Typically, airlines will pass the items over to the lost and found department at the arrival airport. The item will be kept for a 90-day holding period, after which it will be donated to charity or a place for sale – in some cases, the item will be destroyed if unclaimed after the holding period.

Airlines typically keep unclaimed baggage for a period of 90 days before it is legally considered abandoned. During the first few days, the bag stays at the local airport's baggage service office. If it remains unclaimed, it is usually sent to a central warehouse where the airline uses sophisticated tracking systems like WorldTracer to try and match the contents or tags with lost property reports filed by passengers. If 90 days pass without a successful claim, the airline generally pays out a final settlement to the passenger and takes legal ownership of the suitcase. At this point, the bags are often sold to liquidation companies—most notably the Unclaimed Baggage center in Alabama, USA—where the items are sorted, cleaned, and sold to the public, donated to charity, or recycled. This 90-day window is a standard industry practice designed to give passengers ample time to realize their loss and for the airline to conduct a thorough search while preventing massive storage backlogs at busy aviation hubs.