Home Safely After Missing For 22 Days

There's no worse feeling for a traveler. After a full day of making connections your left standing, staring at an airport baggage carousel that keeps spinning around...without your luggage. It happened to me when traveling from Montenegro to England earlier this month. I was across the pound with nothing but the clothes on my back. Friends told me to give up on my bag. But I didn't. I knew that like me, maybe it just needed some time alone. Friday afternoon my prayers were answered. My luggage was returned home safely after missing for 22 days.

No, I don't know where it got hung up. Best guess from all of the tags is Amsterdam. My bag must've heard it was a good party city.

At the end of the day, I know it is just stuff. Stuff can always be replaced. It's a lesson many of us in Southwest Florida know well following Hurricane Ian. However, it was some of my favorite stuff. In addition, a few gifts. I accepted and found peace with the fact I might not get my "stuff" back. However, I never gave up hope. More on lost luggage coming up later. But for now...

Vacations and travel are supposed to be fun right?  What could be worse then getting to your destination to find that your luggage has been lost? No one wants to wear their plane clothes any longer than they have to.

Unfortunately, it's happening all too often across the United States and apparently, especially here in Florida.

I've been a victim of lost luggage in the past and it just plain sucks.  That's all there is to it.  We spend so much time packing and planning, to make sure we've got everything we need for a trip.  Then to find out you've got nothing, and don't know when or if your stuff will ever reach you.  UGH!  Super frustrating.

With summer in full motion, the crew over at Forbes, put together a list of the worst airports in the country for lost luggage.

In order to complete the list Forbes Advisor compared the nation’s 100 busiest airports using TSA data across four metrics.

The worst airport for lost luggage isn't in Florida.  Phew! Taking the number one spot is John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.  Also among the top 10 worst were Los Angeles, Norfolk, Boston, Harry Reid in Vegas, Newark, Daniel K. Inouye in Honolulu and Dulles in Washington DC.  You can read the full study completed by Forbes here.

So, how did the 5 Florida airports rank in the top 25 worst for lost luggage?  Let's take a look

Between 2013 and 2022, Miami International Airport had the second highest number of both property loss claims and property damage claims

https://www.miami-airport.com/

Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport had the ninth highest number of property loss claims over the past decade and tied for eleventh with LAX for property damage claims

https://www.fort-lauderdale-airport.com/

Only about 29% of property loss claims were fully reimbursed.

https://www.orlandoairports.net/

Just over 24% of property loss claims were fully reimbursed.

https://flyrsw.com/

Less than 20% of property loss claims were fully reimbursed.

https://www.tampaairport.com/