Polish carrier LOT organized the first sale auction in the country lost luggage. According to the rules set by IATA (International Association air transport), lost baggage must be stored for two years.
If, after this period, the owner or possessor of the things does not claim the things, the company has the right to dispose of them.
There were 100 people who wanted to take part in such an auction - that is how many people bought participation tickets worth about 2.5 euros (10 zlotys). An additional feature of the auction was that none of the participants knew what exactly he was buying - all the suitcases were closed, so it only remained to make assumptions about their contents based on their shape and appearance.
At the beginning of the auction, the lots were sold at a price that practically did not exceed the starting price - 2.5 euros. But gradually, the participants of the event began to show more excitement, and the average purchase amount was about 84 euros (PLN 350). The most expensive lot was sold for 143 euros (PLN 600). A total of 67 pieces of luggage were sold for a total of 5,485 euros (PLN 23,000). Most of them contained clothes, but some of the suitcases also contained electronic devices such as laptops, phones and photo scanners.
For those who do not want to find their luggage at such auctions, use these.
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Those who fly frequently will definitely understand us: every time we have to check in a suitcase, our hearts bleed. Therefore, airlines lose suitcases with enviable regularity, without much excitement or even apologies. The first time this happened to Nastya, who flew Airberlin from Warsaw to Helsinki. Since what is in suitcases is much more expensive for girls, Nastya will tell. So, I ended up at the Helsinki airport with a laptop, documents and money, in shorts and a T-shirt, and without a suitcase. I hypnotized the tape with my eyes for a long time, but he never appeared. It was on the eve of a conference in Finland (where you can’t go in shorts), and all the best dresses bought at the June sales in Europe were languishing in a suitcase. In short, I was completely unprepared for this turn of events. The suitcase was brought to the hotel 2 days later, in addition, they compensated for what I spent on basic needs (a dress and a toothbrush). But the sediment remained, so I, if possible, do not hand over the suitcase. The worst, however, was in the USA, where my suitcase was actually lost every second time. This also happened because, even if the suitcase is small (of course, hand luggage), it is taken away from the gate, they say, the luggage compartments on the plane are small, don’t worry, you will receive it at the place of arrival. No exhortations, crying about already lost (although later found) suitcases do not help, and upon arrival the suitcase is not found again. It is usually brought home on the same day or the next (strangely, it seems that it is easier and cheaper for them to arrange courier delivery than to organize the normal movement of luggage). But you have enough time to suffer during this time and suffer about what was in the suitcase. According to my observations, this does not depend on the airline, it is done by all American airlines on which we flew, which causes real inconvenience. For example, our friends were going on a hike, they flew to Utah for this, as they thought, with suitcases full of equipment for the hike. However, the suitcases with them did not arrive, they were brought only a few days later, and all this time the friends could not go on a hike, thus losing a lot of time.
I have always wondered (although I thought about it with horror) what happens to suitcases that never found their owners. After all, it is very easy to get lost forever: there are so many identical black suitcases that are not even signed, and even if you climb inside, there will not always be something identifying the owner. So, these suitcases end up in… Scottsboro. In this town of Alabama is the so-called Unclaimed Baggage Center - a huge store selling what could be missing from your suitcase.
At the entrance to the store is a small impromptu museum of unusual things that have not found their owners. 
Among them are silverware decorated with figures of the apostles, an old Russian icon, a Jewish prayer book, a rather old Polish baptismal medallion, scenery from famous films - in short, things that were obviously dear to their owners no less than to me - dresses.
Well, the quotes of the “great ones” about how unusual the store itself is. 
How and why do our precious things get there?
According to the store's official website, 99.5% of checked-in suitcases on domestic flights go straight to their owners upon arrival (false!). 0.5-1% of suitcases do not arrive with passengers, but within 5 days 95% of them find their way to the owner. Another half of the remaining suitcases are within 3 months. And only those suitcases that have remained abandoned end up in this center, which has a contract with several airline and bus companies. Often things are terribly dirty, wrinkled, wet, so the staff puts them in order. I must say that there are a lot of staff there (no wonder, because there are a lot of buyers) and they are very polite. The equipment that gets here is tested, in addition, the personal data of the former owner is erased (instead of finding him by them). Hang up price tags.
