Airlines Ranked by Lost Baggage Rate

The key finding

Allegiant Air loses the fewest bags among major U.S. airlines. American Airlines loses the most. The gap between them is nearly four-to-one.

These aren’t approximations. Every ranking on this page comes from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Air Travel Consumer Report, which compiles mishandled baggage data from the ten largest domestic carriers. ^[1] The figures below cover full-year 2024 — the most recent complete annual data available.

Full rankings: U.S. airlines by mishandled baggage rate (2024)

Rates are reported as mishandled bags per 100 enplaned passengers. A rate of 0.79 means that for every 100 passengers who checked a bag, 0.79 bags were delayed, damaged, or lost. ^[1]

Industry average: 0.55 per 100 enplaned bags ^[3]

The worst: American Airlines (0.79)

American Airlines reported the highest mishandling rate of any major U.S. carrier in 2024, at 0.79 per 100 enplaned bags. ^[1] That translates to roughly 8 mishandled bags for every 1,000 passengers who checked luggage. On a full A321 with 200 passengers, you’d expect at least one bag to go astray.

The pattern isn’t new. American has consistently ranked at or near the bottom of DOT baggage performance tables. In the first half of 2025, preliminary data from the August ATCR showed American holding the same position. ^[3]

Why does the largest U.S. airline struggle with bags? The answer is structural. American operates the most complex hub-and-spoke network in the country, with major hubs at Dallas/Fort Worth, Charlotte, Miami, Chicago O’Hare, and Philadelphia. Every connecting itinerary is a handoff point where a bag must be unloaded, re-sorted, and loaded onto a new aircraft — often in under an hour. Transfer mishandling accounts for 41% of all lost bags globally. ^[2] Airlines with more connections generate more opportunities for those handoffs to fail.

The best: Allegiant Air (0.20)

Allegiant’s rate of 0.20 per 100 bags is less than a third of the industry average and a quarter of American’s rate. ^[1]

The explanation is the opposite of American’s problem. Allegiant operates an almost entirely point-to-point network with no hub and very few connecting itineraries. When a passenger checks a bag on Allegiant, that bag typically goes on one aircraft and comes off at the destination. No transfer, no second sort, no tight connection window.

Allegiant also doesn’t interline baggage with other carriers, which eliminates another failure point entirely.

It’s worth noting that Allegiant’s rate rose 46% year-over-year (from a very low base), so the airline isn’t immune to operational challenges. But even after that increase, it remains the best performer by a wide margin. ^[3]

Why legacy carriers lose more bags

Three of the four worst-performing airlines in 2024 are legacy hub-and-spoke carriers: American, United, and Alaska. That’s not a coincidence.

The single largest cause of baggage mishandling worldwide is transfer failure — bags that don’t make it from one aircraft to the next during a connection. SITA data shows transfers account for 41% of all mishandled bags globally, down from 46% in 2023. ^[2]

Hub-and-spoke carriers funnel passengers (and their bags) through central hubs where connecting flights are tightly scheduled. At a hub like Chicago O’Hare, a bag might have 45 minutes to be unloaded from an arriving flight, transported across the airport, re-screened if necessary, sorted by the baggage handling system, and loaded onto the departing aircraft. When that window is too short — or when weather, mechanical delays, or system bottlenecks intervene — the bag misses the connection.

Point-to-point carriers like Allegiant and Frontier largely avoid this problem. Fewer connections mean fewer transfer points, and fewer transfer points mean fewer lost bags.

The middle of the pack

Several airlines cluster near the industry average of 0.55:

Southwest Airlines (0.62) operates a hybrid model. Its network is largely point-to-point, which should help with bags, but the airline processes high volumes at airports like Midway, Denver, and Las Vegas. Southwest’s rate sits above the average despite limited interline agreements.

Alaska Airlines (0.53) runs a smaller hub-and-spoke network centered on Seattle, with growing connectivity following its merger activity. Its rate is slightly below average.

Frontier Airlines (0.49) benefits from the same point-to-point structure as Allegiant but reports a rate more than double Allegiant’s. This may reflect differences in operational execution, airport mix, or reporting patterns.

