Ultimate Guides for Consumers

If an airline misplaces your luggage and cannot find it within a reasonable time, the carrier must pay for your loss. If you accept the compensation, that ends the airline’s liability to you, and your belongings are considered permanently gone. But could your missing property eventually reappear on display at Unclaimed Baggage, a resale shop in rural Alabama?

Unclaimed Baggage is an unusual place where all sorts of lost items get a new lease on life.
Here’s what I learned about America’s only retail store that buys, restores and then sells travelers’ orphaned stuff.

No one could fault Kristina for overlooking the expiration date on her family’s $2,622 travel credit from American Airlines. For over a year, Kristina was in crisis mode after her husband’s brain cancer diagnosis. Of course, during that time, taking a vacation was last on her list of things to do. 

When doctors deemed Kristina’s husband well enough to travel, her mind turned back to their AA credit. She intended to use it to book flights for a memorable trip while her spouse could enjoy it. Unfortunately, by then the expiration date had come and gone.

What happens if an airline goes bankrupt in the middle of your vacation and leaves you stranded abroad? Is there anything you can do to get a refund?

United Airlines travel credit, like all airline credit, has a limited shelf life. Despite that fact, many passengers remain unaware of the expiration date of their future travel credit – and end up losing it all. Here’s one traveler’s unfortunate tale and what you need to know so this doesn’t happen to you.