Of course, some things never hit the shelves, and here the staff seems to have seen enough of everything (on the site they write that they even found a rattlesnake).
The store, as always in America, is a success story (on other people's things - *sobbing). In 1970, insurer Doyle Ovens, having borrowed a truck and $300, for the first time redeemed the "dangling" luggage from the bus company. His venture was immediately successful. In 1974, he already signs a contract with one of major airlines(Demand exceeded supply!). Among other things, unexpected finds made them successful, for example, Egyptian artifacts dating back to 1500 BC, which were subsequently sold at Christie's auction. Or a 5.8 carat diamond ring. Not surprisingly, the business became a family business and was increasingly promoted, for example, through television shows. Over time, they begin to sell lost or undeclared cargo legal entities. More than a million people visit the store every year.
It is no coincidence that the prices are higher than in the usual (even supervintage) second-hand store. 
The store has everything: wedding dresses - 
Ethnic clothes in assortment: 
iPads and a bunch of other technology: 
That's all, not to mention just huge departments of women's, men's and children's clothing.
In the neighborhood of this center there are small “sticking” shops, of course, incomparable in scale: 
In short, if you do not want your things to be rummaged, touched, washed, and then sold for a lot of money, take care of your suitcases. And certainly never put there what is dear to you.
And, finally, and for edification, a donkey, sad for its owners.
In September the company Turkish Airlines» will start a sale of lost items. According to Emel Ersenmez Kachar, head of the airline's lost and found department in Istanbul, storing lost and forgotten items at airports and on board aircraft is too expensive. According to the Turks, only last year, passengers forgot during the trip and no longer remembered 478 suitcases, 537 strollers, 32 wheelchairs - in total, there are more than 14 thousand different things on the list.
Of course, not only Turkish passengers forget their things on the road. So, only in the capital's Domodedovo airport, about 10 thousand orphan items are found annually, or about 900 per month. Most often, these are all sorts of little things that are placed in special trays during pre-flight control. “Usually these are cell phones, glasses, belts, keys or watches,” Sergey Martirosyan, an employee of the airport press service, told NI. “Laptops, portable devices, toys are brought from the plane, and once a false jaw was brought into the unclaimed baggage compartment.”
Employees of another airport in the capital claim that any forgotten thing, no matter how expensive it is, ends up in the unclaimed baggage room. “First and foremost it is a safety issue. After all, a forgotten thing can turn out to be an explosive device, - an employee of the press service of the Vnukovo airport explained to NI. - If a travel bag is found, it is first checked for explosiveness. If everything is fine, an act is drawn up, an inventory is drawn up, and the find is sent to the unclaimed baggage room.
Each airport has at least two rooms where they keep forgotten and lost things. One contains the "losses" of passengers on domestic flights, the other - things found in the terminals and on board international flights. This division is not accidental. The fact is that the search for the owners of things flying within the country is carried out by the services of the airports themselves. Specialists air harbor contact the airport of departure, clarify the details of the luggage to find out who it belongs to, and return it to the owner. With international baggage, the situation is slightly different. Information about him is entered into the World Tracer automated search system. After a missing person's report is received, all information in a special encoding enters a single database, the center of which is located in the United States. From there, the data is sent to all the airports on the planet included in the system, after which they are automatically compared with information about unclaimed baggage, which is entered into the database by airlines from around the world. If the data of the lost and found luggage match, it will be sent to the owner.
However, this owner tracing system only works with luggage left in the terminal or on the belt. After registration and passing through customs control, a special marking is attached to the baggage, which indicates the flight number, point of departure and arrival, information about the owner. It is more difficult if a handbag, other hand luggage and small items are lost, the owner of which is almost impossible to establish. Such items will be stored in the unclaimed luggage compartment until the owner finds himself or until the expiration of the storage period. According to the decree of the Ministry of Transport and Communications, if things were found on board the aircraft, they will wait 30 days for the owners in the storage room, after which they will be transferred to the terminal for storage for six months. The same storage period is provided for unclaimed baggage.
