Why do airports keep losing luggage?

The leading cause of lost luggage is the mishandling of the bags between flights or from the sorting office to your airplane. Depending on the airport you fly out of, the actual sorting of luggage is done by a robot or workers.



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Odds are slim your airline will lose your luggage. According to the Air Travel Consumer Report issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation, you face less than a 1 percent chance that a major airline will misplace your bags; in 2022, there were only about 7 reports of mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers.

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Carriers handled almost 393 million bags in 2021, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. They lost over 2 million bags which is 0.51% of all checked bags. Pre-COVID-19 numbers were higher with a 0.59% loss. The percentage lost goes up during busy holiday travel.

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Add a baggage tag on the outside of your suitcase with that information (and one inside in case the outside tag falls off or gets lost). If you want to take it a step further, consider putting your business card and/or boarding pass inside your suitcase for extra validation.

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Odds are slim your airline will lose your luggage. According to the Air Travel Consumer Report issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation, you face less than a 1 percent chance that a major airline will misplace your bags; in 2022, there were only about 7 reports of mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers.

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After your baggage has been declared lost, the airline is responsible for compensating you for your bags' contents. For domestic flights, the DOT allows airlines to limit their liability. The maximum amount an airline has to pay you for lost or delayed luggage on a domestic flight is $3,800.

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Usually, they appear somewhere within a day or two and go on to be reunited with their owners. With most airlines, passengers qualify for compensation after their bags are lost for more than 24 hours to cover necessary expenses. However, in around 5% of cases, the bags never come back.

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Can I Sue for Lost Luggage in Small Claim Court. If you can't come to an agreement with the airline, you may be able to sue for lost or damaged baggage in your local small claims court without hiring a lawyer. However, each state has a maximum amount that you can seek to recover in small claims court.

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While airline policies on delayed versus lost baggage can vary, in most cases, bags that don't arrive with you at your destination are considered delayed until the airline officially declares them lost, which typically occurs between five and 14 days after arrival.

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Typically, airlines will pass the items over to the lost and found department at the arrival airport. The item will be kept for a 90-day holding period, after which it will be donated to charity or a place for sale – in some cases, the item will be destroyed if unclaimed after the holding period.

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The recommended layover time for international flights is generally longer, as you will have to go through customs and immigration before boarding your next flight. In most cases, a 30-minute layover for domestic flights and an hour for international flights is considered a minimum, or short, layover.

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According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, you are entitled to compensation for reasonable incidental expenses you incur because of your delayed baggage, up to the maximum liability limits, set by statute. For U.S. domestic flights, this is $3,800 per passenger.

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You'll need to submit a new claim now that the bag is truly lost, and this process tends to be more detailed. Most claim forms will ask you to list everything that was in the bag, including purchase dates and even original receipts for items over a certain dollar amount.

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Here's the ranking of US airlines from MOST complaints in May 2022 to LEAST complaints in May 2022:
  • American Airlines (575 complaints)
  • United Airlines (400 complaints)
  • Frontier Airlines (301 complaints)
  • Delta Air Lines (281 complaints)
  • Spirit Airlines (269 complaints)
  • JetBlue Airways (244 complaints)


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Unclaimed baggage left at the airport is ultimately auctioned or sold at a lost luggage store like the mega-center in Scottsboro, Alabama. Only there's one catch, sometimes it isn't abandoned or unclaimed luggage that ends up there – it may be your lost luggage.

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During the first three months of 2023, over 721,000 bags checked on domestic flights were mishandled out of 113 million checked bags in total—an average of 0.64 bags per 100 checked bags, per the U.S. Department of Transportation. That's up from 2019, when 0.59 bags were mishandled per 100 checked bags.

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100 days: All bags cycle out of the WorldTracer system. After 100 days, your bags are likely lost forever and can't be tracked. Luckily, only about 2% of lost luggage is missing forever.

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Unclaimed Baggage is the nation's only retailer of lost luggage. They open the suitcases, sort the items, then sell, donate, or recycle the loot. This massive 50,000-square-foot (4,645-square-meter) retail store has become a popular Alabama tourist attraction.

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Yes, you're allowed to put your AirTag in your checked luggage.

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