Having luggage lost or stolen while travelling is a frequent travel nightmare. Not only is it expensive to have to replace clothinhg - things can be even worse if you lose important business documents that you need for your meetings.

 

The best way to cope with luggage being lost or stolen on a business trip is to prevent it from happening in the first place. It is important to put two tags on each piece of your luggage; one with your home or business contact information on, and another with the address of the hotel where you will be staying and your room number. Because these tags can often fall off due to the rough treatment that luggage receives, you should also write down this contact information on a sheet of paper and place it inside the suitcase. This goes for carry on luggage as well because it is easy for things to be lost.

What do you do when you take the proper precautions and your luggage still becomes lost or stolen? When your luggage does not appear on the carousel make your way directly to the claim counter for lost luggage. It is good to be there as soon as possible because you will often not be the only one who is missing luggage and it could take quite a while to get things straightened out. If you flew on more than one airline to get to your destination, go to the claims counter of the last airline you were on.

Most often they will simply tell you that your luggage has been delayed. While this is good news, make sure that they can back the statement up with some kind of evidence. If it does turn out that your bags have been lost or stolen, it is important to keep a cool head and not take it out on the person at the claims counter. After all, he or she is not the one responsible for the missing luggage. Because you are away from home, it is a good idea to stay in contact with the airline until the issue has been resolved. They may even have a web site that you can visit that will give you information on your bags in real time.

When luggage is lost you will have to fill out a lost bag form. It is a good idea to make a copy for yourself so you don’t have to go to the airport if you need an extra copy. The bad news is that once luggage is lost, it usually stays that way. It may turn up later, but that will probably be once your business trip is over. The good news is that they will usually reimburse you for your loss, but it will not come unless you stay on them about it.

Lawrence Tyrone Reaves is a Richmond corporate housing consultant at Dabneyproperties.com, a temporary corporate housing provider in the Richmond area and beyond.

 

 

The number of people taking to the skies from the UK is continuing to decline. Britain’s 33 busiest airports are all reporting lower passenger figures for the first 8 months of this year.

Many of the most popular destinations from the UK are the worst affected with a fall of 1 in 10 passengers to the United States and a drop of 1 in 6 passengers travelling from London to New York. Certain UK airports have been more badly affected by the downturn in air travel with Gatwick airport reporting a loss of 2 million passengers and traffic at Prestwick airport down by 25%.

Business travellers are down by 15% in the first quarter of 2009, according to the Guild of Travel Management Companies. Surveys show that passenger figures have consistently declined for four consecutive quarters.

The fall in demand for air transport is thought to be partly due to the recession and partly due to the decline in the value of the pound.Many British holidaymakers have opted to stay at home this year instead of flying to traditional vacation destinations in Spain or America.

Some airlines are making cutbacks as a direct result of the decline in business. BMIBaby have announced that they will be making cuts in routes from Cardiff, Birmingham and Manchester as a result of the continued downturn in business. And last week British Airways announced that they had suffered unprecedented summer losses and these will result in a reduction in the number of flight attendants on each flight from Heathrow from November 16th.

It has been reported that we are through the worst of the recession and that there is now evidence of the green shoots of recovery. Unfortunately for airports and airlines it looks like there is a long way to go before passenger figures recover to their pre-recession levels.

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Always ensure that you have the right travel insurance for your trip. Are you travelling for business? Get some business travel insurance. Are you going on an adventurous, activity based holiday? Be certain that you are covered with some adventure travel insurance.