Has an airline ever 'lost' your luggage? Chris Truelove claims most luggage that goes astray has not actually been lost, but the owner has become impossible to trace because the baggage tag has fallen off.
He claims his Web site can help passengers get their suitcases back safely, even if the tag disappears. Truelove and his wife experienced a lost luggage nightmare of their own in Bali, when only one of their two cases came out on the carousel. They had travelled from Heathrow, London, and his wife had to get by for three weeks on what she could buy locally.
'After many calls, faxes and telex, the airline declared the luggage lost and offered us a paltry sum of compensation,' says Truelove. 'The airline staff told us that if the paper destination barcode comes off a bag, they have no idea where it should be going or who the bag belongs to.
'It is a fact that almost all lost bags are not lost, just not traceable to the owner,' he adds.
'This upsetting incident had me thinking that there must be an easy way to identify bags without the obvious danger of displaying name and address details. The Internet seemed the obvious answer.
'Each Globalbagtag has a unique seven-digit serial number. The tag is permanently affixed to the luggage with a special acrylic self-adhesive. The owner's details are entered on to the globalbagtag database. This information can be amended by the owner at any time via the Web site.'