What Do Airlines Do With Lost Luggage That’s Never Claimed?

In 2024, airlines mishandled 6.3 bags per 1,000 passengers, meaning it’s quite rare that your bag will be lost, delayed, damaged, or stolen. And even if it is, airlines have sophisticated technology to reunite 99.5% of mishandled bags with their owners. However, a tiny fraction of lost bags are truly lost, and airlines pay out claims to compensate those customers. But what about the bags that customers never claim? There’s an interesting process behind this unusual occurrence, and a town in Alabama even claims to be the “Lost Luggage Capital of the World.” Let’s take a closer look. 

What Happens to Bags After They’re Left at the Carousel

If you’ve ever stood around waiting for your luggage at bag claim, you may have seen a carousel with a lone bag or two rotating around again and again, with no one there to claim it. Typically, that’s because the bag ended up on the wrong flight, and after a while an airline employee will remove it from the carousel and attempt to reunite it with its owner. 

But what if the airline can’t find out who it belongs to? Although airlines and airports do their best to return lost items to their owners, a few pieces of luggage — less than 0.03% of all checked bags — never find their way home. According to a travel expert interviewed by Reader’s Digest, the airline will keep the bag at the airport for an average of five days before sending it to a storage facility, where the IATA requires airlines to hold onto it for at least 60 days. 

The Unclaimed Baggage Center 

After 60 days, airlines can offload an unclaimed bag, and for U.S. carriers, there’s one place it often ends up: the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama. Established in 1970 by entrepreneur Doyle Owens, the Unclaimed Baggage Center says it’s the only store in America that sells the contents of lost luggage. The store has agreements with major U.S. airlines and other transportation companies to buy unclaimed items. It resells them online and at a 50,000-square-foot outlet store in Scottsboro. 

According to the store’s website, the Unclaimed Baggage Center receives items at its processing center, where it then sorts them into three categories: resell, repurpose, or recycle. Only about a third of the items sent to the processing center are deemed sellable, but for every item sold, the company donates an average of one item to those in need and recycles the rest. Items that are sold are available at a hefty discount — up to 80% off retail prices. 

The physical store holds about 7,000 unique items, with thousands more available to browse online. And there are certainly some unique finds. In the past, the center has found a bear pelt packed in salt, a camera from the Space Shuttle (which they sent back to NASA), an Egyptian burial mask, a 10-foot Tibetan ceremonial horn, and even the Hoggle puppet from the 1986 movie Labyrinth. The latter was lovingly restored and now stands in their entryway to greet guests.

What You Can Do To Prevent Lost Luggage

While the Unclaimed Baggage Center offers a fascinating treasure trove of items that their owners never bothered to track down, chances are low that your bag will end up there if it’s misplaced. 

In 2024, around 33 million bags were mishandled, but 22 million of them were reunited with their owners within 48 hours. If, within five to 14 days, depending on the airline, the airline still can’t track down your bag, the Department of Transportation (DOT) has strict rules requiring airlines to reimburse you for its contents. Always file a lost bag claim with the airline as soon as you know it’s missing, and be sure to keep receipts for valuable items. 

To prevent this scenario from occurring in the first place, we have a few helpful tips. First, securely affix a bag tag outside with your name, email address, and phone number. You can also place a sheet of paper inside the bag in case the bag tag falls out. These days, we also recommend tossing an Apple AirTag (or similar Bluetooth device) into your bag, so you can get real-time updates on its location. Apple has even introduced a feature that allows you to share the item’s location directly with airlines, which should help you resolve any lost bag situation quickly. 

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