How to locate your lost baggage when flying Turkish Airlines

If you're reading this, it is probably too late. You're about to discover that the cheap airline tickets you bought from Turkish Airlines may end up costing you days or weeks of time in trying to locate your baggage. Luckily, many other people have been in your position and there are a few tips that you can follow that will speed up the process of getting your belongings back and proceeding with your vacation.

This article assumes that you have already filed a claim form with the airport that you landed at, when you first noticed you bag was missing. If you haven't done that, go back to that airport, and do that now.

The most important thing you can do is locate the airline-issued luggage tags and write down the code that should be on each of your bags. If you ever get anyone on the phone, they will need this number.

Note that even if you have the baggage tag/code, they still will be unlikely to track your bags.

You did not send your bags securely, like a FedEx package, you used Turkish Airlines. Prepare to be punished. The code on your luggage is only useful if you are speaking to an actual baggage handler. The phone agents at Turkish Airlines customer service will not be able to locate your stuff using this code.

After a couple days, the Turkish Airlines customer service agent, if you ever get them on the phone, is going to pressure you to give up looking for your bags and instead do one of two things: (A) file a claim with central booking or (B) file for an insurance reimbursement.

Do not do either of these two things. They want you to do this so that you stop bothering them. You will never get paid for your bag, and at $9.07 per pound of luggage that they would supposedly pay you, it is probably much less than your bag is worth anyway.

At this point you can give up calling Turkish Airlines customer service, or emailing them, or anything. They will not help you. It is unlikely they could help you even if they wanted to. You are 100% on your own and in control of your bag's destiny.

The next phase in your plan should be to contact the airport you landed at. If you are close to that airport, it helps to go in and speak to someone directly. Be extremely friendly with these people in person and on the phone. They might not be friendly in return (though you may be surprised) but they are your only hope to recover your bag.

Secret trick: If you are not close to the airport your bags should be at, or if it is possible for them to be at multiple airports, try to get the phone number for the appropriate baggage service company by calling any baggage company at the airport and calmly explaining the issue. And many smaller regional airports there are only a few offices, and the employees all know each other and can put you in touch with the right people.

Even if the airport doesn't have a Turkish Airlines office, it is likely that someone there will know who the baggage contractor for THY is. Again, be very friendly. These people know when the flights come in, and they can make your life much easier. Say please and thank you a lot.

A very small percentage of bags are actually lost or stolen permanently. Persistence pays off. See #2.

Don't tattoo the baggage tag number on yourself, because it might have changed without anyone telling you. Once you bag arrives at a destination and a human figures out that it is in the wrong place, they may place a new tag on it. This is because they have looked in the magic computer that no one at Turkish Airlines seems to know exists and figured out that, based on your claim form, it needs to be sent to a different airport or office, so that it can be delivered to you.

At that point, it seems as though they put a brand new tag on the bag, with a brand new number. You may never get told what that number is, and you will only find out what it is when it is no longer useful--when the bag is in your hand.

The baggage stewards will catalog your bag by its physical description as well as the name on the bag. Usually this is the last name on your ticket. However, if you checked in at your departure airport with a spouse, friend or group, it is not unlikely that the person at the desk may have put a tag with your companion's name on the bag. Consult your luggage tag (see #1) to find out the name on your bag. If the name on the tag is not correct, don't bother giving your name to anyone, it won't help. Give them the name on the bag.

The baggage services company is going to try to bring the bag as close to you as possible. If they have the address of the hotel you are staying at (given to them in the lost baggage claim we discussed in the introduction) they will try to bring the bag there. It seems to be impossible to change the address on your baggage claim, so if you have moved on from this location, you may have to keep calling that place.

If you did not lost a local address near your destination, the bags might be at the airport, or they might be at an office in the city nearby. Regardless, they will have arrived at an airport and the airport baggage services people will have a record of it. It may be a handwritten notebook record, though, not a computerized database, so be prepared to wait while they try to sort the information out for you.

Do not expect any contact from Turkish Airlines. Again, they do not care about you or your stuff. They aren't going to try to help or even try to keep you as a customer. Just because you haven't gotten a call doesn't mean your bag has been dropped into the ocean. This is just how THY operates their business. There is still hope.

Follow the steps above and you should be able to locate your belongings within 2-3 decades of your trip. Good luck!

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