Scottsboro, Alabama. Ever been?
If you are looking for lost luggage you may want to book a trip, pronto.
In a previous post I shared my lost bag story of woe. At the time I was wearing my aunt’s clothes while the carrier tried to find my electric blue suitcase, I never dreamed that my bag could end up in a 40,000-square-foot structure along a dusty country road in Alabama.
But alas, Scottsboro is where many lost bags come to die… or find new owners courtesy of rock-bottom prices.
The southern city is home to the Unclaimed Baggage Center, a massive warehouse where thousands of lost bags are taken when airlines, buses, trains, cruise ships and rental car companies can’t find their rightful owners.
The center is known as the place where “a traveler’s misfortune turns into a bargain-hunter’s paradise.” That’s because not only are the bags sold to frugal customers, but the suitcases’ contents are too; everything from iPods to samurai swords, lingerie, laptop computers, skis, guitars and more.
If you have lost bags while flying on American, Delta, United, US Airways, JetBlue or AirTran, you can bet that your goods have spent time at the Unclaimed Baggage Center. The aforementioned carriers sell lost items in bulk to the center, sight unseen. Meanwhile, Alaska, Frontier, Hawaiian, Southwest, Spirit and Virgin America donate lost luggage to charities such as the Salvation Army.
According to the Unclaimed Baggage Center’s owner, new arrivals are placed out on the floor each day, including name brand jackets, jeans, and golf clubs. Shoppers can also find money-saving deals on books, jewelry and noise-canceling headphones that are packed in lost bags or left in seatback pockets.
For the record, airlines typically spend 90 days trying to reunite passengers and their lost goods. If their efforts are unsuccessful the bags get shipped to the center. Once in-house, more than 830,000 shoppers a year get a crack at taking home the used items for deeply discounted prices. All of the goods that don’t sell are donated to local charities or are trashed.
So, the next time you don’t see your suitcase circling on the baggage carousel, you might consider checking the luggage graveyard.
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