I suspect that few travelers have failed to notice that air travel during summer 2022 presents a good chance that their checked-in luggage will not greet them at their airport destination. Adding one or two layovers, delays and possible flight changes almost guarantees your luggage will be delayed or, worse, lost in transit.
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| Delayed Luggage at Heathrow, 2022 |
Our upcoming international travel will cover about a month. After several days in Athens, we'll board a Viking Ocean ship to tour the Mediterranean and then continue on a land-based journey. Once onboard, the chance of meeting up with delayed luggage becomes extremely difficult if not impossible. While limiting our clothes to just carry-on is possible for my shorter wife, this is a challenge when clothes and shoes are for a person that is six feet tall.
Because of these issues, we're trying a luggage delivery service. LUGGAGEFORWARD is the service we selected for our upcoming trip. LuggageForward supports both international and domestic travel. The service will pick up our luggage from our Northern California residence and deliver it to our Athens hotel ten days later. LuggageForward will handle Customs inspections.
This service will cost us about $380 for a 50 pound luggage piece that does not exceed a combined total of 62 inches. While certainly not inexpensive, buying replacement clothes overseas in a single afternoon is something we prefer not to do. We’ll pack most our clothes in one duffel and anything else will be within our two carry-on bags. We have three flights to reach Greece and, should any flight be rescheduled, we shouldn't have to be concerned about any checked-in luggage being transferred to a new flight.
There are some rules for using LuggageForward. We were informed that our luggage must not include items such as pressurized canisters (e.g., shaving cream), alcohol (including hand sanitizer), batteries, jewelry, medication and currency. If electronics are packed in your luggage, the available insurance coverage is waived. Finally, your luggage must not be locked, even with "zip" ties.
We'll see how this service performs and, with this experience, consider the pros and cons of using luggage delivery for our 2023 Antarctica trip.
UPDATE:
The luggage was picked up from my house in California by FedEx. The driver expected to see the duffel on the front porch and, as I was concerned about porch pirates, he had to ring the house doorbell. LUGGAGEFORWARD gave me a guaranteed hotel delivery date that was ten days after the pick-up date. The duffel was actually delivered to my Greece hotel four days after pick-up. I contacted the hotel to remind them that I would not be arriving for another week. I also had hotel staff confirm that the luggage was in its possession.
When we arrived at our Greek hotel, we checked in and our duffel was rolled out by the receptionist. Once in our room, it did not appear that the unlocked duffel was ever opened and inspected during transit. Each packing cube was wrapped in an oversized plastic bag for protection from possible weather. Each bag had no visual evidence of being opened. If you’re wondering why the wrapping, on a previous trip, our duffels were left on the tarmac on a luggage cart during an airport thunderstorm. All of our clothes were damp when we inspected the duffel contents at our destination hotel. We ended up hanging all our clothes throughout our hotel room to dry.
On the drive into the city, our driver told us the airport basement is filled with ‘lost’ luggage. As some luggage contained food that has since rotted, he said the smell in the basement is terrible. If pressed, a traveler can request basement entry for a bag search, but the experience is not one to be desired.
Thank you for this!
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