I bought a stranger’s lost suitcase for £40 – and here’s what I found inside
RUMMAGING through her new luggage, Heather Main is disgusted to find four pairs of dirty boxers.
It’s not what she’d hoped for when paying £40 for a lost suitcase in an airline auction.
With 26million bags going missing across the aviation industry in 2022, the auctions are gaining in popularity, with top prices for a suitcase hitting around £100.
Content creators on TikTok film themselves rummaging through stray cases they have bought, searching for treasure — with the hashtag #LostluggageUK receiving 79million views.
One anonymous buyer at an auction at Greasby’s in Tooting, South London, reportedly cut open the lining of the suitcase he had paid £11 for and found £9,000 in cash rolled up inside.
Another anonymous man discovered £1,500 of cash inside a suitcase he had got for £60.
Meanwhile, a TikTok user known as Roxi paid £18 and bagged items from designer brands Gucci and YSL worth more than £380.
Striking gold
But mum-of-two Heather, 38, from Worcester, was not so lucky.
She also bid on her case at Greasby’s, which sells lost luggage from BA and Heathrow Airport that the companies can not reunite with passengers.
She says: “While I can think of nothing worse than accidentally stumbling across someone gleefully rifling through my lost knickers on TikTok, I was curious whether I could bag a bargain buying someone else’s missing bags.
“The online auction is easy. I browsed an online catalogue and entered a bid via email. You can go in person, but I found the times to be quite inconvenient.
“I studied the descriptions of lots of luggage in a vain attempt to decipher which would be most likely to contain designer goods.
“But after reading the small print, I was disappointed to learn my chances of striking gold were seriously limited as auction house workers go through each case to remove anything of obvious value to auction off separately.
“Tech, phones and jewellery would already have been fished out, but it could still be crammed with designer clobber. Or the auction house could have missed a pricey item in an inner pocket.
“I placed a bid on two items — Lot 435, khaki green travel case (ladies’ and children’s clothing and cosmetics), and Lot 47, black cabin case (mixed clothing).
“I bid what the auction house suggests is average, £100 on each case, but won both cases for just £40 each. Couriering them to my home cost a further £100.
“One of my cases arrived the next day. But after 14 days, Parcelforce revealed that the black one has been lost AGAIN!
“So I applied to be reimbursed for that one.
“On first inspection, the case that did arrive was a little shabby and as soon as I unzipped it, I sensed I would be disappointed.
“The inside was covered in foundation, which had erupted from its tube. Packed neatly at the top were two children’s winter jackets, sporting a splattering of make-up and too wrecked to be sold on.
“Next up was a pair of memory foam Sketchers in good condition. They seemed a decent find as they are £40 new — but they too had a foundation splattering.
“There was also a little pink jumper, with a dog printed on the front — which made me feel a bit sad and I hope there isn’t a child somewhere devastated about losing their favourite top.
“I made my way through the remaining items — a couple of unbranded men’s T-shirts, a lady’s summer dress, men’s gym shorts and four pairs of crumpled, presumably unwashed boxers. I wish I’d worn gloves.
“There was a tube of factor 60 sun screen that I’ll use and a nail varnish in a lovely shade of plum.
“But I doubt I’d make my £40 back if I put the lot on eBay, including the unbranded suitcase.
“Feeling slightly deflated, I checked the front pockets of the case — that wad of cash could be in there. But all I pulled out were six miniature Canadian flags.” Despite Heather’s haul being somewhat disappointing, it almost beggars belief that your private possessions could end up in an auction — and that airlines can make money from holidaymakers’ misfortune.
But consumer expert Jane Hawkes, 48, says it is all entirely legal.
She explains: “Airlines have 21 days to find any luggage you report as lost or delayed, and reunite you with it.
“If luggage is returned within 21 days, passengers can claim compensation for delayed luggage but — and this is the annoying bit — legally if more than 21 days has passed, it will be deemed lost and passengers can claim compensation of a maximum £1,000 on domestic flights and £1,395 for international flights instead.
“Once luggage is deemed lost and the airline reimburses the traveller in a lump sum within 30 days, the airline has fulfilled its legal obligations, and no further action on their part is required.
“Basically, they are free to sell your stuff.”
