How often does luggage go missing?

[userofthiswebsite]

Just reading over the Ryanair thread regarding the new charges for taking luggage on board and people talking about cabin luggage being more popular due to people being worried about putting bags in the hold in case they go walkabouts.

I don't fly a lot but how often does this happen? Has it happened to many here?
Say 1 in 100 bags... Would that be right give or take for bags going missing between the check in desk and the plane itself?

I travel quite a bit. Both for work and family reasons as my parents live in another county. Like at least one return flight per couple of moths for years now. It used to be even more frequent. In my whole life my luggage was only lost once - and found after a couple of days

Also travel a lot and only lost luggage once, which was later found and sent to me by courier.

Make sure you have a decent quality case that won’t split or come open, and that it has some distinguishing features such as a coloured ribbon to make it stand out from other similar cases.

Unicorn

I have a luggage band, luggage tag, and padlock in a matching blue.

I travel loads. Once my suitcase didn't make my flight. Got it the next day. Once my cheap duffel bag arrived on the turnstile opened and the contents making their ways individually. That one was interesting. Excuse me, that'll be my shoe there, thanks.

It's nothing to do with possibility of luggage being lost. They are just trying to dodge the baggage hold fees.

I've travelled a lot, probably 50+ times and only had my bag go missing once and I got it back. So the chances are slim. First of all the luggage guys have a job to do and second of all everybody wants their own bag.

A friend's father worked for a major airline as the head of baggage management. When a family group (of about 8) went to Australia (two flights on different planes), he insisted they take hand luggage, as he knew the probability of all the bags arriving - transfers are apparently particularly bad.

Friends went to a wedding overseas dressed more casually than they'd planned as they'd arrived, but their luggage hadn't (it did arrive after the wedding).

So fairly frequently I'd guess.

My DH and I both travel for work he has never ever had luggage go missing.

My luggage goes missing quite regularly.

My case is a decent make in good repair, well marked, easily identifiable and I always check in in good time.

I really don’t know why it does missing so often. I’ve always got it back (eventually) - the worst was about a week.

Several times it’s been so delayed I’ve had to buy clothes (including memorably an evening dress/shoes/bag) Happily the airlines have refunded me.

It’s happened so often that I now always carry a change of underwear, a spare top, a hair brush and a toothbrush in my hand lunggage.

Last four holidays 2 summer 2 winter when flying BA they have misplaced our bags, one a genuine missing and BA picked up the tab for new clothes. Others - baggage followed as it was more economical for BA to courier later rather than hold the flight long enough for luggage to make it onto the flight.

I don't think I know of anyone in real life who's luggage has got lost.
I assume modern airports and everything being scanned and tagged means it's a fairly low occurance, along with security pressures - if you don't catch the plane your luggage gets taken off too.
If all the behind the scenes luggage transfer conveyors broken down or if your suitcase rolled off a pile it might happen, but that's not going to be often.

I fly nearly every week and my case has been delayed twice in 5 years. One time it was delivered the next day by courier and one time I hung around for about an hour while they found it. Never had one completely lost and not returned.

Ex travel agent here and it happens an awful lot. Flight delays and cancellations cause havoc with luggage, likewise missed connections. It's normally to be found in a dark room in an airport somewhere and quite often the only way to get it back swiftly is to physically get someone to get it for you. I am particularly proud of having gotten backs back to a honeymoon couple travelling round Mongolia on a motorbike.

Personally I've had mine lost twice. Once on 12th September 2001, travelling to a Muslim based country. I only had my passport, wallet and contact lenses in hand luggage as everyone was terrified after the day before. Thankfully insurance meant I could go shopping.

Second time was going to Amsterdam and they actually told us before take off that luggage wasn't coming too. I retrieved my bags from Schipol a week later and the nice man at KLM gave me 100 euros cash in lieu of filling in paperwork (I gather there were a lot of bags lost that week and he was tired).

I always recommend travel insurance if checking bags in. It should give you piece of mind to replace essentials but read the small print before you buy.

