The airlines will lose your suitcases

Since we sort of seem to be on an air travel kick this week, I thought I’d write a few lines about lost luggage. Let me say right up front that my bags have only been lost once and that was a long time ago. I flew to Ireland (Shannon) and my bags went on to Berlin. It was PanAm (yes, I did mention it was a long time ago) and they delivered the bags the next day to Dublin where I was staying. Not too shabby in the service department. Yes, I do miss PanAm. And Eastern, TWA, and a few others for that matter, but that’s another story.

Flying today, the best bet is never, never, never check anything. That’s my rule and the only way I’ll check something is if there is no choice on my part. But what if you have to or want to check your bags. What are the odds on getting them back at the other end? That, of course, depends on your choice of airline. The U.S. average for bags lost or stolen was 6.5 out of 1,000. However, there were some airlines that were well below this, and some way above it.

The worst happens to be British Airways, with an average of 23 bags out of 1,000. Other airlines that score poorly are Lufthansa and Air France. The average for European airlines is estimated to be around 15.7 bags out of 1,000, and that’s not including budget airlines such as RyanAir, whose statistics were not released to the Association of European Airlines.

The best in terms of baggage handling is Hawaiian. Southwest was also near the top. Southwest also holds the honor of receiving the fewest complaints, with only 0.18 per 100,000 passengers, compared to 1.36 for United and US Airways (the worst of the U.S. domestic airlines).

So think twice about checking bags unless you’re flying with Hawaiian or Southwest. On other airlines take the junk suitcases and keep your valuables in your pockets unless you enjoy taking risks.

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