I have 10 great identification tips for air travelers to find their luggage and personalize it at the luggage carousels, helping them identify and retrieve it.
Travelers should check luggage tags. They have essential identification tips that must be thoughtfully edited and carefully placed on your luggage. Your tags need to be durable and weather-proof.
Luggage tags seemingly have a single purpose. They are certainly there to identify your bags as belonging to you, to help you retrieve them at baggage claim after a flight and elsewhere if your bag is being transported with others. In reality, luggage tags need to do more than that, particularly if your bag, like mine, belongs to the 40 percent of luggage that’s colored black. Yet, even if your bag is shocking-pink or neon-yellow, there still may be other bags like it.
Luggage tags need to be distinctive, durable, weather-proof and firmly affixed to your luggage.
Note: While I know that black luggage is numerous, making its identification more troublesome than other luggage, I’ve chosen it because it’s practical. It doesn’t show dirt, scuffs and stains easily and it’s a neutral color.
A properly chosen luggage tag, one that has a distinctive appearance, can not only help you retrieve your bags faster at the luggage carousel, they will better identify your luggage so that another person doesn’t mistake it for their own and take it by mistake. Also, if the tag makes your bag stand out among the others, not only are thieves less likely to steal it, airport personnel are less likely to overlook it.
Take a good photo of your luggage with its tags showing and any other items to make it stand out. In case your luggage is lost or delayed, the photo can help your airline find it.
Airline agents have told me that a good photo of your bag with your distinctive luggage tags can expedite your claim against the airlines for lost, stolen or delayed luggage, because they can more quickly verify that it’s not at any of the lost luggage areas at the airports through which you traveled.
You’ll need to do more than have distinctive luggage tags to identify your luggage. Also use other means to personalize them to help identify them.
Unfortunately, experience has taught me that luggage tags aren’t enough to make luggage distinctive. I use other means to add to the appearance of my luggage, to help prevent its loss and improve its recovery time. I highly recommend making your luggage as distinctive as possible no matter what color it is.
Here are my 10 best luggage tag and identification tips for air travelers.
Use colorful luggage tags, with your initials, if possible, and be very careful about what information is on the tags to identify the bags as yours.
1. Use colorful luggage tags with a color(s) that significantly contrasts with the color of your luggage, to maximize its individuality. Also, have it personalized with your initials for quick identification.
2. Choose luggage tags that are highly durable and waterproof with a solid, durable method of attachment. I prefer tags that use steel cables or heavy duty flexible plastic loops to attach them to my luggage.
3. Be careful about what information you put on your luggage tags. You don’t want to reveal information about where you live. You don’t want to send thieves to empty your home while you’re traveling. Therefore, I don’t put my home address or home phone number on the luggage tags. You want to supply enough information to be quickly contacted while you’re traveling to recover your luggage.
Include your name, your cellphone number and your email address on your luggage tags. Since I can easily change the luggage tag information slips in my tags, I pre-make a series of luggage tag inserts for each leg of my trip on my computer. Each tag has my name, cellphone and email address and the address of where I’m staying at each destination. As I move from location to location, I change the tag insert. I also include the phone number of one of my kids in case I can’t be reached.
Use two luggage tags per bag in case one is ripped off. Attach the tags to different handles of your bag. Make sure your luggage tags are durably attached to your luggage. I prefer steel cable or heavy-duty flexible plastic loops.
4. Like airline luggage tags, your luggage tags can be damaged or literally ripped off of your bags. Therefore, duplicate luggage tags are essential. I put two luggage tags on each piece of my luggage, whether checked or carry-on. You never know if your carry-on might be gate checked, particularly if you’re traveling in economy.
5. When you attach your luggage tags, don’t put them together. Separate them. I recommend attaching one to the main luggage handle on the side of your bags and the other on the top handle of each bag. Do the same for back packs and duffle bags.
Make sure that the information on your luggage tag is legible.
6. If your luggage is lost, stolen or delayed, and your airline luggage tag has been torn off (it’s happened to me twice), the information on your luggage tag must be legible. If you can’t print the information via a computer, make sure you print your contact information legibly.
7. I slide a marked envelope in an unlocked outside pocket of my luggage. In the envelope is my full trip itinerary and contact information. It includes dates, every hotel stay, plane flight and cruise ship information, if part of the trip includes a cruise. My luggage tags state, “Envelope in outside pocket has itinerary.”
8. If traveling internationally, don’t use luggage tags that identify your nationality via their design. You may encounter individuals along your journey who don’t have a favorable opinion of your home nation.
Personalize your luggage in multiple ways and don’t forget to secret an AirTag or other tracker in every bag.
9. Use other ways to personalize your luggage. When you get to the luggage carousel, the lost luggage room at the airport or in a cruise terminal, you want the sight of your luggage to jump out at you. There are multiple ways that you can make your luggage more distinct and personalized. I use three add-ons on my checked luggage. On the top handle I attach a large, heavy-duty, durable embroidered name tag in neon blue. On the side handle I tie a heavy-duty, wide silver ribbon tied in a distinctive bow. Finally, I use a neon-blue elasticized belt that goes around the circumference of my bag.
10. Finally, while it can’t be seen, I secret an Apple AirTag within my luggage. I have one in each piece of luggage I travel with, including my checked bag, carry-on and personal item. I use Apple AirTags rather than other electronic luggage trackers because the Apple’s “Find My” tracking network is the most robust tracking network in the U.S. and globally. Flying into Los Angeles not very long ago, I was waiting impatiently for my checked luggage for quite some time. The carousel still listed our flight, but none of the flight’s luggage had appeared. I pulled out my iPhone and queried the AirTags in our luggage. It showed that they were nearby. Following the app on my iPhone, I located our luggage five carousels away. As I retrieved our bags, the airport finally announced the location change.
Extra tip: Photograph your luggage with its tags and personalization to show your airline to help them identify it and assist them to locate it if it’s lost or delayed.
I know from experience how frustrating lost or delayed luggage can be. Not having your clothing and other carefully packed belongings can dampen any trip. Luggage tags and other personalization of your luggage can’t guarantee you’ll be able to immediately find and retrieve your luggage, but it certainly will improve your odds of finding and fetching it fast.
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After many years working in corporate America as a chemical engineer, executive and eventually CFO of a multinational manufacturer, Ned founded a tech consulting company and later restarted NSL Photography, his photography business. Before entering the corporate world, Ned worked as a Public Health Engineer for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. As a well known corporate, travel and wildlife photographer, Ned travels the world writing about travel and photography, as well as running photography workshops, seminars and photowalks. Visit Ned’s Photography Blog and Galleries.