Suitcases damaged though that’s another matter!! Wheels off, wheels damaged and material damaged.

It's happened to us once and my parents once. Neither are big flyers. They only missed the flight though, and turned up in a couple of days. More stressful than it sounds to deal with at midnight with toddlers in tow.

I think people travel hand luggage only to save money and time. We check ours in, we just split things between cases now.

DH flies on average twice a month (and I'm about once a month) and we've never had a bag go missing completely.

The only time they've been delayed has been on short connections, then only twice in the last 10 years. Thai Airlines managed to get our bag to our hotel 4 hours after landing, Swiss on the other hand took over 24hrs!

We travel a lot as do young adult children. We’ve done five countries this year. My husband does almost weekly internal flights. My son flew Scotland return weekly for eight months last year.
None of us have ever lost luggage. I have very bright luggage with straps around the cases. My husband insists on hard shell, Black cases. Never lost anything.
We have occasionally used jut cabin luggage if were only going overnight - it’s to save time voiding the luggage collection belts.

I also travel a lot and had bags (both mine and my husbands) go missing on one occasion. Terrible timing though, Christmas Eve and full of Christmas presents. BA customer service was absolutely awful and it put me off flying with them.

On the other hand, I flew with Jet2 recently and my old suitcase was slightly damaged when we got it from the carousel. 10 minutes of form filling and 3 days later a brand new (much better) replacement suitcase was delivered by courier. Now that's good service!

I rarely fly, but went to the Seychelles on honeymoon, unfortunately my case went to Mauritius. Got it back three days later, but it was rather shit at the time as I only had one outfit. Had to buy a bikini and sarong and wore that for most of the time.

Also had a case torn and scuffed badly and, on a separate occasion, a hold all bag ripped open.

I suspect it's more likely with connecting flights, more opportunities for it to be put into the wrong place.

I do 50-70 flights a year and luggage has never gone missing.

Only once. It was delayed for one day and was delivered to me the next day.

My suitcase getting delayed on the flight was amazing!!

It got delayed for 2 days, they forgot to load in on the plane and then only did flights to that destination every 2 days.

I got to go out and buy hundreds of ££ of clothes, shoes, toiletries etc and then they refunded the lot. AND dropped my suitcase by courier the day after.

Getting your suitcase lost on the way home is a fucker cos no compensation but on the way out to a major city has its upsides

I have never had a bag go missing

I fly anywhere between 10 and 40 times a year, and have done for 15 years but most of those are flights where I take hand luggage only

I travel a lot and used to be in charge of corporate travel for a big firm. I’ve never known it go missing and not turn up, usually it makes an appearance and is couriered to you later that day or the following day. Always take clean underwear and a top in your hand luggage JUST IN CASE. Short connections are where bags are most at risk of missing the flight in my experience. Damaged bags is another thing entirely though...

Our luggage went missing on the start of our two week holiday last month. Not just ours though - half the plane's! The police were called to the luggage hall; it was chaos and the staff were ridiculously unhelpful. It was delivered to us two days later - damaged. Luckily we just happened to have packed a change of clothes each (we wouldn't normally, but we're taking only one case, and were at the maximum weight).

DH did a weekly commute to Scandinavia for a year and never lost luggage - one time he was separated from it but that was because his work requested at the last minute that he stop over on the trip back to work. He stayed a night in the stopover city with no luggage and his bag went ahead to his final destination! Don't know how it happened considering luggage is not supposed to travel without it's owner

He did 5 months in London, also weekly commute, and bag was delayed once.

We live abroad and have made many trips back to the U.K. in the last 18 years and no luggage lost. I used to commute back to the U.K. about once a month and luggage was never lost or delayed. I did spend a day stuck in my home airport because of snow though! I always have hold luggage because my hand luggage is already full with medical stuff that I can't lose.

Airlines a mix of BA, Swiss, Easyjet, Scandinavian. No Ryanair though 😅

We've also been to Aus a few times to see family, complicated schedules with lots of internal flights and international flights into and out of different cities, and didn't lose anything then either.

So in my experience, the risk is statistically pretty small.