42 million bags mishandled, more than 1 million lost for good

Airlines around the world now have their incompetence measured! The same companies that get irritated when you try to carry on everything you own mishandled (i.e., lost) 42 million pieces of luggage in 2007, according to the Air Transport Users Council (AUC). This is an unbelievable increase from the 2006 level of 34 million and 30 million in 2005. Making matters worse, 1.2 million were “irretrievably lost” in 2007.

Not only are the raw numbers increasing, the rate of stupidity is accelerating. The amount of mishandled luggage grew 13.3 percent from 2005 to 2006. From 2006 to 2007, it sped up to 25.3 percent. Clearly, the airlines are getting better at being worse.

But, why should we dwell on the past when we can fear for the future instead? AUC worries that the number of bags mishandled could reach 70 million a year by 2019, based on forecasts of a 100 percent increase in the number of passengers flying annually over the coming decade.

With all this mayhem, there’s one thing you can count on: not being reimbursed fairly for your lost bags. The AUC says that passengers were not compensated appropriately “on too many occasions” because they did not have receipts for the items inside. Let this be a lesson to you. When you buy that new shirt, put the receipt in your suitcase – likewise for your hat, gloves, shoes and cell phone. This is clearly the only place where you’ll need them.

Oh, wait! Don’t put the receipts in your suitcase! Your suitcase will probably get lost! Stash them in your favorite carry-on instead.

Lost luggage. Really, Really Lost.

A few days ago, I blogged about my horrible experience at the lost baggage counter in Barcelona. Today, exactly a week later, I am already back home from a trip to Spain and France, still without that bag!

Although I managed to see Barcelona and drove up to the south of France, my luggage–it seems–saw a lot more of the world without me.

This is the sad story of poor me and my bag:

  • Monday – I arrive in Barcelona from Prague on Czech Airlines, direct flight mind you. My bag does not.
  • Tuesday – My bag arrives in Barcelona. Should be delivered to my hotel “asap”.
  • Wednesday – I am am enjoying the Costa Brava while someone at Iberia decides to send my bag back to Prague.
  • Thursday – I am driving up to France from Spain. Czech Air promises they will send the bag to me in Bordeaux.
  • Friday – I break down and buy new clothes and toiletries. Bag does not make it to Bordeaux.
  • Saturday – Marathon du Medoc day. My bag is apparently on its way to Bordeaux, yet somehow it gets rerouted to Madrid and then San Sebastien, Spain, of all places.
  • Sunday – I give up and drive to San Sebastien. The bag is not there and apparently has never been there.
  • Monday – I fly back home. Czech Airlines tell me they have no idea where my bag is.

According to USA Today, out of the 3,7 million bags that got lost by airlines last year, 420,000 are lost permanently. Umm, it is a little hard to imagine where almost half million bags end up. Apparently in some lost baggage center in Alabama. With the new “liquid” regulation, the number of checked bags has gone up and one would assume the number of lost bags would go up as well.

I love traveling, but the recent developments in the airline industry make me more and more convinced that trains might be the way to go.