[HN Gopher] The company that sells your lost airplane luggage
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The company that sells your lost airplane luggage
Author : Anon84
Score : 63 points
Date : 2024-01-28 12:36 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (thehustle.co)
(TXT) w3m dump (thehustle.co)
| ggm wrote:
| A point is high value items, investment grade diamonds, expensive
| watches could reunite with their owner trivially because their
| sales are tracked. The point being insurance and compensation has
| been paid. So the closing ethical concern is perhaps overstated.
| It's the more personal effects, a treasured family memento,
| letters which beg questions.
| pessimizer wrote:
| If they didn't exist, the headline would be "The company that
| dumps your lost airplane luggage into a landfill."
| behringer wrote:
| sounds good to me. Then nobody's making money off of stolen
| goods except the landfill.
| graphe wrote:
| So you want to buy stuff that the landfill owner sells?
| wvenable wrote:
| I'm more worried about the perverse incentive structure.
| graphe wrote:
| Like when high value items are "dumped" and when the
| "garbage" is stolen, or when landfill owners take a
| kickback?
| ProllyInfamous wrote:
| I've been to Unclaimed Baggage in Alabama, just once, and it was
| no nicer than the nicest thrift stores in my hometown. An
| interesting concept, but it seems that the best items are priced-
| out.
| lifestyleguru wrote:
| To quote the man interviewed in BBC who was sorting "lost
| luggage" after Heathrow's Terminal 5 fuckup
|
| "don't you feel bad that it's someone's else possesion?"
|
| "no, that's why it's such a good stuff"
| Jun8 wrote:
| I'm a sucker for found antique/goods types of shows and bought &
| watched a few seasons of "Baggage Battles"
| (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baggage_Battles) on Amazon Prime.
| It was OK but they _very_ rarely discovered valuable stuff and
| even those were kind of meh.
|
| Still the art of the selection (should you go for the expensive
| bag, the heavy one, or the well-used one) was exciting. If I had
| the money I'd see myself attending baggage auctions just for the
| entertainment value; but doing it for flipping is not profitable
| I think.
| IshKebab wrote:
| _Surely_ someone in the chain goes through these bags for
| obvious expensive things beforehand. Why would that not happen?
| giarc wrote:
| I suspect a show for entertainment would script it a bit and
| add some high end stuff. So the fact that even after watching
| you say it's rare to find good stuff tells me it's even worse
| than the show lets on.
| rnotaro wrote:
| In a related note, some canadian passengers found their Air Maroc
| luggage at a liquidation center in Quebec, Canada in even 3 weeks
| after being lost this month.
|
| https://www.bladi.net/colere-royal-air-maroc-perte-bagages,1...
|
| https://www.tvanouvelles.ca/2024/01/28/saga-des-valises-egar...
| akshayshah wrote:
| Luggage is fairly expensive and easy to reuse - sizing isn't
| personal, and most designs are fairly bland. I'm surprised that
| the bags themselves aren't a substantial source of income.
| FireBeyond wrote:
| Probably comes down to how difficult it is to gain access, and
| whether that's destructive.
| bdavbdav wrote:
| I guarantee they have TSA keys
| itishappy wrote:
| You can put whatever locks you want on your bags, but the TSA
| can and will cut anything they can't easily open.
|
| https://www.tsa.gov/blog/2014/02/18/tsa-travel-tips-
| tuesday-...
| FireBeyond wrote:
| I absolutely get that. But this private company is not the
| TSA, either.
| itishappy wrote:
| Right, but in order to lose your bag, it has to first
| pass through the TSA. I doubt a bag would make it all the
| way Unclaimed Baggage with the locks intact.
| magneticnorth wrote:
| If anyone in your life needs secondhand used underwear from
| unclaimed baggage, you can buy the "10 pc mystery underwear bag"
| or "women's lingerie mystery bag" online:
| https://www.unclaimedbaggage.com/collections/mystery-bags
| chankstein38 wrote:
| It's advertised in a creepy way and it's sold out. People will
| never stop being sketchy lol
| swozey wrote:
| Maybe someone buys them for a few bucks and dropships them
| for $25 as a vtuber?
|
| Think I have a new side gig
| bozhark wrote:
| Need an AI character to model said wares?
| lifestyleguru wrote:
| It's absolutely missing dildos and erotic toys mystery bag, or
| the people opening suitcases take these for themselves together
| with more precious stuff?
| KolmogorovComp wrote:
| It's explained in TFA. They don't sell those.
| oh_sigh wrote:
| How does luggage ever get lost when they slap so many stickers on
| it?
