Every air traveler has a horror story about lost or late luggage, it seems.

When Melissa Gregory, a Pittsburgh native now living in Sydney, Australia, came home for a visit in June, she was hit with a double whammy: One suitcase was lost; the other took two hours to arrive at baggage claim.

"I fly halfway around the world with no trouble, but as soon as I step on Pittsburgh soil, my bags go missing. What gives?" Ms. Gregory wondered in an e-mail from Down Under.

There was a happy ending: A US Airways staff member was knocking on her parents' door at 2 a.m. the next day with her lost bag, but the experience has made her think seriously about shipping her luggage ahead next time.

Besides eliminating the hassle of waiting in line to check and pick up your bags, shipping luggage ahead can be cost-effective, especially for those prone to packing too much: If your checked baggage weighs more than 50 pounds, that'll be an extra $50 at US Airways, for example. If it's more than 70 pounds, it'll cost you $80. If it's more than 100 pounds, forget it, you'll have to ship it anyway.

Jeffrey Boyd, founder of www.luggagefree.com, says his company will ship a 50-pound bag from Boston to Las Vegas for about $120 -- only a little more than what a larger freight carrier, such as DHL or FedEx, would charge.

It's not clear if shipping luggage is the next big travel trend. Participants on a recent TripAdvisor.com forum were divided on whether it was worth it in terms of price and reliability.

And Don George, editor of the Lonely Planet travel guides, said the practice is still much more the province of business travelers than tourists, given its costs. "There's a pretty limited audience for it, still," he said, although he's seeing an increase in the number of travelers who will "carry an empty bag on the plane and after making purchases ship that bag back in advance of them coming back rather than lugging it around for two more weeks."

Still, Mr. Boyd's company has doubled in size in the past two to three years, with 20,000 agents all over the world who will make sure a traveler's bags get where they're supposed to go, or keep them until you get there.

That kind of personal service is something you can't get with larger freight carriers, he says. "We will actually call the hotel and alert them that we're shipping luggage for a client, and in some cases, as in Europe, when the hotel lobby is too small to store the bags, we'll keep them until the client arrives."

Here are other specialty shipping companies to consider:

www.sportsexpress.com; 1-800-357-4174. It can send a 60-pound bike from Pittsburgh to Denver for $106.69 via ground delivery (although the faster you want it there, the more it will cost you).
www.firstluggage.com, based in Britain, but with a U.S. phone contact: 1-800-224-5781.
www.luggageconcierge.com; 1-800-288-9818.
www.skycapinternational.com; 1-877-775-9227.
www.virtualbellhop.com; 1-877-BELLHOP (235-5467).
www.usxpluggageexpress.com; 1-866-744-7224.
www.luggageforward.com; 1-866-416-7447.
www.theluggageclub.com; 1-877-231-5131.