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Why American Loses More Bags Than Any Other US Airline

baggage delayed

Sorry, flyers. About 3 million of you ended up with lost or mishandled bags last year, according to rankings from the U.S. Department of Transportation. And if you’re a fan of American Airlines, you fared the worst, taking the brunt of it—nearly a third of all those bags were lost or mishandled by American Airlines. That’s about 8.5 pieces of luggage for every thousand pieces.

So What Happened?

American had a lot of excuses for the lack of baggage control in 2019.

“Last year, we faced significant operational challenges that impacted our results, including the grounding of the Max, and, most significantly, a higher number of aircraft out of service,” American Airlines’ spokesperson Ross Feinstein said a statement, reported by Dallas News. “A big contributor to our high [aircraft out of service] numbers was the illegal [union mechanics] slowdown, which disrupted our operation during the peak period.”

Most of the baggage problems happened over the summer, but even when that cleared up—in part thanks to a restraining order and harsher penalties by a judge—the airline still had the highest amount of issues every month through December. And they didn’t even carry the most bags per passenger. That honor went to Southwest, who ranked third best for handling luggage.

As what may seem like another blow to American passengers, the airline also collected the most baggage fees than any other major U.S. carrier.

Where Do the Other Airlines Stand?

Ultra-low-cost carriers seemed to be the best about not losing or mishandling peoples’ luggage. Allegiant took top spot, only having issues with 1.75 bags for every thousand. Frontier was next, at 4.2 bags, then Southwest at 4.4, Hawaiian at 4.45, Delta at 4.69, Spirit at 4.76, Alaska at 5.24, and United and Jet Blue tied for second-worst at 6.8 bags per thousand.

Southwest, having done fairly well, shows that American had no excuse to mess up so many bags—they also had to deal with union problems and loss of planes from the 737MAX controversy. But, spokesperson Brian Parrish told the Dallas News, they also had more digital tracking of bags than ever before, which helped locate anything that went missing.

7 Comments
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Michele1234 August 31, 2022

American Airlines sent my bag to Dublin instead of London Heathrow.   I put an apple tracker in it.   I can see it in the Dublin airport. American said they can't find it and will not help me get it back.    Everytime I call they say they will send a message.  How can I get my. Bag back.  No one will help.  If I fly to Dublin will I be able to get it?  Many thanks 

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RUAMKZ February 28, 2020

The mechanics have nothing to do with how the bags are handled, either.

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KBMIFlyer February 27, 2020

"Why American Loses More Bags Than Any Other US Airline" Isn't one of the basics of journalism is that your story should reflect your headline? This article does nothing to answer why American loses more bags, and is basically a rewriting of the linked Dallas morning news article.

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ijgordon February 27, 2020

AA sucks. I had a ~75 minute connection (first flight was a little early) in DFW, the planes were maybe 5-7 gates apart from one another and they STILL couldn't get our two checked bags from one to the other. Apparently they went on the next flight into LGA an hour or so later (at least they have tracking), but no way I was waiting around the airport - you can deliver them to my door, chumps! Delta is great with bags, and they come out FAST, unless you're at JFK, then expect to wait!

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mizzou miles February 27, 2020

Grammar check please: As what may seem like another blow to American passengers, the airline also collected the most baggage fees than any other major U.S. carrier. HUH?