According to airport employees, they are doing everything possible to find the owner and return the loss to him. In particular, the press service of Vnukovo gives the following example: “Recently, a television shooting took place in one of our terminals. Before entering the sterile zone, the entire film crew underwent a mandatory screening. There, the journalist, without noticing it, forgot his passport. In the midst of the filming process, his wife called him and said that his passport was waiting for him at the control. As it turned out later, the security officers immediately found the loss and reported it over the speakerphone, however, as is often the case with passengers, the journalist simply did not pay attention to this announcement.
But if the owner has not been found, and the storage period at the airport has expired, then the forgotten things are disposed of. According to representatives of airports, such a fate awaits clothing, cosmetics, and even expensive equipment. The only exceptions are new items with a tag - they "are subject to sale in the manner prescribed by law", or rather, they will find new owners in second-hand and commission shops. So that everything acquired by overwork does not burn out with a blue flame, experts advise absent-minded passengers to write their last name, address, telephone number (with city and country codes) legibly and in Latin letters on two tags. One should be attached to the outside of the suitcase, the second should be placed on top of things inside. In addition, it is better to remove used baggage tags so that there is no confusion.
The procedure for storing forgotten things on railway stations and in trains a little different. If the find was found at the station, it is sent to the storage room, where it stays for 30 days, after which it is disposed of. If the loss is detected on the train, then it is handed over to the head of the train, who, in turn, transfers it to the storage room at the final station. “The only thing that is disposed of immediately is the food found in the luggage,” Olga Vnukovskaya, an employee of the Russian Railways press service, told NI. – But, as practice shows, most often passengers lose documents, phones and laptops. Naturally, the luggage storage staff are trying to find the owners, if there is at least some Contact Information».
Forgotten things are stored in hotels for three months. “If during this period the owner did not contact us for the loss, the finds are disposed of,” Natalya Egorova, head of the department for the maintenance of the Izmailovo hotel, told NI.
We add that the number of forgetful passengers and hotel guests has remained unchanged over the years, say the keepers of unclaimed things.
Not expensive.
So I thought it was a joke.
Reading: Lufthansa is selling off unclaimed baggage. Thought it was fake.
I dug deeper... Oh-ba-na...
Welcome to Kofferauktion24.de
To information
The proposed suitcases, baggage pieces and detection items are entered in order in the EU and are thus not subject to restrictions on the free movement of goods. Out of content, they were next to items of pernicious goods and wet parts are forbidden, cash, remotely.
Whether suitcases, or objects found during the journey, or returning home went lost, we don’t know. Accordingly, the condition is from quite decent to maybe less decent, from brought linen or clothes to new ones, everything is possible. If you start from yourself, point out everything that can be in the suitcase, nothing is impossible.
At suitcase auctions, however, there is not only a suitcase, but also found objects, for example: Children's cars, mobile phones, photos, camcorders, clothes, parasols, umbrellas, decorations, surprise packages, notebooks and much more. Please note that the items found may also be of international origin.
Her auction house Clesle
Martin Klesle - publicly commissioned and sworn auctioneer
Do you want to participate?
And here's more...
for reference:
in the capital's Domodedovo airport, about 10 thousand orphan items are found annually, or about 900 per month. Most often, these are all sorts of little things that are placed in special trays during pre-flight control. “Usually these are cell phones, glasses, belts, keys or watches,” Sergey Martirosyan, an employee of the airport press service, told NI. “Laptops, portable devices, toys are brought from the plane, and once a false jaw was brought into the unclaimed baggage compartment.”
