Airlines losing more bags

Rising rate at DIA, other airports has multiple causes

By Kevin Flynn, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Monday, December 17, 2007

Dennis Schroeder / The Rocky

Travelers search through luggage outside a baggage claim area at Denver International Airport. Airlines at DIA have experienced a lost-bags rate in the first nine months of 2007 that rose at a faster rate than the national increase.

If you're traveling by air for the holidays, you might want to rely on Santa to deliver the gifts rather than packing them in your checked luggage.

Otherwise, you could get Scrooged.

The number of lost bags is up sharply this year, a result of the convergence of increased travel, fewer carry-ons, tighter scheduling and heightened security.

"When (lost-bag) rates are on the rise, it tends to mirror our passenger loads," said Frontier Airlines spokesman Steve Snyder.

Indeed, record numbers of people are flying these days: 3.6 percent more than last year.

Through the first nine months of this year, an average of more than 2.1 million people were soaring through the skies over the U.S. every day - the equivalent of almost every person in the Denver area taking a flight each day.

But along with that there is a nearly 12.5 percent increase nationwide in the rate of mishandled bags through the first three quarters of this year.

Though airlines have shown some improvement in the past few months, an average of 12,660 bags a day have been mishandled this year.

The trend has been five years in the making. The rate of lost, late, damaged and misdirected luggage has gone up 87 percent since the best bag-handling year of 2002.

And while the three major airlines that carry most of Denver's fliers still have mishandling rates below the national average, all have increased this year at a faster rate than the national average.

United has one of the best records for baggage handling among airlines at Denver International Airport, but its rate for lost luggage went up 14.4 percent over the same period in 2006.

Mishandled bags at Southwest Airlines were up 21 percent, and the rate of mishandled bags at Frontier was up 31.7 percent.

Combination of factors

All three airlines have improved handling in the past few months, but are still ahead of last year's rate.

The numbers are systemwide, not limited to DIA.

Airline officials and others say a combination of factors is to blame. Tight connecting schedules combined with stricter security screening means earlier cutoff times for bags to get on the plane. Passengers who check in later stand a chance of their bags being caught in the last-minute jam.

And with more restrictions on carry-on bags, more travelers are checking bags.

Recognizing a spike in the numbers, particularly since the summer of 2006 when security rules clamped down on liquids in carry-on bags, airlines are adjusting.

"Over the last year or so, we really focused on having many more bags to handle, and in general on our processes for such things as how we handle connecting bags," said Megan McCarthy of United. "We focused on how do we do that in the most efficient way possible in order to miss the least number of bags."

Rules for carry-on liquids were tightened in August 2006 after authorities in Britain broke up a plot in which suicide bombers were to detonate liquid explosives smuggled among their carry-on items on flights from the United Kingdom to the United States.

Frontier saw an immediate hike in checked bags that has stayed just above one bag per passenger even as fliers got used to the new carry-on rules. But it has worked to reduce mistakes.

"Over the past four months, our ratio of mishandled bags has ranked among the top five carriers," Snyder said.

Even with numbers on the rise, your chance of arriving without your baggage is relatively small in the overall daily flow of travelers. One out of every 138 passengers has ended up not connecting with his or her bag so far this year.

But that is nearly twice as often as in 2002, the industry's best year, when only one in every 258 passengers had a baggage problem.

While "lost luggage" conjures images of your suitcase going to Toledo while you are headed to Honolulu, having a bag go to the wrong destination is actually a rare occurrence. Computer-scanning means that almost always a misread bag with a smudged bar-coded tag will be kicked out for rescanning or manual handling rather than sent to another city.

In fact, the most common baggage problem is the missed connection. If a passenger is changing planes and the arrival is behind schedule, running to the next gate for the connecting flight may get you into your seat, but your bag might not be so lucky.

Lost in transfer

Bob Mann, an airline industry consultant based in New York, said another factor is the increasing use of smaller partner airlines that provide regional feeder service, enabling major airlines to reach into smaller markets.

"There is a far greater number and overall percentage of passengers who are flying on regional partner airlines," Mann said. "They involve interline transfers of bags, and that's actually where a lot of the mishandling occurs.

"Unless you are on a nonstop flight, you and your bags are going to have to make a connection, and a lot of those bags are lost in the transfer process."

Mann's advice for passengers who want to lessen their chance of having a lost bag?

"The best insurance you can use is to do what airline employees do: Don't check bags." he said. "Unless I was positively forced to, I wouldn't let go of my bag."

flynnk@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5247

Tips for bag checking

There's no surefire way to guarantee your bag won't be mishandled, especially if you have to change planes en route. But the airlines have some good advice to make sure your bag at least starts its journey with you.

* Tag your bags: Make sure that a tag with your name, address and telephone number at your destination is attached to your luggage. As an added measure, toss a copy of your itinerary inside the bag.

* The do not list: Don't pack cash, jewelry, electronics, laptop computers, fragile items, medications, car keys or important documents in your checked bags.

* Be there on time: Most airlines require you to check in within 45 minutes of flight time if you are checking bags, and an hour before any international departures. If you have no baggage to check, you can still check in 30 minutes before a flight. You may not be allowed on the flight if you try to check a bag when the plane is set to depart in less than 45 minutes.

* Get there early: To meet that timetable, arrive much earlier. If you're checking bags, try to be at the check-in line at least 90 minutes before flight time in case there's a long line, or two hours prior to an international departure. During busy holiday travel times especially, add another hour if you plan to park your own car at the airport.

Bungled luggage

Nationally, the number of bags mishandled per 1,000 passengers has increased sharply since 2002. The airlines below are listed in descending order of their Denver market share.

Airline 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Total 3.87 4.20 4.58 6.09 6.45 7.25

United 3.69 3.93 3.81 4.29 5.21 5.96

Frontier * * * * 4.86 6.40

SkyWest * 7.49 9.70 10.26 9.57 11.47

Southwest 3.54 3.40 3.20 4.04 4.94 5.98

American 4.32 4.54 4.60 5.85 6.04 7.44

US Airways 3.01 3.74 4.15 10.05 7.77 8.84

Delta 3.61 3.74 4.35 7.47 6.63 7.65

Continental 3.06 3.10 3.35 4.07 4.54 5.66

Northwest 4.79 3.45 4.01 4.72 4.32 5.13

Mesa * * * * 10.30 11.05