This summer people were ready to forget they ever heard of the Coronavirus and get back to travel. Everyone I knew had travel plans whether it was by train (many via the brilliant 9 euro ticket plan), by car, or by air.
But no sooner were tickets booked than reports of major problems started making the rounds. Flights were being cancelled at an alarming rate as airlines still hadn’t recovered from the worst of the pandemic and didn’t have enough staff to man the flights. On top of that, Covid is far from finished and kept sidelining the staff that was available. The rate of baggage mishandled was up 24% with 8.7 suitcases per 1,000 international passengers not arriving on time.
My family booked flights for Croatia and were white knuckling it til we departed, but our flight went off without a hitch. My father-in-law was not so lucky. His bag got lost on his way to Berlin and we didn’t hear a word about it for the next two weeks. It was only when my husband and daughter went to drop him back off at the airport that they braved the lines, uncertainty, and sea of suitcases to retrieve his luggage.
Learn from our mistakes and find out the best resources for retrieving lost luggage in Germany.
A sea of lost luggage at BER PHOTO: Ian Porter
How to Prevent Lost Luggage in Germany
Despite the subtitle, the first thing you need to do is to recognise that there is a chance of losing your luggage every time you travel and it is mostly out of your control. That said, there are a few things you can do to minimize your chances of having your luggage lost, and a few that increase your chances of finding it again.
- Book your flight wisely – Avoid multiple transfers and very short (under an hour) layovers. This is exactly the scenario my father-in-law was in when his bag was lost. A delayed flight meant he had to run during his transfer in Brussels and though he made his flight by some miracle, his checked bag did not.
- Travel with Carry-on Only – If possible, keeping your baggage with you is one of the best ways to avoid it getting lost.
- Use Luggage Tags – I have gotten quite lazy about the once ubiquitous luggage tag in recent years, but they really are helpful when your black bag is grouped in row after row of baggage like the picture above. I even put tape on my luggage with airport codes in big bold sharpie of departure and destination airports which may have been overkill, but made me feel better.
- Use Digital Bag Tracker – A much more sophisticated option is to use a digital tracker that has a live location of your bag. I heard multiple travelers say this was both a blessing, and a curse. People complained they watched as their plane took off, and their bag did not. But then when they were trying to find it later they knew exactly where it is.
What to do if your Luggage is Lost in Germany
So, the worst has happened and your bag is lost. The first thing to do is to register it as officially lost. This step in of itself can be a trial. Both times my family has had lost luggage it has been late at night, everyone is exhausted, and we just want to go home. But if you leave without registering the luggage as lost, it is infinitely harder to register and track it later. In fact, the burden of proof is reversed once you leave the airport and you are then responsible for proving you checked in the luggage and the airline actually lost it. Stick it out and register the loss before leaving.
This can be easier said than done, but make sure you are at the right desk to register your lost luggage. Frustratingly, different desks at BER (Berlin’s International Airport) handle different airlines’ lost luggage. When my family had a bag taken by another traveler, we patiently waited in line the counter marked Gepäckermittlung and it took about 45 minutes to reach the front of the line at 23:00 on a Sunday. My husband started making the report only to have the staffer interrupt him and say we were in the wrong line. There was a nearly identical counter 100 meters away that would handle our airline’s lost luggage. Seriously annoyed, he turned around and told the line of other passengers on our flight to save them the trouble. Most of them were German with a deeply ingrained need to be at the front of the line, so they rushed past us and we were at the back of a long line again. So much for kindness.
We eventually made our way to the front of that line (another 30 minutes down) and were able to register the lost bag. We needed to supply standard info like our ID, description of the luggage, value of contents, flight number, and contact info. They were happy to send us away with that, but we insisted on information to contact them. The airport worker grudgingly gave us a card with contact info for their office with the reference number for our report. This proved vital as when we called to inquire about the bag, they needed that reference number. This is a good reminder that you must advocate for yourself, especially with German bureaucracy.
Luggage Recovery Success Stories
Luggage (with toys!) found PHOTO: Erin Porter
The good news with both of my lost luggage stories is that we got the bags back. Even with the recent delays, this is typical. Around 95 percent of all missing luggage turns up again, you just need to be very patient.
With the bag we registered lost in the spring, we got a call about 4 days later and it was delivered to our home in Berlin – free of charge. They even updated us on time of delivery and we were able to track it like a package.
For the bag my father-in-law lost this summer, it was a bit trickier. Jet lagged and out of his element in a foreign country, he was confused about where to go and didn’t get any info from the attendant. When we called and e-mailed later, trying to track the bag, they needed a reference number he didn’t have. He had left the counter with a vague promise they would contact him in a week or two but we never heard back.
When it was time for him to fly home, we followed advice I found on a facebook group, BER Airport security and check-in, where people reported they were having success by going to the lost baggage counter and begging or badgering their way into the luggage room to find their bags themselves. After waiting for over an hour in line, my husband was prepared with info he had on the bag, flight, and even a Vollmacht (permission) from his dad. They were given entrance to the luggage storage at BER seen in the first photo in this post. My daughter sported a much more positive attitude than I would have looking at all that luggage. (This pic came out strangely – but I promise it is not photoshopped! It must have just been the vortex of this weird area.) With a vague wave in the direction where luggage from that destination “should” be, they went to work looking at tags. Miraculously, within 30 minutes they found the bag.
Resources for Lost Luggage in Germany
BER
- Aeroground
- Wisag
- Swissport
Find which service is attached to your airline here.
FRA
Frankfurt’s airport is the busiest in the country. Report to the airline directly about lost luggage. More info here.
MUN
Passengers of some airlines can use the Worldtracer online baggage search tool.
That’s great that you could find the bag in Berlin. I’m wondering if one can similarly search at Frankfurt. After two months I don’t think we will recover out suitcase any other way.