Employees of another airport in the capital claim that any forgotten item, no matter how expensive it may be, ends up in the unclaimed baggage room. “First and foremost it is a safety issue. After all, a forgotten thing can turn out to be an explosive device, - an employee of the press service of the Vnukovo airport explained to NI. - If a travel bag is found, it is first checked for explosiveness. If everything is fine, an act is drawn up, an inventory is drawn up, and the find is sent to the unclaimed baggage room.
Each airport has at least two rooms where they keep forgotten and lost things. One contains the "losses" of passengers of domestic flights, the other - things found in the terminals and on board international flights. This division is not accidental. The fact is that the search for the owners of things flying within the country is carried out by the services of the airports themselves. Air harbor specialists contact the airport of departure, clarify the details of the baggage to find out who it belongs to, and return it to the owner. With international baggage, the situation is slightly different. Information about him is entered into the World Tracer automated search system. After a missing person's report is received, all information in a special encoding enters a single database, the center of which is located in the United States. From there, the data is sent to all the airports on the planet included in the system, after which they are automatically compared with information about unclaimed baggage, which is entered into the database by airlines from around the world. If the data of the lost and found luggage match, it will be sent to the owner.
However, this owner tracing system only works with luggage left in the terminal or on the belt. After registration and passing through customs control, a special marking is attached to the baggage, which indicates the flight number, point of departure and arrival, information about the owner. It is more difficult if a handbag, other hand luggage and small items are lost, the owner of which is almost impossible to establish. Such items will be stored in the unclaimed luggage compartment until the owner finds himself or until the expiration of the storage period. According to the decree of the Ministry of Transport and Communications, if things were found on board the aircraft, they will wait 30 days for the owners in the storage room, after which they will be transferred to the terminal for storage for six months. The same storage period is provided for unclaimed baggage.
According to airport employees, they are doing everything possible to find the owner and return the loss to him. In particular, the press service of Vnukovo gives the following example: “Recently, a television shooting took place in one of our terminals. Before entering the sterile zone, the entire film crew underwent a mandatory screening. There, the journalist, without noticing it, forgot his passport. In the midst of the filming process, his wife called him and said that his passport was waiting for him at the control. As it turned out later, the security officers immediately found the loss and reported it over the speakerphone, however, as is often the case with passengers, the journalist simply did not pay attention to this announcement.
But if the owner has not been found, and the storage period at the airport has expired, then the forgotten things are disposed of. According to representatives of airports, such a fate awaits clothing, cosmetics, and even expensive equipment. The only exceptions are new items with a tag - they "are subject to sale in the manner prescribed by law", or rather, they will find new owners in second-hand stores and commission shops. So that everything acquired by overwork does not burn out with a blue flame, experts advise absent-minded passengers to write their last name, address, telephone number (with city and country codes) legibly and in Latin letters on two tags. One should be attached to the outside of the suitcase, the second should be placed on top of things inside. In addition, it is better to remove used baggage tags so that there is no confusion.
The procedure for storing forgotten things at railway stations and on trains is slightly different. If the find was found at the station, it is sent to the storage room, where it stays for 30 days, after which it is disposed of. If the loss is detected on the train, then it is handed over to the head of the train, who, in turn, transfers it to the storage room at the final station. “The only thing that is disposed of immediately is the food found in the luggage,” Olga Vnukovskaya, an employee of the Russian Railways press service, told NI. - But, as practice shows, most often passengers lose documents, phones and laptops. Naturally, the luggage storage staff try to look for the owners if there is at least some contact information. (http://www.newizv.ru/society/2011-08-26/150168-rasprodazha-propazh.html)
For those who are especially curious, there is a video on how to open a suitcase without opening the lock.
International air transportation regulated Warsaw convention. Based on the agreement, the following must be observed:
- general principles of air transportation of people, cargo in accordance with federal regulations (VEC RF article 102, paragraph 1);
- it is possible to establish their own federal air transportation laws (VEC RF article 102, paragraph 2).
The established procedure must comply with general principles and cannot impair passenger service on airlines.
Lufthansa baggage rules
The baggage allowance at Lufthansa is set in accordance with the class of service:
- Economy class - allowable weight - 23 kilograms, number of seats - 1.
