Travel readers tell their horror stories of lost luggage

British Airways lost our bags after a wedding near Zurich a few years back. A black samsonite case had my suit, my wife's frock and a couple of kilos of souvenir Appenzeller cheese from the wedding village - unpasteurised and very, very smelly.

It was August, and the bag was returned to us in London after three days in the mid-30s. The suitcase was eventually usable, sadly the contents, including the clothes, were a write-off.

Ironically, we filled out a passenger survey while waiting for our bags, and rated BA very well while joking that the bags seemed to be taking their time to appear. The customer rep disappeared when the jokes turned to questions.

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Flying from Heathrow to Charles de Gaulle in September 1999, I saw from my window seat our bags being loaded into the hold of our British Airways flight. However, when we went to claim our luggage, my wife's bag was missing. We lodged all the necessary documentation, advising airport staff where we would be staying in France, for how long, and gave them all the contact numbers.

We were in the Loire Valley and Normandy for five days. Every day we phoned the number for missing luggage, and everyday we were assured that the luggage would be with us, that day. We returned to England on a Saturday morning and went straight to the BA office in Piccadilly Circus to try to get some response, only to be told that there would be no one who could authorise what we wanted until the following Monday.

By this time my wife had been living in just two changes of clothing for seven days (luckily she had packed some clothes into a small overnight bag).

On the Monday we returned to the BA office and after serval hours my wife was given a cheque for £150 ($520).

We returned to Heathrow to collect the bag. When we went to collect it, BA also gave my wife a voucher to select a new "wheelie" bag. Although we were recompensed for the lost bag, it took BA three days before they would do so. That frustrating negotiating period meant that we cancelled all of our accommodation and ongoing travel plans in southern England.

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I think it's also important to remember that often airlines do an excellent job with baggage.

Two years ago I flew BA from NZ to Morocco via Kuala Lumpur. Having spent a couple of days in KL, I checked my bags in KL airport, flew to Heathrow, had a day in London, went to Gatwick, flew to Casablanca via Tangier and picked up my backpack from the luggage carousel without having seen it since KL. BA took it from Heathrow to Gatwick and made sure it was on my plane.

When I left Morocco I flew to Glasgow via Gatwick. Unfortunately, my bag never made the Glasgow flight, but when I arrived the helpful man in Lost Luggage looked up his computer, told me where my backpack was and that it was due to arrive on the next flight. My bag arrived as I was told. I was very impressed with BA's service.

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I travelled from Auckland to Paris by Qantas and BA. My travel consultant told me that I had to make a tight connection after my arrival at Los Angeles (45 minutes) for the BA flight to London and then a connection to Paris. I was also told that my luggage would be checked through to Paris.

When I checked in at Auckland, to my dismay I was told that my travel consultant had made an error and I would have to take my luggage through customs at Los Angeles and re-check in for my flight to London.

The flight from Auckland arrived on schedule at Los Angeles. I rushed through the immigration control and waited at the appropriate carousel. I waited and waited but my suitcase did not appear.

I was feeling desperate because I knew my flight to London was departing within minutes.

I spoke to a BA agent and we went quickly to the departure check-in only to find that my flight had left. What distressed me more was that I had no suitcase.

The Qantas representative was very kind and supportive and told me that I was to be rebooked on a flight to London the next day and by that time my suitcase would likely be found.

Courtesy of Qantas, I was given a night's accommodation at the Airport Hilton and meal vouchers. I felt so devastated by the loss of the suitcase that I just wanted to go back home.

The next day my suitcase had not been found but I was advised to continue my journey, and I was given contact numbers for information about the lost suitcase.

I arrived on Tuesday evening in Paris in light clothes in the depths of the European winter. Apart from my warm clothing and gifts for friends, I had my contact telephone numbers for my stay in France in my suitcase, and I had to make several phone calls to New Zealand to get some of my essential contacts in France.

At about midday Wednesday I had a call to tell me that my suitcase had been found and was on its way to Paris. It arrived on Thursday and I was told that the suitcase had been found in the BA bag room.

For the return trip I was told that I would have to clear my suitcase through customs at Los Angeles. I feared a repeat of the previous disaster.

The BA flight was delayed two hours at Heathrow and when we arrived at Los Angeles, passengers for the connecting flight to Auckland were quickly ushered on board. So much for the regulation of having to clear my suitcase in LA. The suitcase and I arrived safely back to Auckland on the same flight.

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My flight from Madrid to London two years ago was delayed because of luggage on the plane without an owner. Eventually the case was offloaded.

I had a connecting flight in London to Air NZ which was going to take me home. I had to get from Terminal 1 to Terminal 4 at Heathrow in a space of 20 minutes. I made it, but my luggage didn't.

In one suitcase I had a video in its case wrapped in clothes. The case arrived in New Zealand two days later than me. I opened it only to find the video case opened, unzipped and the video, tape and battery recharger gone.

I had the video replaced by insurance but the tape was irreplaceable. I learned a lesson ... never leave anything valuable in luggage even if it is locked.

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We were travelling from Dubai to Edinburgh and had to change flights at Heathrow.

We had delays at Dubai and at Heathrow and had a frantic dash to make our Edinburgh connection. At Edinburgh our baggage did not surface and after inquiries we were presented with the following note: "Please accept our apologies for the delay in receiving your baggage. There is every expectation that you will be reunited with it shortly. If after 24 hours you have not received your baggage then please call our baggage helpline number."

All this was rather worrying, as if this was treated as a regular occurrence.

Fortunately, our luggage turned on the next flight.

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We decided to go to Vanuatu for a week's holiday with another couple. Each couple took one suitcase.

Arriving in Vanuatu at midnight we found our suitcase, but our friend's case was nowhere to be seen. The airport staff told us they would make inquiries and we should ring them in the morning.

Our friends had one set of golf clubs but no gear or shoes.They had packed a toilet bag and underwear in a cabin bag. They kept ringing the airport but had no luck.

At the end of the holiday we checked in with our one suitcase and cabin bags to discover the missing suitcase had been there all week. It had fallen off the trolley from the plane to the terminal. No one seemed to have noticed that the suitcase was well labelled and even showed the hotel and dates we were staying there.