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Inairport terminals, abaggage reclaim area is an area where arriving passengers claim checked-inbaggage after disembarking from anairlineflight.[1] The alternative termbaggage claim is used at airports in the US and some other airports internationally.[1] Similar systems are also used at train stations served by companies that offer checked bags, such asAmtrak in the United States.
A typical baggage claim area containsbaggage carousels orconveyor systems that deliver checked baggage to the passenger. The baggage claim area generally contains the airline's customer service counter for claiming oversized baggage or reporting missing or damaged baggage.
Some airports require that passengers display theirbaggage receipt obtained at check-in so that it can be positively matched against the bag they are trying to remove from baggage reclaim. Many airports still recommend the baggage receipt is checked against the bag tag of the bag reclaimed. This serves two purposes: first, it reduces baggage theft, and second, it helps to prevent passengers from accidentally leaving the airport with another passenger's bag that bears resemblance to their own.
For international arrivals, the baggage reclaim area is a restricted area, afterpassport and visa control and before clearingcustoms, so that all baggage can be inspected by customs agents,[2] but the passenger does not have to handle heavy baggage while moving through the passport booth. In theUnited States andCanada, and also in some airports inAsia, all arriving international passengers' baggage is reclaimed here and can be re-checked by the airline for connecting flights on the other side of customs (for connection from international to domestic flights in most countries, all passengers must reclaim their baggage). In most other countries passengers transferring to an onward flight do not need to collect their bags unless their airline does not offer to through-check their bags to their final destination. This is required in American and some Canadian airports because international terminals are not enclosed (the only exit is through customs) and often serve domestic flights. The same rule applies in the case of airports that haveU.S. border preclearance facilities. This means that passengers continuing onto the U.S. from other cities must retrieve their checked baggage first, then re-check them in after clearing U.S. Customs.
Depending on the airport, the domestic baggage reclaims area may be located next to or shared with the international reclaim area, or sometimes located in the public part of the airport alongsidecar rental desks and airport exits, and only passengers at their final destination claim their bags here. In most large airports in the United States and in some small ones as well, the domestic baggage reclaims are located on a different floor than the ticket counter, usually lower.
The efficiency of baggage reclaim units can be measured in a number of ways including the amount of time a unit is in use for a given flight or the amount of baggage a unit can hold.[3] A number of factors can independently affect the efficiency of a particular unit:[3]
