Cf. these previous threads:
Gepäckluggage (Brit.) - das GepaeckFowler/Burchfield, Modern English Usage, 3rd ed.:
baggage. To British ears the word
baggage, in its primary sense, has a residual American flavour, perhaps as a legacy of the
baggage trains and
baggage wagons of pioneering days in America. With the arrival of mass air travel, however,
baggage and
luggage have acquired dual, and then multiple, nationality as words. ... Computer searches in large US and UK databases (1987) yielded an equal number of instances of both words in each country.
A few collocations seem to be more or less fixed, e.g.
excess baggage, baggage area, baggage claim, baggage handler. A few British railway stations still have
left-luggage offices; and Intercity trains normally have the label LUGGAGE attached to the relevant shelves. But (in 1988) the main terminal at Gatwick Airport had a sign that read
Left Baggage. In the US a person who looks after the checked baggage of passengers on a train is a
baggageman. The same word is also used there for a baggage porter in a hotel. At air terminals the terms
hand luggage and
hand baggage seem to be freely used in both countries.
In figurative uses,
baggage is the customary word everywhere ...
NOAD:
baggage - 1: personal belongings packed in suitcases for traveling; luggage.
the portable equipment of an army. [figurative] past experiences or long-held ideas regarded as burdens and impediments: 'the emotional baggage I'm hauling around' | 'the party jettisoned its traditional idiological baggage.'
2: [dated, derogatory] a cheeky or disagreeable girl or woman.
luggage - suitcases or other bags in which to pack personal belongings for traveling.
