The airlines most likely to mishandle your bags, ranked
When you take an airline flight, the most important thing is getting to your destination safe and sound. But perhaps the second-most important thing is making sure your stuff gets there safe and sound as well. The Department of Transportation Office of Aviation Consumer Protection’s Air Travel Consumer Reports track which U.S. airlines fail to properly handle checked bags, whether that means luggage is getting “lost, damaged, delayed,” or “pilfered.” This Quartz analysis of those reports shows how often that happened in the first half of this year.
Click through to see which carriers were the most likely to mishandle checked bags.
10. Allegiant Air
Mishandling Rate: 2.81 bags per 1,000
Between January and June, Allegiant handled 1.7 million bags and mishandled about 5,000 of them.
9. JetBlue Airways
Mishandling Rate: 3.53 bags per 1,000
Between January and June, JetBlue handled 6.9 million bags and mishandled about 24,000 of them.
8. Spirit Airlines
Mishandling Rate: 3.98 bags per 1,000
Between January and June, Spirit handled 6.3 million bags and mishandled about 25,000 of them.
7. Delta Air Lines
Mishandling Rate: 4.05 bags per 1,000
January and June, Delta handled 50 million bags and mishandled about 202,000 of them.
6. Frontier Airlines
Mishandling Rate: 4.12 bags per 1,000
Between January and June, Frontier handled 4.4 million bags and mishandled about 18,000 of them.
5. Southwest Airlines
Mishandling Rate: 4.46 bags per 1,000
Between January and June, Southwest handled 66.6 million bags and mishandled about 297,000 of them.
4. Hawaiian Airlines
Mishandling Rate: 4.48 bags per 1,000
Between January and June, Hawaiian handled 3 million bags and mishandled about 14,000 of them.
3. Alaska Airlines
Mishandling Rate: 5.52 bags per 1,000
Between January and June, Alaska handled 12.9 million bags and mishandled about 71,000 of them.
2. United Air Lines
Mishandling Rate: 6.86 bags per 1,000
Between January and June, United handled 37.5 million bags and mishandled about 257,000 of them.
1. American Airlines
Mishandling Rate: 8.25 bags per 1,000
Between January and June, United handled 55.3 million bags and mishandled about 456,000 of them.