Lost/delayed baggage causes - by percentage

[FlyerTalker]

From Steve Frishling:

 

For those of you that asked, there is an actual statistical break down of how bags get lost that was produced recently by SITA (more formerly known as the Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques) The statistical break down of why bags are lost or delayed are as follows

 

49% - Baggage that fails to make a connection between flights

 

21% - Baggage that encountered a loading or off-loading error or failed to be loaded onto the aircraft

16% - Counter agent ticketing or tagging error and/or security issue prior to loading

 

8% - Arrival airport error in baggage distribution

 

6%- Baggage exceeded restrictions for weigh or airport guidelines, customs issues or foul weather delay

 

FYI - These are numbers for worldwide luggage delays, so you can interpret them for your flights as you wish. Just thought you might enjoy the figures.

[FlyerTalker]

A further story from the WSJ on the head of IATA's Baggage Improvement Program: LINK

[Keith1010]

From Steve Frishling:

 

For those of you that asked, there is an actual statistical break down of how bags get lost that was produced recently by SITA (more formerly known as the Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques) The statistical break down of why bags are lost or delayed are as follows

 

49% - Baggage that fails to make a connection between flights

 

21% - Baggage that encountered a loading or off-loading error or failed to be loaded onto the aircraft

 

16% - Counter agent ticketing or tagging error and/or security issue prior to loading

 

8% - Arrival airport error in baggage distribution

 

6%- Baggage exceeded restrictions for weigh or airport guidelines, customs issues or foul weather delay

 

FYI - These are numbers for worldwide luggage delays, so you can interpret them for your flights as you wish. Just thought you might enjoy the figures.

 

Do you know what percentage of all bags worldwide fall into this category to begin with?

 

Keith

[Globaliser]

The second article suggests 1.4%.

[chipmaster]

The second article suggests 1.4%.

 

Which means on any givne cruise, assuming everyone flies between 10-30 people will have their baggage delayed :eek: A good reason to try and fly in a day early. Or you could say the likely hood is low enough to not worry ( R u a half empty or half full person ) ;)

 

I personally have only had luggage lost/delayed once in all my travels and the company had it at my doorstep 12 hours laters.

[FlyerTalker]

The problem with world-wide figures is that they are just that...worldwide.

 

I would assume that there may be more baggage issues in some countries than others, which affects the overall result.

 

As I said, you can take the figures as you wish. Personally, my baggage "issue" rate is FAR less than 1.4% and is almost 100% due to delays forcing a short connection. Which is why I almost never take a connect that is near the MCT for an airport/airline combo. Better to spend the time leisurely connecting and avoiding issues.

 

Today's tip: Build your own connections with the connection times you want by using the multi-city option rather than just taking what the airline system computer wants to sell you when you pick just the start and end points (as that will almost always be the shortest connect available).

[Globaliser]

Which means on any givne cruise, assuming everyone flies between 10-30 people will have their baggage delayed

As FlyerTalker says, there are lots of things that other passengers do (which cruise passengers tend not to) that will increase their chances of bags going missing. I expect that the 1.4% will include quite a lot of people whose connections are bang on MCT and who then miss them; the bag gets delayed even though the passenger gets reaccommodated or rerouted. Or people who change their travel plans half way through their journey, but the bag doesn't catch up fast enough. Or people who check in 60 seconds before the check-in cutoff deadline (I am guilty of this sometimes). And so on and so forth.

[Keith1010]

In terms of the luggage it's also a reminded that if you can spread clothing into multiple pieces of luggage it's a good idea. For example, if we take two pieces of luggage to check my wife and I share the bags so that a portion of the luggage is in each bag.

And it's a good idea to be sure that your bags have your correct contact information.

 

The reality is that the more one travels and the more they check bags the greater the chance that at some point their luggage will go missing.

 

Yes, there might be some things to minimize the chance but these things do happen. To me having a long connection has always been a no brainer not only to ensure we might make the connecting flight but our luggage makes it too.

 

Some might beat the odds and others won't and of course it varies by location, etc. since all airports do not have the same methods when it comes to luggage and they are all different sizes in terms of the amount of luggage they handle.

 

After upteen years of traveling without a problem with a missing bag it happened to my wife last fall. The good news is we were returning from a black tie event and not going to it. We got to the airport a few hours before our flight, we watched as we always do the luggage being tagged, we were on a direct flight, etc, etc. etc.

 

Instead of our luggage going on our plane to Dallas it ended up going to Los Angeles then up to San Francisco and then it was sent to us.

 

I was hoping we would get some FF miles since the luggage traveled those extra miles, but no such luck.

 

Keith

[MrsPete]

49% - Baggage that fails to make a connection between flights

So you can essentially cut your risk in half by sticking to non-stop flights.

[FlyerTalker]

No, you don't "essentially".

 

Remember that those are GLOBAL averages worldwide. You are making big errors in applying such statistics to a specific flight.

 

For example, let's say that you had a 4 hour connection in Salt Lake City. Medium sized hub with good operational conditions. With your long connect, you were having a reduced likelihood of a baggage issue to start with. So substituting a non-stop doesn't halve your probability of a "lost" bag.

 

Take statistics as a snapshot picture of a VERY large (millions of flights) global universe. To try to take figures that include flights from Lagos and Bombay and Moscow and thousands of other places around the globe and strictly apply them to your flight to Ft. Lauderdale (for example), is an abuse of the numbers.

[Globaliser]

So you can essentially cut your risk in half by sticking to non-stop flights.

In addition to what FlyerTalker says, remember that those figures include the following:-

I expect that the 1.4% will include quite a lot of people whose connections are bang on MCT and who then miss them; the bag gets delayed even though the passenger gets reaccommodated or rerouted. Or people who change their travel plans half way through their journey, but the bag doesn't catch up fast enough.

If you're going to a cruise and you book your itinerary conservatively and making allowances for the fact that you're embarking on time-critical air travel, then you will reduce your chances of mishandled baggage a little by opting for a non-stop, but not by as much as half.