Before you entrust an airline with your favorite clothes and toiletries for a once-in-a-lifetime vacation or those reports you need for the client meeting the next day, take a look at which airlines lost or damaged the most luggage in 2023.
The U.S. Department of Transportation released rankings for the largest domestic airline carriers and revealed exactly how many bags they mishandled. Mishandled includes lost, damaged, delayed and pilfered luggage and scooters/wheelchairs, according to USDOT. They also looked at the rate at which airlines mishandle just scooters and wheelchairs.
American Airlines was the worst offender, losing or damaging more than eight bags for every 1,000 checked. Or, if everyone on a Boeing 737 from Los Angeles to New York checked an item, at least one would be lost or damaged. Still, the odds are less than 1% in general. This is an improvement over last year. In 2022, the airline lost or damaged more than nine bags per 1,000 checked.
The top spot goes to Allegiant Air, which only loses or damages two bags per 1,000 checked. Mega people-mover, Southwest, which checked more than 130 million bags in 2023, lost or damaged almost 588,000 of them. That is about 0.45%.
Airlines as a whole, handled scooters and wheelchairs less successfully. Spirit Airlines was the top offender, losing or damaging more than five for every 100 checked. That comes out to a 5.35% chance of having a scooter or wheelchair lost or damaged. The entire year, the airline mishandled 617 scooters and wheelchairs.
MyBaggage.com looked at longer-term mishandled baggage rates and still found that American lost or damaged the most luggage. From January 2021 through January 2024, American carried almost 201 million pieces of luggage and lost or damaged 1.75 million of them.
Over that same time, the entire industry mishandled more than 7 million bags.
File: Baggage handlers pull a cart loaded with suitcases at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) in San Francisco, California.
(David Paul Morris/Bloomberg / Getty Images)
"Airports are some of the busiest and most complex pieces of infrastructure with thousands if not tens of thousands of people flowing through them daily," said a spokesperson for MyBaggage.com in a statement. "The data shows that these circ*mstances are rare; even with the Airline that loses the most luggage (America Airlines), there is still only a 0.87% chance that they would lose your luggage based on the stats from the past three years."
The top spot goes to Allegiant Air, which only loses or damages two bags per 1,000 checked. Mega people-mover, Southwest, which checked more than 130 million bags in 2023, lost or damaged almost 588,000 of them.
First and worst was American Airlines, which struggled with 1,750,009 lost luggage reports — that's an average of 8.71 disappeared bags per 1,000 that were loaded onto an aircraft.
The airline that lost the most luggage in 2023 was Southwest Airlines. They mishandled 587,339 bags. However, 129 million bags flew on their airplanes. Coming in second was American Airlines with 582,499 bags miss handled.
Per International Air Transport Association rules, the last airline that carried your baggage is responsible for delivering your baggage and servicing any claims.
The most trustworthy airline for handling your bags is Allegiant Air, while the least is American Airlines, according to data. 230 million bags were checked in, with 0.61% of them mishandled. The first half of 2023 was 0.02% less damaging than the first half of 2022.
Air France and American Airlines have the most plane crashes, with 11 air crashes each. However, two accidents associated with American Airlines happened on September 11th, 2001. Two accidents out of the seven accidents associated with United Airlines also occurred on this day.
When hold luggage is lost, delayed or damaged airlines are liable for your losses. However, there are no rules which fix the amount of compensation you should receive.
"The average compensation from an airline for checked luggage that is either lost or damaged is $1,525 to $3,500, under U.S. and Montreal Convention air passenger rights laws," says Tomasz Pawliszyn, CEO at air passenger rights organization AirHelp.
Yes, if an airline lost your luggage, travel insurance may provide additional reimbursem*nt for covered costs your airline doesn't reimburse you for. Most comprehensive plans include coverage for baggage loss, and baggage delay in the event your bag is not permanently lost or damaged.
Air New Zealand has once again captured the title of safest airline in the world. New Zealand's national carrier retook the top spot for 2024, dethroning its neighbor Qantas, according to AirlineRatings.com, which compiles the rankings each year. Air New Zealand previously held the top spot in 2022.
For this part of the analysis, we asked a simple question: How much does it cost to check one bag, bring one full-size carry-on and select a seat on a main-cabin, domestic flight? Southwest wins easily because it doesn't charge any of these fees.
For domestic flights, the DOT allows airlines to limit their liability. The maximum amount an airline has to pay you for lost or delayed luggage on a domestic flight is $3,800. Airlines may pay more than the limit but are not required to do so.
Last year, American Airlines Network had the highest rate of bags mishandled per 100 checked bags, with a rate of 0.76. Its customers reported about 800,200 bags mishandled out of more than 105 million items enplaned, according to data published monthly by the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
How likely is it for my luggage to get lost? When you combine all airline traffic with the number of lost bags, there is less than a 1% chance your luggage will get misplaced or lost.
The risk of mishandled luggage drops dramatically when you book a direct flight. That's because about a third of mishandling happens when transferring bags for a connecting flight. The more connecting flights, and the more inter-airline transfers, the greater the risk.
Introduction: My name is Tish Haag, I am a excited, delightful, curious, beautiful, agreeable, enchanting, fancy person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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