- Premium economy class - allowable weight - 23 kg, number of seats - 2.
- Business class - allowable weight - up to 32 kg, number of seats - 2.
- First class - allowable weight - up to 32 kg, quantity - 2.
Additional charges apply for excess rates.
Information about hand luggage
Its quantity and size Lufthansa allows for transportation depending on the class of service:
- economy - one piece up to 8 kg;
- premium economy - one up to 8 kg;
- business - two to 8 kg;
- first class - two up to 8 kg.
Each place is allowed in size 55x40x20 cm, luggage must weigh less than 8 kg. You can take a cover for clothes with you to the salon if the size is smaller than 57x54x15 cm.
oversized transported in the cargo compartment. Additional charges apply for excess weight.
The importation of products of animal origin into the countries of the European Union is regulated by veterinary legislation. All products of animal origin are subject to veterinary control.
Flight billing
If the norms are exceeded, the cargo is sent to the luggage department. Payment is made according to the tariff for the carriage of goods. For example, for sports equipment, the surcharge ranges from 50 to 200 euros.
The exception is ski equipment. Coordination of sports equipment is done before departure at the service centers of the airline.
Tariffs introduced:
- economy light.
- Economy Classic.
- Economy Flex.
- business class.
The Economy Light fare is suitable for tourists who carry only hand luggage with them and know exactly the day of departure. According to fare is prohibited from rebooking and refunding the ticket. Additionally, at any time, you can add the transportation of one unit of cargo.
The Economy Classic fare includes additional service and flexible terms. Rebooking is allowed at this fare.
The Economy Flex fare is suitable for air travelers with a flexible travel plan. Rebooking of the ticket and return with deduction of the fee is allowed.
Business Class is a calm and comfortable journey to the maximum. In business class, you can choose an extended list of services with flexible conditions:
- high quality food;
- two pieces of luggage can be carried free of charge;
- other privileges.
Services for additional payment
As an additional service a passenger seat, baggage allowance or an upgrade to business class is booked. There is an option to check in and carry one piece of baggage at the Light fare, provided that the first piece of baggage is added to your booking.
Lufthansa luggage rates vary depending on the circumstances of the booking. Reservation of additional services is superimposed:
- together with an online ticket, the cost is 15 euro;
- at the sales counter directly to the airport - 30 euro;
- at the boarding gate - 45 euros.
The most profitable first option. This is better than paying the overweight charge.
A few words about duty free
Duty free shopping in the international area of the airport or on the passenger aircraft are cheaper than the same products in the store.
They are transported in the cabin of the aircraft with a cash receipt. Goods are not allowed to be opened before arrival. Lufthansa offers its passengers duty free with a bonus system of discounts.
Lufthansa: luggage auctions
Forgotten suitcases, bags and other things in Germany are put up for auction. The buyer should not know what is inside the forgotten luggage. Lufthansa keeps things in storage for three months.
After that, forgotten suitcases, bags and other things are put up for auction. First, all things are viewed by customs officers.
The auction does not sell money, food with an expired shelf life, weapons, drugs.
Approvals and bans
Passports, necessary papers, medicines, valuables, laptops, mobile phones are transported in the cabin of the aircraft with hand luggage. It is allowed to carry one additional piece not exceeding 30 x 40 x 10 cm:
- wheelchair;
- portable cradle;
- baby car seat;
- folding stroller for one child;
- orthopedic device for movement.
It is forbidden to carry in the cabin: weapons, imitations / copies of weapons, objects that can be used as weapons, pointed, sharp or blunt objects:
- scissors;
- penknife;
- baseball bat;
- Other items that are classified as dangerous.
It is unacceptable to carry in the luggage compartment:
- matches;
- lighters;
- accumulators;
- spare cartridges;
- e-Sigs;
- fuel cell stacks;
- portable oxygen concentrators.
To ensure the safety of an aircraft flight, there are strict rules, including the transportation of things on board the aircraft. Our experts have prepared a number of materials on baggage allowances and costs such as
