Here is what you need to do when your baggage goes missing at an Indian Airport

“Do you know mishandling of baggage is continuing to be the biggest complaint by passengers worldwide in the civil aviation industry? This resulted in a heavy expenditure to airline industries a sum of $2.3 million in 2015?”

Well, on closely looking upon the DGCA’s released data, we came to know baggage loss is one of the three major issues of complaints from fliers.

Losing or misplacing of the baggage can leave any traveller stranded whether he have deboarded the plane to enjoy a weekend or have left for home with some goodies for the family – the situation is saddening & equal for all the passengers.

Here, in this quick article, refundme.in will guide you with what you need to do when airline misplaces or loses your baggage out of nowhere:-

1. If you lose your baggage at the arrival area

In case you leave your bags by the fault in the restrooms, security area or any other passenger had it by mistake while checking, do not panic. There are CISF’s lost & found systems that work well for such scenarios.

2. If you lose your baggage at the departure area

The airlines or airport, no matter how automated they become but still they are run by humans & baggage loss can occur out of the blue. It may happen that your luggage has been sent to a wrong flight or has been wrongly labelled or your luggage is left behind at the departure area only – these might be the few reasons.

• Immediately contact your airline representative who will guide you towards the “lost luggage counter”, there you will be asked to fill up a quick “lost baggage claim form” with all your basic details & contact information.

• The airlines will track your luggage & in case it is sent in wrong flight, it will be with you within few hours time.

• In case, the luggage has reached some other airport due to the wrong label or so, it may take days for the authority to retract your baggage back to you.

• Also, if you have incurred any expense due to the baggage loss, the airlines have their policies to reimburse some compensation for such scenario – for that refer to your airline’s website.

3. You can track baggage loss online even

If you cannot spare some time to visit the airport to deal in this matter personally, here CISF (Central Industrial Security Forces) who is responsible for handling the security & safety of all the commercial airports in India has a website to claim for the baggage.

This is a quick procedure to claim for the baggage by visiting the website:

1. Firstly, you need to visit the website of CISF – cisf.gov.in

2. On the lower right side of the airport, you will find a “lost & found at Airport & Delhi metro” section there – approach it.

3. There you will find a drop-down list of your airport – select your airport.

4. There, click the date of your travel & then click on the button “Go”.

5. And then you will find a list of all the “lost & find items” there with contact details to avail it.

So what is the procedure to claim lost baggage?

Here are the documents that you need to have to claim or have possession of the luggage:

• Details of items that are claimed

• An ID card issued by the government or the passport copy

• proof of journey or copy of the boarding pass

If you as an owner cannot make it to the airport, another person with a letter of authorization by the baggage owner can claim for it. Provided, the authorized person should have his ID card & a boarding pass or proof of journey of the baggage owner.

Pro tip – Better to carry valuables like jewellery, currency & important documents safe in the carry-on bags. Also, each airline has its own baggage loss policy, kindly visit your airline’s website & check what procedure they perform.

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refundme.in is your first ever Indian rooted flight compensation provider, that provides passengers with their air travel rights, compensation for denied boarding & cancelled flight, also valuable knowledge about all the travel essentials & queries via these frequent blog posts.

Stay tuned for more interesting things that you should know about your air travel!