What Airline is Really Good at Losing Bags?

I’m trying to think of some of the worst airlines in the world and to be honest, if their is on thing that I hate more that flights being late (if they came be on time on the ATC and weather is good and clear)
it’s getting bags lost. Now I get that sometimes it is a complete accident, but I also know that some Airlines lose bags at a rate that is just unacceptable. So what airline is really good at losing bags? Also if you have any stories about a lost bag, I love to read them.

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I’ve only had two bags lost.

On a trip back from Hawaii my Grandma’s bag was lost on American Airlines. They did not do a very good job of helping my grandma but did end up returning it.

When my sister was very little and required to have a car seat, Southwest lost on the way back it however, they were very helpful. They offered a replacement until they got it back and they delivered the one we had the next day.

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Oh darn! This thread is kind of like SkyTrax now XD

Me, neither me nor my family have had our luggage lost. So I won’t be able to point to just one airline.

There was this one time when my luggage came extremely late with Delta Airlines, but it did come in the end. (It had to be delivered to my house.)

United has lost my bag on numerous occasions, no one else though

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I still think that counts as a ‘lost bag’ it was just eventually returned to you.

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Our bag was delayed because our plane was completely full, so they had to put it on another plane that leaves later.

Oh that does make sense. Was it a smaller regional jet?

I don’t remember. I came off a B767 I think.

United once but I stick with them because they have great customer service, at least to me. They once put my bag on the wrong plane, I was mad. It came two hours late. Then they put my bag on the flight before mine so my bag was waiting for me before all the others.

Really? I’m surprised you could run out of cargo space on a 76. Guess a lot of families with everything but the kitchen sink packed.

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Around 2000 I was flying Delta from Dallas to New Orleans for a conference. My bag some how ended up in Chigao and then onto London. I finally got it but a few days later…

When I hear stories of lost bags most of the time it is the passengers fault.

  • I know its cute and all, but leaving every single luggage tag/bar code sticker on your bag is not going to help your bag gettting where it needs to go.
  • If you have a very tight connection chances are your bag will end up on the next flight to your destination. They shut the cargo doors early too.
  • If you checked your bag and your flight is cancelled, let the airline handle your change. If you try to book yourself on three flights to see which one you can make, you bag is in limbo.

I travel a lot for work and in the past 10 years things have been pretty smooth. My American app will show me when my bag has been scanned. Not sure about the smaller airlines and how they do it.

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Anecdotal stories are fun, but statistics on which is the worst are probably compiled and recorded.

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I don’t know stats, but BA are pretty notorious. Probably hear most about them because #British n all

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Its not really the airlines that Lose bags, its the airport infrastructure/handling agent that would “Lose” it.

I’ve personally Short Shipped bags before due to serval reasons:

  • Aircraft Bulked out
  • Could not find the Bag in time (Waiting for bags is not a reason to delay departure)
  • Aircraft overweight
  • (And once because the aircraft hold would not open)

Can’t speak for other airports but if we are a bag down then we check the system to see if its stuck somewhere ( Then again I’ve offloaded bags and searched for it, only to have is magically show up 10 mins after the flight has left). But going a bag down is fine, as 95% of the time is a check in error and the other 5% just get rushed out on the next flight.

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Here are the most recent rankings. 2017 data are^ probably not available yet.

^Yes, the word ‘data’ is plural. ‘Are’ is correct.

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Weren’t exactly lost bags, but my family and I were once flying Mango Airlines from Cape Town to Johannesburg, and our bags came 2 hours after we first got to baggage claim. As a direct result of this, not only did we miss our connection to Lusaka, but we was also counted as “no-shows”, meaning we had wasted nearly $1400 worth of tickets. It took us 2 days to finally catch a flight, and the tickets were almost twice as expensive as they were originally.

Budget airlines suck.

I know for a fact that when SW loses a bag, they are very good at finding it or replacing it.

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not a lost bag When my grandparents came form South Africa they flew to London and then over to ORD where they spent the night. They both took all their bags at the baggage claim after flying with BA on both flights (Joburg-London, London-ORD) The next day the flew on a short American Eagle opt. by Envoy from ORD to CLE. When they landed in CLE, my grandpa’s bag containing all of his high class, very expensive fishing gear was crushed. I mean CRUSHED…to nothing. All the content was broken and AA only offered to by a new bag, but the bag was a size that is not made in the US, only in Europe. Because it was not made in the US, AA would not pay to get a new bag shipped to him. So we were left trying to pay for new fishing gear and trying to find a new bag for him. What just got to me was the fact to it was crushed on a short 45 min. flight on a CRJ 700. That is my story.

American is bad! Know so many people who have lost bags on American and don’t get it back or a refund. I also have heard of one person losing one on Frontier yet they got it back right away.

Lost my bag with Air New Zealand. Had it back within an hour. Turns out. They put it on the next departing flight out. So we just waited