Delta Air Lines (0.44) posts the best rate of any legacy carrier and ranks eighth overall — a strong result for an airline of its size and complexity.

JetBlue Airways (0.39) operates a focused network with hubs at JFK, Boston, and Fort Lauderdale. Its rate improved meaningfully in 2024. ^[3]

Historical context: the industry is getting better

The bigger picture is one of steady improvement. The global mishandling rate in 2024 was 6.3 per 1,000 passengers — a 67% reduction from the 2007 rate of approximately 18.9 per 1,000. ^[5]

That improvement came despite a massive disruption during the pandemic recovery. In 2022, airlines faced a surge of returning passengers while operating with depleted ground crews, and the global rate spiked to 7.6 per 1,000. It has declined in each subsequent year: 6.9 in 2023, 6.3 in 2024. ^[5]

The U.S. domestic industry average followed the same trajectory, dropping from 0.58 per 100 bags in 2023 to 0.55 in 2024 — a 7.6% improvement. ^[1]

Technology is a major driver. RFID-equipped bag tags provide higher read rates than barcodes alone. SITA’s WorldTracer Auto Reflight system can automatically rebook a mishandled bag onto the next available flight in 2 seconds. And the Modern Baggage Messaging (MBM) standard, approved in 2025, is expected to reduce mishandling by an additional 5%. ^[4]

How to use this data

If you’re choosing an airline and baggage reliability matters to you, these numbers are a reasonable proxy for operational quality. But context matters.

A rate of 0.79 (American) means roughly 1 in 127 checked bags is mishandled. A rate of 0.20 (Allegiant) means roughly 1 in 500. The absolute risk on any single flight is low for every carrier on this list.

The more practical takeaway: connecting flights are where bags get lost. If you’re flying a legacy carrier through a major hub with a tight connection, your bag faces meaningfully higher risk than on a nonstop flight — regardless of the airline’s overall rate. A nonstop on American is lower risk than a double-connection on Allegiant, if such a routing existed.

What helps:

• Book nonstop when possible. This eliminates the transfer risk that drives 41% of mishandling. ^[2]
• Allow generous connection times. Under an hour at a busy hub is asking for trouble.
• Use a luggage tracker. An AirTag or SmartTag turns “your bag is somewhere in the system” into a specific location you can share with the airline. See our tracker rankings.
• Know your rights. If your bag is delayed, the airline owes you reimbursement for essentials. If it’s lost, you’re entitled to up to $4,700 on domestic flights. Read our compensation guide.

Methodology

The rankings on this page are based on the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Air Travel Consumer Report (ATCR), which is published monthly and compiled from data submitted by the ten largest U.S. marketing carriers. ^[1]

What the rate measures: The mishandled baggage rate is expressed as the number of mishandled bags per 100 enplaned bags. A rate of 0.55 means 0.55 bags out of every 100 checked were reported as mishandled. This includes bags that were delayed, damaged, pilfered, lost, or stolen.

Who reports: The ten largest U.S. marketing carriers by domestic scheduled-service passengers. Regional carriers (SkyWest, Envoy Air, Republic Airways) are reported under their marketing carrier partner — meaning SkyWest’s bags count under Delta, United, or Alaska depending on which airline sold the ticket.

Reporting period: Full-year 2024 (January through December). This is the most recent complete annual data. H1 2025 data is available in secondary coverage of the August 2025 ATCR but isn’t yet available as a full-year figure.

Methodology change: In January 2022, the DOT switched from reporting mishandled bags per 1,000 checked bags to per 100 enplaned bags. That means pre-2022 DOT figures aren’t directly comparable to current data.

Global data: Global figures cited on this page come from SITA’s Baggage IT Insights 2025, which covers calendar year 2024 operations across approximately 500 airlines and 2,800 airports worldwide. ^[2]

When this data updates

The DOT publishes the Air Travel Consumer Report monthly, with approximately a two-month lag. Full-year 2025 data will be available in the January or February 2026 ATCR. SITA’s annual Baggage IT Insights report is typically published in June or July, covering the prior calendar year.

This page will be updated when full-year 2025 data is released.