What are the chances of Lost Luggage

Hi all, I am currently in the planning stages of my first hunt in Africa, Nimibia in fact and I have heard/read some real horror stories about lost luggage, mainly your hunting equipment. I will be bowhunting and I will be taking 2 bows in a locked case along with a locked case of arrows. My fear is my equipment not arriving on time or worse yet never shows up. Is there any tips or ideas on how to avoid this at all? Has anyone here had there equipment lost/late? I will be booking my airfare through Travel express out of Montana, Lori Ginn who has nothing but praise from all I have talked to with her expertise in Africa Travel.

I too hope you get some good tips here. I'm taking my second trip to South Africa in a month and we're "travelling light" with personal belongings, i.e. clothes ect. We still have a lot of hunting equipment flying with us so it's a bit nerve wracking. You can be friendly and helpful and prepared for anything where there's human to human interaction, but having your stuff roll away to be handled by strangers is certainly a hopeless feeling.

Jeff....this happened to me. Upon arrival to South Africa I was told my rifles never made it on the plane. You could imagine I was very upset. This was not a good start to my first safari. Luckily my rifles arrived the next morning and the trip turned out great. My advice to you, be sure to include more than one lable or tag on your case with personal info. I would also take out some lost luggage insurance. One thing I also did was to take a full set of clothing and boots with me on the plane in case my suitcase was lost. I don't think there's a way to avoid this all together but we do what we can in case it does. Good luck!

Happened with my bow.
Left behind and did not make it to the next plane. (Short connection is all I can think of)

Lost baggage claim made immediately upon arrival in RSA.
I followed up with an email, informing the airline of the proper address to send it to in RSA, as I was leaving for Namibia in the morning.
I assumed it would arrive on the next plane, 24 hours later and would be delivered. However, I never heard from them.
Upon arrival at the lodge in RSA I found out it had not arrived. It had been three weeks since I arrived! Needless to say I was not pleased.

My Suggestions:
1) Reduce the number of connections to an absolute minimum.
2) Minimize short connections.

Lost Luggage:
There is no code or picture on their forms for Bow Case.
TAKE A PICTURE OF YOUR CASE and have it with you. Including contents.


Good luck.

As a retired airline pilot I can say "Yes, it can happen BUT it is not happening very often these days with what they call "positive match" on all baggage and travelers. Lori has people available to help in Africa if things go wrong. I had it happen once 15 yrs ago but the following 4 trips all went well. Your routing and plane changes have a lot to do with it, along with how much "connection time" you give yourself. Do as 1Obsessedhunter says and bring your first day hunting clothes and boots on board with you so you can still hunt if all goes wrong. That's what I do, too! Take any meds you need with you also IN PROPERLY LABELED BOTTLES. Good luck on your hunt!

I have experienced lost luggage once.
That was on a trip in Asia and on my flight home to Europe we had to land on an Airport in China because a young lady on the plane became ill.
Then they got this idea to take her luggage out from the plane and since it was packed in a luggage container they could not put the container and its luggage back in the plane without a security check first, so our luggage were left in China.
We got it driven to our house 2-3 days later.

Even if I think the chances for loosing my luggage are small, I always bring my hunting boots on the plane.

All good items are coveed.

1. As few connections as necessary.
2. with connections have time available to make the connections and your luggage.
3. Pack clothing for 1 change, wear your hunting boots on the airplane and then change them.
4. Take pictures of your luggage and provide to your travel agent and keep a copy to take with you on the airplane.
5. Plan a night in your first city like Joberg so your luggage can catch up if late or lost.
6. double tag or label everything and put a label in the case.
7. make a itemized list of what is in each bag or case.
8. Take all your meds in your carry on.
9. Any valuable you are traveling with should be in your carry on.
10. put locks on your bags. I like the strap one that go around your bag and then padlocks.
11. carry extra padlocks just in case you need them.
12. if you are nervous about your bags there is a new GPS chips that can be added to your case for instant tracking, with your laptop computer.

Originally Posted by James.Grage

All good items are coveed.

