Every year, of the more than 2.5 billion bags checked onto flights worldwide, 26 million go missing — and of that 26 million, 1 million never make it back to their original owner. Bad weather and flight delays, miscoded destination tags and some people simply forgetting to pick up one of their bags are a few of the reasons. But the number-one reason a bag ends up lost is that it has no ID tag, and airlines don't know to whom it belongs.
Transferring baggage from check-in to departure gates to arrival gates to baggage claim is a delicate piece of timing. If the system moves too slowly, the bags won't make connecting flights. If it's too fast, the bags may make the connection but the passengers might miss the flight. Each airport has its own way of allotting how much time a bag needs to move in transit. Some airports have sophisticated automated systems, including scanners that read baggage labels, destination-coded vehicles that load and unload the bags without stopping, and sorting machines that route baggage to the appropriate gate. Even so, all that technology may not save your baggage tag from being torn off on the conveyor belt, making you the owner of a bag with no name.
Once a bag goes missing and the passenger files a claim, the bag is declared "mishandled" by the carrier. Mishandled refers to bags that have been delayed, lost, stolen or damaged. Most delayed bags are only one flight behind their owners and can be delivered within 24 hours. The other bags are examined by airline employees for clues to their ownership and destination. If the mystery is solved, those bags are returned to their owners within four or five days. Bags with no destination code or identification tag are shipped to a central warehouse, and undergo a comprehensive baggage tracing process over the next 90 days.
Airlines inventory their mishandled baggage, and many use a database to match the contents with owners' descriptions. It takes about three months to go from "missing in action" to "irretrievably lost". Once that happens, the bags are donated to charity, sold at auction, or purchased by a company which sells them to the public.
So never pack anything of real value in your checked baggage. And make sure your name is on the bag, along with your phone number, so an agent can contact you.