Someone who knows first-hand the pain of losing their holiday luggage is Paulomi Debneth, 44, whose suitcase was lost after a holiday to India.
The seller of homemade jewellery from Romford, East London, believes people should be ashamed of buying other people’s luggage.
She says: “My suitcase disappeared after an Air India flight from Kolkata to Heathrow.
“For anyone profiting from lost luggage, be that TikTokkers who are buying them and rummaging for valuables, or airports and air-travel companies, you should be ashamed.
“After a two-hour wait in baggage claims at Heathrow, we realised my suitcase was missing.
“I immediately went into panic mode. As well as lots of expensive saris and jewellery I’d got from my mum and sister who live in Kolkata and my beloved and pricey Mulberry handbag, there was also my collection of about 100 vintage comic books, which had enormous sentimental value.
“Since I’d moved to the UK, they’d been stored at the family home but on this trip I decided to take them back with me.
“After arriving at Heathrow we waited two hours in the baggage hall before realising the suitcase was missing. We’d been travelling for 14 hours and were shattered and it’s fair to say I freaked out.
“Air India said the suitcase had made it on to the flight and that they thought it might have been picked up by another passenger by mistake. They assured me it would be returned in about a week, but after three weeks I had to accept it wasn’t going to happen.
I waited and waited, but my case never came. It gave me a real sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Louanna Jasmin
“We’d taken out travel insurance with HSBC and put in a claim, but they wanted us to produce receipts for everything that had been in the case.
“It took a year of emails for us to finally get an offer of £400 from HSBC and £180 from Air India. It wasn’t a fraction of the value of everything that had been in the case, not to mention the case itself which cost around £200. But I just wanted the whole thing to be over, so I accepted it.
“I’ve now changed how I travel. I take photos of my luggage and make a point of never putting anything I can’t bear to lose in any suitcase that’ll go into the hold.
Similarly, Louanna Jasmin lost her case when flying home from a holiday on the Greek island of Kos.
She says: “I waited and waited, but my case never came. It gave me a real sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Win or lose
“I complained at Manchester Airport, to the lost-luggage desk. They took my details but I was just dismissed. EasyJet said I had to liaise with the airport. No one seemed to care and they never found my luggage.
“The contents were worth around £2,000 but what upset me most was the loss of a gold bracelet given by my grandmother. We’d always been close and she’d given it to me just before she passed away a couple of years previously. It was irreplaceable.
“I also lost an iPad with a hard- drive attached and lots of photographs I’ll never be able to recover, including some of relatives who have since passed away.
“With hindsight, perhaps I should have kept it all in hand luggage. I just never thought this would happen to me.
“I made a claim via my travel insurance and got back a measly £200. Now I use air tags in all my stuff if I travel — in the hope that if this does happen again, I’d be able to track down what is mine.”
“I was devastated to lose everything and it makes it even worse to think someone could buy it for pennies. I’ve seen videos on TikTok of people opening these lost suitcases they’ve paid a pittance for. It seems to be a game — you either ‘win’ or ‘lose’.
“But that stuff they make fun of is someone else’s life.”
‘Put Label Inside Your Cases Too’
BEFORE travelling, add a label to your luggage with your name, address and email address, says consumer expert Jane Hawkes.
She adds: “Put a label on the inside, too, and always make sure you have travel insurance so you can file a claim if baggage is lost.
“The first step, after realising your luggage is not at the airport, is to report your luggage as lost or delayed at the airport.
“Make sure you keep a copy of the Property Irregularity Report they give you.
“Then contact the airline in writing within seven days for lost baggage, to explain how much the bag and the contents are worth by using receipts or credit card records as proof.
“Most airlines will reimburse you for the bare essentials you need when your bag is delayed, which can cover toiletries, laundry costs and underwear.
“Some airlines will pay a daily rate – make sure you check with your airline ahead of travelling.
“Remember, on a positive note, 85 per cent of total lost luggage is found and returned within 36 hours.
“If your luggage is missing for 21 days, it’s officially considered lost and you can get compensation.
“There isn’t a rule for a fixed amount of compensation you can receive, as it depends on the airline and the value of what you have lost.
“The maximum payout will be around £1,000.”