five or six or something like that. But I've never tried pushing a stroller around like that when the largest kids were like 12 and 16 or something like that. But when the kids are big they can keep up with their own stuff anyway so it doesn't matter. Strollers are good in those areas where they already made you turn in the wheelie carts.

[MrMan]

Does anyone else have any travel tips?

1. Minimalism...because less really is more.

For my first year abroad, I brought a really big winter coat with huge pockets, stuffed the pockets full of books, then asked the flight attendant to hang the coat in the plane. I thought I might want to read a lot overseas. I didn't read most if any of those books. I did need the coat. I could have left the books out and rolled it up in an overhead cabin, I suppose.

2. Don't get addicted to vaping or any other addiction. I'm still trying to find the cure for this. This shit is hard. Whoever invented the vape concept is genius though. Take something that's unhealthy and create a healthier replacement for it. I'm surprised in this day and age we still have an abundance of alcohol even when everyone knows how stupid it is. Maybe the people who control everything want us to keep drinking so we can't think sober.

Vaping might even be worse than smoking. I agree that it is unhealthy. But in regards to travel, is it hard to find vape stuff overseas.

3. Meeting a girl online. The older I get the more I realize this is worse because you can't feel someone's energy or personality through photos or chat messages.

Travelling to meet her and spending some time with her makes sense for those who are going to pursue this route.

[milevaa]

Losing luggage while traveling can definitely throw a wrench into your plans, but don't worry, you're not alone in dealing with this frustrating situation. As someone who has experienced lost luggage firsthand, I can empathize with the stress and inconvenience it causes.
One piece of advice I can offer is to always pack essential items in your carry-on bag. This includes a change of clothes, toiletries, any necessary medications, important documents, and valuables. By keeping these items with you, you'll have everything you need to get by until your luggage is found or replaced.
When it comes to dealing with lost luggage, the first step is to report it to the airline or travel provider right away. They'll likely ask for details about your missing bags and provide you with a tracking number to monitor the search process. In the meantime, don't hesitate to reach out to Mammoth Mountain customer service here https://www.pissedconsumer.com/company/ ... rvice.html for assistance and advice. While they're experts in outdoor recreation, their team is also equipped to help with travel-related issues and may be able to offer additional support during this stressful time.

[calmlife]

Great travel tips! Carrying essentials in your carry-on is so important. I'd also add taking a photo of your luggage contents which can help with lost bag claims. And having an extra phone charger, medication, and copies of important documents like your passport/tickets is always a good idea in case you misplace your bag. Safe travels!