| lifestyleguru wrote:
| When the computer says "no", or when the people working in
| baggage handling system are illegal immigrants, working in
| zero-hour or some other disposable contracts.
| MattGaiser wrote:
| They often don't. Most of the time my bag only has one sticker
| and many people don't put other contact info on there.
| happyopossum wrote:
| > so many stickers on it
|
| I travel 30-40 times/yr and I can't recall ever putting more
| than one sticker on a checked bag...
| swozey wrote:
| Speaking of unclaimed property, do any of you Texans know of a
| way to use this absolutely trash website to look for something
| more specific than your First/Last?
|
| https://www.claimittexas.gov/
|
| I have a fairly common first name and there are literally 50
| pages of results and "Your search returned 1000 unclaimed
| properties."
|
| One of my financial apps (mint/ck not sure) told me I had
| unclaimed money and I have no way to find my name on this without
| cdlicking through 50 pages.
|
| You can't even sort the rows.
| giarc wrote:
| From the FAQ page. Providing your SIN/DOB etc will likely help.
|
| What can I do if I can't find the funds I'm looking for on your
| website?
|
| If you are unable to locate your unclaimed property on the
| website, fill out our search form. Our Research Department will
| try to locate the property for you. Also see our Finding Money
| page for more information on unclaimed property not held with
| the Texas Comptroller.
| swozey wrote:
| Thanks, I missed that. It'd be nice if I could do this myself
| and not need to send them a form. I'll continue to try to
| find a way to de-paginate the results.
| iJohnDoe wrote:
| I would imagine the really good stuff is sorted through and sold
| via different methods. What makes it to the store is left over
| crap?
| acdha wrote:
| I had a bag stolen a while back and was surprised to learn that
| SFO has no real security after you drop a bag off. The 9/11
| crunch focused on bags going in, so they didn't even have
| cameras in the baggage processing facilities and since the
| airline terms of service limit payouts to like $3/pound they
| don't care, either. Everyone involved was very casual about
| theft being routine and expected, so I would be somewhat
| surprised if the lost luggage didn't have a similar fate.
| KolmogorovComp wrote:
| In those days of ubiquitous information, these kind of stops have
| lost all interest, because the prices are not better than the
| average second hand item.
| KolmogorovComp wrote:
| > Some say the store has an ethical duty to reunite people with
| their lost luggage -- especially highly personal items, like
| jewelry inscribed with names and dates, or electronics with
| identifiable information. But historically, the store has
| maintained it has a business to run.
|
| I'm quite surprised by the opposition here, I'd assume that the
| high sentimental value could be converted in a much higher price
| than its off-the-shelf value.
|
| Now would it be more ethical than not contacting them? That's up
| to debate, but at least the owners would have a choice.
| AceJohnny2 wrote:
| > _Now would it be more ethical than not contacting them?
| That's up to debate, but at least the owners would have a
| choice._
|
| There's the rub: luggage ends up at UnclaimedBaggage _after_
| the airline has exhausted all other avenues to try and find the
| owner. (this particular article doesn 't focus on that aspect.
| Here's another I quickly found that does:
| https://www.afar.com/magazine/what-happens-to-airline-
| passen...)
|
| There are no contactable owners, so the ethical dilemna solves
| itself.
|
| This is why it's always good to put contact information
| _inside_ the luggage, where it can 't get ripped off in
| handling.
| newsclues wrote:
| Do companies have a true incentive to do the work?
|
| Or can they provide limited token compensation minus the sale
| of the lost luggage, and come out ahead vs doing a good job
| at not losing luggage and returning it when found?
|
| If government/contracts limits compensation liability, then
| cut costs as much as possible and bring in some revenue
| selling luggage?
| dataflow wrote:
| > There's the rub: luggage ends up at UnclaimedBaggage after
| the airline has exhausted all other avenues to try and find
| the owner.
|
| > There are no contactable owners, so the ethical dilemna
| solves itself.
|
| Er, that's a very... convenient excuse for absolving people
| of ethical responsibility. Geez, there's no contact info on
| it, how could I possibly reunite it with its owner?? It's not
| like we have any clue who's lost their bags or what those
| bags looked like, right??
|
| The owners are still able to describe and recognize their
| bags and their contents... the fact that an airline doesn't
| provide adequate means to search through lost bags doesn't
| mean it's somehow impossible to pair some of the owners and
| bags correctly.
| McDyver wrote:
| When it was founded 50 Yeats ago _maybe_ it made sense because
| technology was not that advanced.
|
| Now I'd say it's a company selling stolen goods.
