Travel experts are recommending a simple trick to help reunite passengers with lost luggage: placing a sheet of paper with the owner's contact details inside the suitcase itself. The advice comes from Planeclaim, a portal that specializes in passenger rights claims.
Planeclaim advises using a white sheet of paper, preferably A4 or A5 size, and placing it in a clearly visible spot inside the bag. The idea is straightforward: if the external luggage tags are lost or damaged during travel, staff searching for the bag's owner can open it and immediately find the information needed to track them down.
What details to include on the note
The goal is to make identification as easy as possible, so the paper should carry enough contact information for the airline to reach the owner quickly. Planeclaim recommends that the sheet be "easily visible" and, whenever possible, placed at the top of the suitcase.
There is no need to overcomplicate it. What matters is that whoever opens the bag during a secondary search can quickly tell who it belongs to and how to get in touch with them. The measure works as a backup identification system in case the external tag attached to the handle comes off, which can happen while the luggage is being handled.
The scale of the lost luggage problem
Figures show the problem remains considerable despite improvements in airport technology. According to data cited by Planeclaim, around 6.3 bags were lost for every 1,000 passengers in 2024, a figure slightly lower than the previous year.
Even so, across international flights as a whole the volume remains enormous, with more than 30 million suitcases still going missing each year. Most bags turn up again after a few days, but others can remain unclaimed for much longer if airlines cannot identify their owner. When a bag cannot immediately be matched to a passenger, a more thorough search process begins, during which staff may open it to check its contents and look for anything that could identify the owner. That information is then compared with the description the passenger gave when reporting the loss, which is exactly where a simple sheet with personal details can make the difference.
Unidentified bags can end up auctioned
According to Planeclaim, including such information inside the luggage can significantly increase the chances that a lost bag is returned to its owner. The problem arises when time passes and no one is able to determine who the bag belongs to.
If every attempt at identification fails, the suitcase can end up entering other handling processes. Planeclaim says a bag whose owner cannot be found could ultimately be auctioned off or even discarded. That is why having more than one way to identify a bag matters: the external tag remains useful and advisable, but a second reference kept inside the luggage provides extra protection against accidental loss.
What to do if your suitcase goes missing
Keeping the note inside the suitcase does not replace the steps a traveler must take when their luggage fails to appear on the carousel. Planeclaim recommends reporting the incident to the airline immediately and completing the corresponding baggage irregularity report.
That document formally registers the loss and provides information to help start the search. Later, if staff open the bag, they can compare the items found with the details the passenger provided. Before packing for the next holiday, it is worth spending a few seconds on a measure that costs almost nothing: writing contact details on a piece of paper and placing it on top of the clothes. An apparently small gesture can become the decisive clue that helps a lost suitcase make it back home instead of sitting unclaimed for months.
