🧳💨 Luggage Losers

by @levelsio and part of Airline List

A live ranking of airlines by how much luggage they are losing right now

Featured on: NY Post | Mashable | MSN | Business Today | Economic Times | Reddit | Hacker News | Product Hunt

Why? Vueling lost my gf's suitcase...

Luggage lost numbers here are estimations based on people talking about losing their luggage on social media and websites. Actual numbers may vary, and exact figures are only available through official airline reports published retroactively.

Last updated: 18 days ago from 15,973 live sources

Biggest luggage losers right now

These airlines receive the dubious honor of losing the most luggage:

Biggest luggage winners right now

These airlines receive the award of losing the least luggage:

Airports losing most luggage right now

Most luggage lost by airline region

Most luggage lost by airline country

Why make this? Vueling lost my gf's suitcase in June 2024 and it then went on a trip to random spots around the world without coming back to us while getting gaslit by useless Vueling staff! We called and DM'd customer support, even messaged the CEO on LinkedIn, all without resolve. In the end we got it back because American Airlines found it. Not even Vueling.

I then realized nobody collects data on how much luggage specific airlines are losing every day (and getting them back to their customers) to avoid the worst ones. This helps me (and hopefully you too) to book with airlines that put effort in to not lose luggage or get it back fast to their customers! And rewards great airlines for not losing our luggage.

How it works? My robot scrapers scour the internet 24/7 for people talking about their lost luggage and which airlines (and airports) they flew, in 100+ different languages. By cross referencing that with actual lost luggage data it estimates very closely how much luggage is constantly being lost. And yes, it takes into account airline size differences by flights and fleet size, and airport size differences by passengers. All major airlines and airports are tracked 24/7.

Next features? As I collect more data over the next few weeks, I can add charts and growth % to see which airlines grow or decrease in lost luggage. If you have more ideas, tweet me!

Limitations? Airlines don't publish live lost luggage data (probably for a reason). Using social media as a data source has limitations but seems to be a good proxy indicator when combined with historical lost luggage data. Probabilities and lost bags are live estimations.

Why do airlines lose luggage? Airports and airlines, especially in US and Europe, are trying to maximize the amount of flights they can operate (and money they can make) while minimzing the cost (giving you cheap flights!). Part of that is underpaying the people handling your luggage. Because they don't want to pay more, there's a shortage of people who want to do those jobs, and the quality of the people remaining to do those jobs is low. At the same time the load on airlines and airports has never been so high. That's why luggage handlers will cut corners and might wrongly tag you luggage, load it onto the wrong plane, or even damage it. Usually your luggage is delayed for a few days and will get back. But increasingly I hear getting back your luggage is getting very hard (like it was in my experience with Vueling). The staff to actually find your delayed luggage, get it to the right airport, and then deliver it to your home or hotel is usually also overworked and underpaid and thus dysfunctional.

Do airlines sell your lost luggage to strangers? Yes they do. Lost luggage that is unclaimed is auctioned off to strangers. But "unclaimed" is a subjective term here. If the airline does not have the staff to actually get your luggage back to you, they'll consider it as "unclaimed" after 21 days. Typically its held up to 60 days though but there's no legal requirement for airlines to hold your luggage over 21 days! That means your clothes, your electronics, your personal items you have emotional ties to, even your laptop, will be sold off to strangers and there's nothing you can do about it!

How to avoid losing my luggage? Book flights with airlines that don't lose luggage a lot (the green ones on this page). Avoid airlines that do (the red ones on this page).

Like this? Follow me on X @ @levelsio for more hacky side projects!

Press inquiries? Send me a message on X @ @levelsio. Yes you can use any data from this site as long as you mention it and link back!