|
| Airlines know who is the owner of that luggage. They have the
| sticker with flight, booking number, they have the contact
| details of the owner, and most owners put a tag with their
| contact info on the luggage.
|
| They were hired to provide the sole service of transporting the
| luggage and owner from A to B. It's their only job. And they fail
| and steal your belongings and sell it for a profit, to a fence
| pulse7 wrote:
| Please read the article...
| McDyver wrote:
| I did. Are you saying 25m bags have absolutely no information
| on them? Absolutely zero?
| handoflixue wrote:
| Did you read the sentence right after that one?
|
| "Around 25m of them (5.7 per 1k bags checked) end up lost
| or misdirected. The 0.03% of bags that are still not
| reunited with their owners after 90 days are sold by the
| airline."
|
| 0.03% of 25m, and it's only after 90 days.
| cpncrunch wrote:
| But it doesn't explain why they can't use the tags to
| locate the owners. I did find the answer (see my other
| comment), but it wasn't from this article.
| McDyver wrote:
| Yes, although that doesn't seem correct. That would be
| 7500 a year.
|
| When they say the founder was buying 3k a month, either
| the RF ids are great at reducing the losses worldwide, or
| something is wrong with those numbers.
| IanCal wrote:
| I'm pretty sure that's a mistake. 1.3M are never claimed
| according to the figures early on, that's 0.0 _0_ 3% of
| the total figure.
| graphe wrote:
| What if they didn't want it back?
| cpncrunch wrote:
| I read the article as well, as there is no info on this at
| all. After some searching I did find the information in a
| different article about Canadian airlines:
|
| https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/what-happens-to-unclaimed-
| lug...
|
| Air Canada and Westjet both open the bags to look for
| identifying information so they can contact the owner. Then
| they donate the bags to charity or dispose of them if they
| can't locate the owner.
|
| I think the moral of the story is to make sure your bag is
| well tagged. We have been putting an airtag in my bag for
| the last few flights, and it works really well. It's a pity
| there is no Android equivalent, as I have no way of
| locating my tags on my phone. (I just use an ipad).
| victorarevalo wrote:
| I use Tile for this purpose and they work well. Not as
| good as airtag, but I don't have an iphone.
| seb1204 wrote:
| Will an air tag help the airline to identify you? That
| would be rather bad in a privacy sense. I don't think it
| is easy for you to call the airline and say my bag is in
| this building etc please give it back to me. my point is
| that the airline needs to be able to contact you.
| paxys wrote:
| 0.03% of 25m. And yes, why is that so hard to believe?
| handoflixue wrote:
| > Now I'd say it's a company selling stolen goods.
|
| "Imagine this: An airline loses your checked bag. After an
| extensive search, customer support comes up empty-handed. They
| compensate you and life goes on."
|
| It seems bizarre to call this stolen goods when the airline has
| tried to resolve this for 90 days AND compensated you for your
| loss
| theturtletalks wrote:
| Exactly, but the issue is that a person might be willing to
| pay that compensation fee for the original bag back.
|
| Some bags had valuable artifacts, a camera used by NASA, etc.
| I'm sure the airlines didn't compensate for this sort of
| items.
|
| Regardless, the company selling this is not at fault for
| selling "stolen" items. They believe the airline has done its
| due diligence in trying to find the owner and are now
| reducing waste by giving the items a 2nd home.
| McDyver wrote:
| > Some say the store has an ethical duty to reunite people
| with their lost luggage -- especially highly personal
| items, like jewelry inscribed with names and dates, or
| electronics with identifiable information.
|
| > But historically, the store has maintained it has a
| business to run.
|
| "I see this iPad or this laptop has your info, and I could
| contact you but hey... Tough luck"
| paxys wrote:
| If the contents of the bag are worth $500 the airline isn't
| spending >$500 worth of effort to track it down and return it
| to its owner. It makes sense to just reimburse them and move
| on.
|
| Now the question is what happens to the bag floating in the
| ether. Option 1 is sending it to a landfill. Option 2 is
| cracking it open and reselling/reusing the stuff in it. There
| are plenty of ethical arguments in either one's favor, but it
| isn't as obvious as everyone is making it seem.
| plasticchris wrote:
| I once had my check bag lost and it arrived a couple of
| months later via a courier. This was in '08
| jabroni_salad wrote:
| As someone who has been in a similar space, I guarantee you over
| half of those luggages do have identified owners who simply
| aren't contactable because they will not answer the phone, check
| a voicemail, read their email, or open any letter addressed to
| them.
|
| It takes two to tango and nobody knows how to dance.
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