Most vacationers have skilled that sinking feeling at baggage declare when the carousel stops and their checked luggage continues to be nowhere to be seen.
Whereas misplaced or delayed baggage are typically simply an unlucky a part of air travel, there are some airways that statistically mishandle checked baggage extra typically than others.
The scenario could be further irritating in 2026, as most carriers have considerably raised the cost of checking luggage on home and short-haul worldwide routes to a median of $45 for the primary bag.
Regardless of the elevated price, US airways have collectively mishandled 1,120,760 checked baggage within the first six months of 2026, based on new data from the Division of Transportation (DOT). That’s a median of about 0.5 baggage mishandled per 100 baggage enplaned.
Though these numbers can appear stunning, they’re much like mishandled baggage charges for a similar stretch in 2025, which noticed a median of 0.52 baggage mishandled for each 100 loaded into planes’ cargo holds.
If you happen to’d prefer to keep away from your rigorously packed baggage being on the incorrect facet of these statistics, it’s a good suggestion to know which airways routinely have the very best charges of mishandled baggage. The DOT’s month-to-month air journey client experiences evaluate the 13 largest US airlines and what number of baggage every provider mishandles per 100 loaded onto planes. A mishandled bag consists of baggage that’s misplaced, delayed, broken, or stolen.
Within the first half of 2026, American Airways had the very best fee of mishandled baggage, with a median fee of 0.73 mishandled baggage per 100 enplaned, the DOT information exhibits. Carefully following is American’s wholly owned regional subsidiary Envoy Air, which mishandled a median of 0.72 baggage per 100 enplaned. United Airways was subsequent, with a mishandled baggage fee of 0.66 baggage per 100 enplaned from January to June 2026.
On the flip facet, low-cost carrier Allegiant Air had one of the best baggage dealing with fee, with simply 0.12 baggage mishandled per 100 enplaned.
Vacationers who need to preserve shut tabs on their checked baggage can put units like Apple Air Tags into their baggage and observe them throughout every stage of the flight. Many airways now integrate Air Tag data into their baggage monitoring course of, permitting vacationers to share the machine location with customer support representatives via their cellular apps.
Right here’s a take a look at the DOT’s full US airline rankings for probably the most mishandled baggage per 100 enplaned for the primary half of 2026:
- American Airways: 0.73 baggage
- Envoy Air: 0.72 baggage
- United Airways: 0.66 baggage
- Skywest: 0.55 baggage
- Republic Airways: 0.53 baggage
- Alaska Airways/Hawaiian Airways: 0.53 baggage
- Frontier Airways: 0.51 baggage
- Spirit Airways: 0.47 baggage
- PSA Airways: 0.44 baggage
- Delta Air Traces: 0.38 baggage
- Southwest Airways: 0.32 baggage
- JetBlue Airways: 0.31 baggage
- Allegiant Air: 0.12 baggage