American Airlines has the absolute worst record of mishandling luggage

For the past three years, one US airline has been consistently more likely to mishandle passengers’ luggage than any other. Between 2021 and 2024, American Airlines had the most reported instances of mishandled luggage of any US airline, according to analysis of Department of Transportation Air Travel Consumer Report data by MyBaggage.com. American Airlines handled more than 200m pieces of luggage in the past three years. Of those, more than 1.7m were mishandled, averaging 8.71 per 1,000 cases. The data also showed that American Airlines ranked highest for mishandled luggage every year for the past decade. The airline acknowledged the issue and said it has been working on improvements. American Airlines said the company saw a 25% year-over-year improvement in mishandled baggage in February, and had its lowest mishandled baggage report since 2017, in an email to SFGATE. “If we get [travelers] there and the bag doesn’t make it, [there’s a] huge drop in their perception of the service or the value they got from buying a ticket on American,” American Airlines COO David Seymour told the Wall Street Journal.<br/>