I am seriously contemplating buying a cheapo piece of luggage and starting to check my bag and carry on only something small that will fit under the seat.

My fear is them losing the bag and it never being recovered. I have only had that happen to me ONE time, and it was a gate checked bag of all things....

I would of course put my most valuable items in my small under the seat bag but of course STILL would prefer to not actually lose any of my stuff.

So, I have read the statistics, but who here has actually had an airline lose their bag and never recovered it?