Lost Luggage at Airports
Have you ever experienced the unpleasant situation of losing or forgetting your suitcase or backpack at an airport or on a plane? Have you ever wondered what happens to all those items that remain lost or forgotten and are never claimed? The answer is quite simple: they are auctioned off, although there's a prior process before reaching this point.
A study conducted in 2013 found that 15% of lost bags are never claimed, which is why they end up being auctioned off months later.
The first step is to open the suitcase in search of any object that can help identify its owner. For this task, the airline has 21 days. If after this time the owner cannot be located and the bag has not been claimed, it is officially considered lost.
According to the Montreal Convention, which states that all travelers should continue their journey even if they have lost their luggage, airports and airlines are required to auction off these items if the owner has not attempted to recover it three months after it was declared lost. In no case can they keep the contents.
Iberia, for example, organizes a public auction every year where people can bid on abandoned or lost items. This has been an activity that the company has been organizing since 1942.
Items that are to be auctioned are displayed for several weeks in hotel lobbies or warehouses of transport companies. Potential buyers, after viewing the lots, must submit an envelope with the amount of money they consider appropriate. Each lot has a minimum selling price, and if no one reaches that amount, the entire pack goes unsold. If a lot doesn't sell, some companies choose to donate its contents to a non-profit organization.
In the luggage, you will find all kinds of items: books, toys, shoes, watches, surfboards, mobile phones, costumes... The only items that are auctioned separately are gold and silver jewelry, which are appraised by professionals to determine their value. However, other products like cosmetics or perfumes are included in the aforementioned lots.
Nonetheless, the items that buyers find inside the lots do not always sell. Therefore, many try to repair or refurbish them to give them a second life. In fact, several second-hand companies bid on these items to stock their stores with second-hand products. Every week, thousands of objects are lost that, with the right treatment, can have a second life.