It’s no secret that bags are being lost at UK airports as fast as Netflix has been losing subscribers. So if you’re planning to travel this summer, it’s best to expect that some of your luggage may be left on the road at some point during your trip — and have a backup plan in case the worst happens.
The obvious solution is to go to the airport with carry-on only, but that’s not always possible if you need to travel verboten, as hairstylist Tariq Howes learned on a recent business trip to Switzerland. “My kit bag – containing all my scissors and equipment, which I need to fit in the glove compartment – was left at Heathrow when I arrived in Zurich. For three days I had to share tools with other people backstage at a fashion show, which was not easy. I also had to buy new clothes and toothbrushes, which – being Switzerland – were not cheap.”
To avoid a similar fate, Howe recommends making your case as familiar as possible before checking it out. “After my experience, I bought a selection of giant name tags for my cases, as I think making them really identifiable will make them easier to find,” he says. “Also, if it happened again, I would wait at the airport, ask more questions and ask for real contact numbers to stay on top of tracking.”
The case of FT menswear critic Alexander Fury was lost on a recent trip to Europe for the spring/summer 2023 menswear fashion shows. “My bag was packed for Milan and Paris, covering a good 10-day clothes to brave the scorching European heat while trying to appear fashionable enough to vaguely deserve my job title.” But when Fury’s airline failed to load all the bags on a London-Milan flight, “over half of the passengers’ luggage did not follow them to Italy”.
Fury’s hot tip for surviving lost luggage is twofold. First, invest in smart, pre-flight technology. “Buy Apple AirTags,” he tells me emphatically. “AirTag all your luggage, then you can track it. I didn’t have that before – but it was only through a passenger’s AirTag that we knew where our luggage was.”
The second tip is to fly in a simple uniform, which will make repeatedly wearing your clothes during the flight significantly less noticeable if your bag is not stowed. “I’m lucky my summer uniform is a black T-shirt,” says Fury. “I was wearing a nice pair of Raf Simons shorts for the flight so I didn’t look completely terrible. But I had to wear them for two days. Now I have a form of fashion Stockholm syndrome and I just want to wear them every day.”
I lost my bag on a recent holiday in Greece – which was my fault really, as I had the audacity to believe I could ever go a whole two weeks on holiday without it all going to pot. I had been warned by a number of my more peripatetic friends that the baggage situation at Heathrow was even worse than reported in the news, and so travel only with hand luggage. But, in a shock of Macbeth-level arrogance, I chose to ignore their advice, preferring instead to check my ridiculous Louis Vuitton bag, filled with swim shorts, short-sleeved shirts and sweatpants— twists, plus a pair of Marni packs. I treated myself to the trip.
The moment I landed, I was informed by an annoyed-looking airport employee that my case was stuck in London and that I would need to fill out a form on the British Airways website to return it. Suffice it to say, my issue didn’t resurface until I came home from the trip, loaded up like a tanned donkey full of bougatsa, with carrier bags packed full of all the sweat-stained H&M tops, sharp flip-flops and cheap bottles of sunscreen I was forced to hand out by the time I got to Athens.
The truth is, though, that there was something immensely satisfying about suddenly finding myself unsatisfied with a huge box full of clothes I would most likely never have worn on my low-key beach vacation. Of course, I may have wasted long hours that could have been better spent enjoying filo cakes instead of harassing the British Airways “customer service” bot on Twitter. And yes, I may have filed a few strongly worded complaints with the woefully unmanned Executive Club hotline, but overall I tried to lean into the loss, going for a low-maintenance existence that I don’t come close to in London. . I felt lighter, if I missed a touch, and the whole experience, if you let me go all Marie Kondo on you for a moment, even ignited a spark of joy.
I was also lucky. My bag was returned relatively quickly, and completely intact (thanks BA). Heathrow refuses to share any figures on the number of cases it misplaces and mishandles, but judging by the smelly pile of soft Samsonite and crushed Rimo aluminum piled up in the baggage claim hall when I arrived home , there are many people who have not been as lucky as me. And the summer holidays have barely begun.
So what do you do if your luggage gets lost and never turns up? According to investment professional Alex Bozoglou, whose case disappeared forever into the airport ether on a recent business trip, the key is to stay calm. “If the worst happens,” says Bozoglou, “then grab your airline by any means possible. It seems from my experience that people are more responsive to apps like Twitter and Instagram than they are to traditional phone lines. Maintaining a sense of calm and having all the necessary identification information on hand should help keep everyone’s temper in check. If by some miracle your luggage is found, think carefully about whether you want to send it to your current location or return home – if your bags have been lost once, they can certainly be lost again!
If you find yourself without your bag and need to attend business meetings upon arrival, then Bozoglou suggests relying on your pandemic-acquired communication skills and doing it all on Zoom. Oh, and buy a shirt. “I’ve changed all my meetings to video calls, and for those calls I’m wearing a crisp white shirt that I bought as soon as I got off the ground. A shirt was much more important to Zoom than suit pants, a blazer or a razor, so in the short period of time available, I prioritized it.”
The last word must go to Fury, however, whose third piece of lost luggage survival advice may be more appropriate for readers of this paper. “Never visit a Cartier boutique with lost-luggage PTSD,” he says seriously. “Or you might accidentally buy a very expensive watch as a coping mechanism.”
Be the first to hear about our latest stories — follow @financialtimesfashion on Instagram
