The surprising reason travelers are walking away from suitcases

• Travelers are increasingly abandoning luggage at airports and hotels to avoid high baggage fees.
• Airlines' strategies of charging extra for checked bags, carry-ons and overweight luggage contribute to the problem.
• Experts warn that this "fee fatigue" could lead to luggage abandonment becoming a more widespread issue globally.

If you want to understand why luggage is being abandoned at the airport, then join me on a recent flight from Kuala Lumpur to Johor Bahru.

Just before I boarded the short domestic flight in Malaysia, a gate agent with a broad smile pulled me aside. My carry-on bag was too big, he cheerfully announced. 

The penalty? A $35 "extra baggage" fee.

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As I reluctantly forked over my credit card, I glanced at my 24-year-old son, who was traveling with me. He'd already unzipped his slightly overpacked carry-on and was dumping items into a nearby garbage can to reduce the weight and size. Granola bars, apples, a half-eaten bag of cereal – gone before the agent could say a word.

The math was easy: pay $35 or trash $10 worth of food. He chose the trash can.

How many other travelers make this same calculation every day? In the United States, where the cost of checking a bag now can exceed the price of a ticket, it's becoming less of an option. In Japan, they're not simply lightening their load. They're leaving the entire bag.

Why are people abandoning luggage in Japan?

Walk into a hotel in Osaka or Tokyo, and you'll see warning signs that would've seemed absurd five years ago: "Abandon your luggage and you will be charged." Luggage dumping has become so routine that hotels post warnings like "no smoking" signs.

"Travelers are treating luggage as disposable," said Georgia Fowkes, a travel advisor for Altezza Travel who saw the problem firsthand on a recent visit to Japan. "And hotels are inheriting the mess."

Narita Airport in Tokyo reportedly stores dozens of unclaimed bags daily. Kansai Airport in Osaka and Chubu Airport in Nagoya report similar pile-ups. Some hotels have started giving bags away or repurposing them as planters just to cope with the deluge of luggage.

The situation in Japan may be unique. Many people visit Japan to go shopping. They buy cheap rolling luggage to roll around the mall and then leave it at the hotel or train station before they fly home. 

But that's not the only reason luggage is being left behind. Asian air carriers are notorious for charging extra luggage fees, so part of the reason may also be that passengers are trying to avoid them.

There are fears that this luggage abandonment could spread.

The math behind luggage abandonment

Airlines have turned baggage into a profit center. Checked bag fees, carry-on charges, and overweight penalties all add up. When your beaten-up roller bag costs more to check than it's worth, walking away becomes logical.

"The abandoned luggage issue isn't just about saving a few bucks on a checked bag," said Zackaria Saadioui, founder of Prked, a peer-to-peer airport parking marketplace. "It's a sign of fee fatigue. Travelers are being nickel-and-dimed at every turn."

Ernie Garcia, a frequent traveler who works for a marketing agency in New York, routinely abandons his belongings at the airport.

"Sometimes, I’ve abandoned so many clothes that I no longer need a checked bag," he said. 

If a bag starts to get worn out, it also gets left behind.

"The last roller suitcase I abandoned had a wonky handle that was difficult to extend and retract," he recalled. "I left it in the hotel in Croatia."

Abandoned luggage is spreading

So far, the evidence of the abandoned luggage trend is mostly anecdotal. It's an airport here, a hotel there – and plenty of travelers like Garcia or my son who are filling the garbage cans at the airport. 

There are no comprehensive surveys that show travelers are dropping their luggage en masse before departure. But experts say it could happen soon. Increasingly strict airline policies are pressuring passengers to make a difficult decision.

"Airlines have steadily pushed up checked and even carry-on fees," said Lucinda Faucheux, co-founder of Travel Support Circle, a travel agency. "So you can imagine a traveler weighing up the cost of paying another fee versus just walking away from an old case."

Some airports now warn travelers about disposal timelines for unclaimed items. They typically hold bags for 30 to 90 days before auctioning, donating or destroying them. Hotels store items for a few weeks but dispose of them promptly if they can't find the owner.

All of this because the airlines want to make more money.

"Hotels and airports are inheriting someone else's profit-maximizing strategy," said Jacob Elban, a marketing specialist who has watched this problem spiral. "It's physical evidence of a broken pricing model." 

Should you abandon your bag?

Seasoned travelers have developed strategies to avoid fees – and sometimes abandonment.

1. Think about your luggage before you leave. Pack only what's necessary so that you don't have to think about leaving something behind. "Choose your items wisely and select meaningful possessions," said André Disselkamp, co-founder of the travel insurance site Insurancy. And remember, less is more.
2. Keep 'em separated. Know what's valuable and what's disposable. That's Marcia Sherrill's advice. She's abandoned her bags twice. "Sometimes, it simply isn't worth paying hundreds of dollars to send a no-name bag back to the U.S.," said Sherrill, who publishes a shopping website in New York. "Of course we hang on for dear life to our Hartmann and Tumi bags."
3. Have a contingency plan. Avoid a situation where you're the last person to board and have to walk away from your bag. Give yourself time to check in and, if necessary, ask an airport employee where you can quickly drop off a bag. And remember, you can always mail the items to your home address from the airport, if necessary.

Airlines are doing everything they can to put you on the spot at the gate. Pay us a luggage fee or you'll lose your valuables. Traveling light and keeping your critical items with you ensures you can call their bluff.

Airlines created this problem by recklessly monetizing every inch of baggage space. Hotels and airports now have to manage the fallout. And so do you.

Christopher Elliott is an author, consumer advocate, and journalist. He founded Elliott Advocacy, a nonprofit organization that helps solve consumer problems. He publishes Elliott Confidential, a travel newsletter, and the Elliott Report, a news site about customer service. If you need help with a consumer problem, you can reach him here or email him at [email protected].