The Best Thing You Can Do To Make Sure Your Suitcase Doesn't Get Lost

While convenient, checking a bag at the airport is stressful for a few reasons. First, you have to budget for extra time on each end of your trip (and if you’ve ever traveled with kids or with a group, you know how difficult that is to coordinate). You have to get to the airport early to check your bags, and after you de-plane, you have to wait at the carousel while the people who were savvy enough to only bring a carry-on are already headed home.

Then there’s the situation every traveler dreads most: waiting at that carousel until the very last bag has been picked up, and realizing yours isn’t there. While there are a lot of systems in place to make sure bags don’t get lost during air travel, between missed connections and the fact that we’re all human, it does happen occasionally.

If you have travel coming up and are hoping to avoid this frustrating, potentially trip-ruining scenario, we’ve got you covered. According to travel experts we spoke to, there are a few things you can do to make sure your bag doesn’t end up in another city ― or at least locate it quickly if it does.

Experts No. 1 tip? Use a tracker.

All the travel experts we spoke with agreed: When it comes to keeping track of your luggage, Apple Air Tags or other Bluetooth luggage trackers are key.

In case you’re unfamiliar with these location-tracking devices, Air Tags can be added to items and easily located through the “Find My” app on an iPhone. “These aren’t too expensive and can easily be slipped inside your checked bag, with a custom name made by you in your iPhone’s Find My app,” said Elad Schaffer , CEO of Faye Travel Insurance.

Summer Hull,director of content at the travel website The Points Guy, added that readers of their site are big fans