Forward Thinking
With an inspired idea and a new island base, three locals help travelers shed their excess baggage.
Everyone has a lost-luggage story. Zeke Adkins recalls the time his bags showed up in the Bahamas three days after he did. Aaron Kirley wore flip-flops on his first day at a new job because his suitcase had been misplaced. Aaron’s brother, Keith, tells how members of his college hockey team shared three borrowed sticks after an airline lost their gear en route to a tournament.
Fortunately for the country’s millions of airline customers—and their collective 3.5 million annual misplaced bags—Adkins and the Kirleys are problem solvers. The three Watertown roommates founded baggage-handling business Luggage Forward and last month opened their first full-service counter in the Nantucket airport. The company offers front porch–to–hotel room shipping for travelers who don’t want to deal with checking (or losing) bags at airports. Clients are assigned a dedicated “forwarding specialist,” who tracks orders and tackles all the pesky paperwork and customs forms.
The firm ships to 217 countries and handles everything from duffels to suitcases to surfboards to bicycles. It also helps customers save on what they’d pay for UPS, DHL, or FedEx. But at $260 to overnight a bag from Boston to Miami, and $4,026 to send a family’s gear to Italy, it’s still for travelers used to first-class service.
It may be worth it. Even a trip as simple as Wellesley to Nantucket can run into delays. The planes that shuttle from Logan to Nantucket are built for passengers, not luggage, and weight restrictions mean bags can get left behind. “The airlines are our friends, but they move people, and we move bags,” says Adkins.
To date, Luggage Forward has never lost an item, and delays are very rare. If a bag does get held up, the company’s on-time insurance offers clients up to $500 for necessities until their luggage arrives. Missing your golf bag? Luggage Forward will find out your tee time and have a set of clubs waiting for you on the course (while you put that $500 toward a collared shirt, shoes, and golf balls). Skis didn’t make a connection? Rentals will be waiting on arrival. You’ll never have to tell a lost luggage tale again.
>>Luggageforward.com, 866-416-7447.
Fortunately for the country’s millions of airline customers—and their collective 3.5 million annual misplaced bags—Adkins and the Kirleys are problem solvers. The three Watertown roommates founded baggage-handling business Luggage Forward and last month opened their first full-service counter in the Nantucket airport. The company offers front porch–to–hotel room shipping for travelers who don’t want to deal with checking (or losing) bags at airports. Clients are assigned a dedicated “forwarding specialist,” who tracks orders and tackles all the pesky paperwork and customs forms.
The firm ships to 217 countries and handles everything from duffels to suitcases to surfboards to bicycles. It also helps customers save on what they’d pay for UPS, DHL, or FedEx. But at $260 to overnight a bag from Boston to Miami, and $4,026 to send a family’s gear to Italy, it’s still for travelers used to first-class service.
It may be worth it. Even a trip as simple as Wellesley to Nantucket can run into delays. The planes that shuttle from Logan to Nantucket are built for passengers, not luggage, and weight restrictions mean bags can get left behind. “The airlines are our friends, but they move people, and we move bags,” says Adkins.
To date, Luggage Forward has never lost an item, and delays are very rare. If a bag does get held up, the company’s on-time insurance offers clients up to $500 for necessities until their luggage arrives. Missing your golf bag? Luggage Forward will find out your tee time and have a set of clubs waiting for you on the course (while you put that $500 toward a collared shirt, shoes, and golf balls). Skis didn’t make a connection? Rentals will be waiting on arrival. You’ll never have to tell a lost luggage tale again.
>>Luggageforward.com, 866-416-7447.
Originally published in Boston magazine, June 2006
