The Great Luggage Abandonment: Why Travelers Are Ditching Their Bags at the Airport

Consumer-advocacy travel writer Christopher Elliott uses a recent Kuala Lumpur–Johor Bahru flight to explain why airports are seeing a surge in deliberately abandoned luggage. The piece traces the phenomenon to ultra-low-cost-carrier baggage economics — when checked-bag fees and oversize-bag penalties exceed the value of what's inside, passengers do the math at the counter and walk away — and to the spreading view of cheap clothes and souvenirs as disposable.