Upsides to luggage tags

When taking a trip with multiple destinations, my wife, Patti, and I want any lost luggage to find us in the destination country.

For example, we flew to Lima, Peru, in May 2015 and inserted our names along with our hotel name and address into our luggage tags. From Lima to Cuzco, we inserted the name of a new hotel, and the same for our flight to La Paz and the trip back home. This way, if our luggage was lost, it was more likely to be delivered to our destination hotel.

On the tags, we included a cell number and email address so we could be called, texted or emailed.

On most trips, on each of our checked and carry-on bags, we ALSO attach a RuMeID tag (www.rumeid.com), which I previously wrote about (April '17, pg. 16), although in some remote places, not every baggage handler or taxi driver has the app to scan the RuMeID tag's QR code. For those places, it's back to the belt-and-suspenders old-fashioned tag. Also, if plans change or a flight is missed, we can easily change the old-style tag without needing access to the Internet.

An added advantage to the old tags is taxi drivers can see where you want to be taken on arrival if you don't speak the local language.

In the late '70s, someone mistakenly picked up my bag and left the airport with it, but it was delivered to our hotel a few hours later with a note of apology. Without our hotel's address in the tag, it would have been sent back to our home.

TONY LEISNER
Tarpon Springs, FL