Lost Luggage in a Foreign Country? How to Start the Search & Rescue

Last Updated on March 13, 2024 by Audrey

“I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.“

Maya Angelou

Have you ever lost your luggage before? Last May I traveled internationally to Europe, and lost my luggage for four days! If you’re looking for some tips on how to quickly recover your baggage, keep reading.

On our way to Rome, we had a layover at the Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. When we arrived in Rome, we discovered that our luggage had not made it with us! My entire family had lost their luggage, and I struggled for 4 days trying to resolve this issue. We wore the same clothes for two days! We did manage to get our luggage back, although I didn’t receive it until I was already in Venice, our second destination in Europe. Let me tell you everything that occurred, and what I did to get our luggage back from the Schiphol airport. This is dedicated to you, the poor soul whose suitcase is currently misplaced overseas.

Before anything, if you can help it, flying direct is always better, especially internationally. If we booked a direct flight, our suitcase would have made it safely to our destination without trouble! Of course, this is not always an option due to price or accessibility. In my case, there was no current direct flight from San Francisco to Rome. To get to Europe, we flew United Airlines to Amsterdam, and then ITA Airways to Rome.

consider an airtag

Are you wondering “Why didn’t she get an AirTag so she could tell where her suitcase was located”? Well… here’s the thing, I did! I bought an AirTag the day before we boarded the plane and gave one to each member of my party. The airline lost my luggage anyway.

No matter how easy it is to locate on your phone via AirTag, you will still depend on someone at the airport to go and retrieve it for you. Getting someone to pick it up and bring it to you is the hardest part. However, I still recommend putting an AirTag in your suitcase, so you will have an idea of where it might be. The more information you have, the better.

How We Lost Our Luggage

When we arrived in Rome, we followed standard procedure and went to the baggage claim area. After maybe 5 minutes of waiting, we realized that our luggage was missing and lined up at the Luggage Assistance counter. The line thankfully wasn’t too long, with maybe 10 people in front of us. Although we only had 10 people ahead of us, the line was still pretty slow. Those 10 people in front of us still took an hour, as only 2 attendants were working the luggage counter, and their English was not perfect. By the time we finished and left, the line had grown farther than I could even see, as everyone from Schiphol airport had gotten their luggage misplaced.

Keep your baggage receipt

You know those little pieces of paper that print out along with your luggage tags? Do you keep them whenever you fly? I certainly didn’t! I usually never hold onto them. It was only by coincidence that I had our luggage receipts when the woman at the counter asked. Clearly, I was not yet a seasoned international traveler. If I hadn’t kept my luggage receipt, who knows if I would have gotten my luggage back! After this endeavor, I make it a point to keep my luggage receipt with every trip until I pick up my suitcase.

fill out a lost luggage form

The attendant took copies of our passports, and then I filled out another form, selecting abbreviations for the suitcase color, what type it was (soft or hard-shelled), and other distinguishing characteristics. We also provided her with the address of our hotel so that they could return our suitcases. She printed out a few pages of paper that provided our reference ID, and the tracking website to monitor our lost luggage.

Let me tell you… that website was not terribly helpful. First of all, it was in Italian, and I had to use Google Translate to make sense of it. The language translation was not exactly optimal, either. Worst of all, it would crash… often. I would check it every day, and the awful website coding plus the difficulty of finding fast internet made it a struggle every time.

My Bag is Lost Forever… or is it?

Don’t rely on the online tracker!

The lost luggage website rarely got updates. I wouldn’t even depend on it at all if I were you! I decided to take things into my own hands, and I called the airline every day trying to reach someone who would help. Half the time they wouldn’t even pick up, and sometimes they didn’t speak English and I would have to call again. The connection was also pretty poor as I was using my phone from America.

communicate directly with the baggage carrier at the airport

My advice to you is this: locate the baggage carrier of the airport and email them directly. I was getting nowhere until I found out that the baggage carrier for the Amsterdam Schiphol airport was Viggo. Then, I started emailing them and calling them directly. There were three possible baggage carriers for Schiphol, and I sent the same email to each one including my name, reference ID, address, and how many days we had until we would leave to our next destination. Once the baggage carrier replied to me, it was so much easier to communicate via email, rather than spelling the reference ID out over the spotty phone connection every time.

After 3 days of not being able to reach anyone over the phone, Viggo got back to me via email within a day! Unfortunately, by this time we had already spent 3 days in Europe, so we had spent a good portion of our vacation in the same outfit, including underwear that we had bought from a random tourist shop. Viggo quickly found 4 out of 5 pieces of our suitcases, and on the day we flew out to Venice we showed up early to pick up the suitcases. Unfortunately, the only suitcase that was still missing was, of course, mine!

I was very worried that they wouldn’t be able to return it in time as we were only spending two days in Venice, and we were flying to Paris afterward. It’s also quite difficult to navigate Venice, as you must travel over the water to get to different parts of the city! Luckily, they were able to return it to me by the end of our first day in Venice, whew!

take a picture of your luggage

Personally, I believe the abbreviations I had to use when we filled out our lost luggage form were too vague. I have a big pink suitcase, and there was no abbreviation for pink, only red. I never took a picture of my luggage either, so I didn’t have any reference photos to show them. Just in case, it’s a good idea to snap a quick picture of what your check-in luggage looks like.

Dealing With the Aftermath

Neither United nor ITA provided us with any form of reimbursement. Usually, the airline will not declare your suitcase as missing until around 14 to 21 days. United will give some compensation after 5 days, but they denied responsibility because the luggage was lost during ITA’s flight. Made sense. On the other hand, ITA Airways requires your luggage to be lost for 45 days before you can claim compensation. Honestly, we were just happy to have our clothes and personal belongings back, but I certainly recommend checking your specific Airline’s lost luggage policy to see if you’re eligible for compensation for your troubles.

It was extremely hectic calling and emailing every day trying to retrieve our luggage, amid all the tours and experiences we had booked. But, we were lucky that we got our items back before our vacation was over. The experience also changed me as a person… I used to be that over-packer. Well, you can trust me, whenever I go to my next trip, I’m packing light!

Lost your luggage? Try these things 🧳

✔️ Contact the Airline immediately and start the Lost Luggage Claim process.

✔️ Look up the airport baggage carrier for the specific airline, and try to contact them directly via phone/email.

✔️ Call and email every day! Be aggressive. It’s your luggage, not anyone else’s.

✔️ If you are in an international country, consider downloading WhatsApp. The transporter who returned my luggage texted me updates via WhatsApp.

✔️ Pray that things will work out and enjoy your vacation! Don’t worry, it will make its way back to you. 🙂