1. As few connections as necessary.
2. with connections have time available to make the connections and your luggage.
3. Pack clothing for 1 change, wear your hunting boots on the airplane and then change them.
4. Take pictures of your luggage and provide to your travel agent and keep a copy to take with you on the airplane.
5. Plan a night in your first city like Joberg so your luggage can catch up if late or lost.
6. double tag or label everything and put a label in the case.
7. make a itemized list of what is in each bag or case.
8. Take all your meds in your carry on.
9. Any valuable you are traveling with should be in your carry on.
10. put locks on your bags. I like the strap one that go around your bag and then padlocks.
11. carry extra padlocks just in case you need them.
12. if you are nervous about your bags there is a new GPS chips that can be added to your case for instant tracking, with your laptop computer.

WOW, great info. Could you PM me and tell me more about the GPS chips and where I might find them. THANKS

Thanks to all for the great info. I think this is the biggest fear I have. Getting over there and then having the whole trip ruined from lost items.

I can see why you feel that way. It would be hard to use a different bow. I hunt with a rifle so it would be easier to use one of the PH's especially for plans game where about anything with good bullets will work. Dangerous game I would like my rifle.

I can see why you would be worried as said above short connections and to many flight changes are killers. on my first trip to South Africa I arrived in Jberg 4 hours to kill went to collect our luggage to tranfer to a Domestic flight after standing there for 45 minutes there was no more luggage on the carousel a lady came out and told us there was no more luggage and to go to the claims counter to fill out forms for lost luggage after about an hour and a half with 150 or so other passangers she came around the corner and said there was more luggage on the carousel so it turned out ok. But on our second trip we arrive in Jberg collected our luggage and guns went through customs checked our luggage and Guns when we arrived in East London the guns were there but our luggage and ammo wasn't it arrived the next day but our first day of hunting was in the clothes we traveled in and a borrowed rifle sence we didn't have any ammo for our rifles. Bottom line give yourself plenty of time.

As normal you got a astonishing amount of information. I have never had this happen but have planed for it, if you are going with a friend there is something you can do. Take your main bow and his backup bow, and then he has your backup and his main. I have allways thought it was more likely for them to only misplace one case and this way you have a good chance of always having a proper fitting bow.

Originally Posted by kal

As normal you got a astonishing amount of information. I have never had this happen but have planed for it, if you are going with a friend there is something you can do. Take your main bow and his backup bow, and then he has your backup and his main. I have allways thought it was more likely for them to only misplace one case and this way you have a good chance of always having a proper fitting bow.

WOW, Great idea, and I will be travelling with my son-in-law and he will be bowhunting also. I don't know as of yet as I have not been there before, but what you said about them only misplacing on set definately eliminates that ugly chance of not shooting at all. GREAT RESPONSE!!!!

this happened to me also ,my luggage for some reason never got unloaded in sydney after the flight from melbourne and ended up back where we statred and when we got to j/bourg they already knew and told me straight away and promised to drive it up to limpopo for me so i hunted the first 2 days in light faded denim jeans and an old rag of a leafy jacket .

and i was fortunate enough to stalk a bueatifull nyala bull in this set up with my bow
i always take my g.p.s rangefinder , uhf radio ,binos and release aid in my carry on bag

found the new product that i read about.

it will be available in march of 2013 product name is Trakdot GPS luggage tracker

You can find horror storys everywhere. You have about as much chance of losing your gear anywhere in the world. I would submit the bigger the airport the more chance you have.

I think Chicago has the worst record for the most lost luggage.

The only 'lost' storys I've heard from Australians is when guys have got back to Oz and the Aussie airports lose them (temporarily).

One of the things that my wife does when we go on vacation is pack 2 bags. One for her and one for me. Half of my stuff goes in her bag and half her stuff goes in mine. That way if one bag is lost at least you have half of your clothes and stuff.

Here's the deal . Fly Delta via Atlanta. The flight is direct without stop. If you have a connection(I am assuming but you could live in Atlanta) Leave a long time between connections, at least 2 plus hours. Also get a good strong bow case. My bow became unstrung. I assume it happened at RSA customs. I am also planning on using a zip tie to make pulling it back impossible. Pack light 2 to 3 outfits tops. They do your laundry so let them. Also take all essentials in a carry on. It would be terrible to be away from needed medication

good luck-Jerry