Baggage Battles

The team bids on abandoned baggage at London’s busy airports, where a staggering half‑a‑million personal items go missing each year. After remaining unclaimed for six months, these lost pieces are then auctioned off to the highest bidder, generating a unique secondary market.

The series is a London‑based programme presented as an episode that follows a specific operation within the city’s busy airports. It offers viewers a look at a niche activity that takes place behind the scenes of air travel, focusing on the people who handle items that never reach their owners. At the heart of the episode is a team that takes part in auctions of lost luggage at several London airports. Their role is to place bids on the unclaimed bags, competing with other bidders to secure the contents. The bidding takes place only after the luggage has remained untouched for a considerable period, turning what would otherwise be discarded into a potential purchase. The backdrop for this activity is the staggering figure of roughly half a million items that go missing each year across the airports. These items sit idle for six months without anyone claiming them, after which they are put up for sale. The programme highlights how the six‑month waiting period creates a pool of forgotten belongings that eventually become the subject of public auction, providing a unique glimpse into what happens to the countless pieces of luggage that never find their owners.