Ten things to know about your lost baggage

Returning from a recent leisure trip to Miami, Jerry Jorgensen landed in Detroit only to face one of the biggest frustrations of air travel: His bag was nowhere to be found.

After making several dozen calls, Jorgensen got American Airlines to return his bag. But the Michigan dairy farmer was not happy. The airline “passed me around on the phone like a hot potato,” he said.

The good news is that airlines worldwide eventually recover 97% of mishandled bags.

That is one of 10 surprising facts about flying with luggage that came out of a new study by international air transport technology specialist SITA.

1. The total number of lost, delayed or damaged bags by airlines around the world dropped 17% in 2013 to nearly 22 million. But airline travel jumped about 5% last year, so the rate of mishandled bags dropped by 21% to about seven per 1,000 passengers.

2. Of all mishandled bags, 81% are simply delayed, 16% are damaged or pilfered and only 3% are declared lost or stolen and never found.

3. The cost to airlines to find, deliver or replace mishandled bags was $2.09 billion in 2013, a 20% drop from 2012.

4. The top cause for delayed bags was when baggage handlers made errors transferring bags from one airplane to another. This accounts for 45% of mishandled bags.

5. The worst year for mishandled bags in the last decade was 2007, when airlines lost 47 million bags. The rate was nearly 19 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers.

6. Since 2007, the rate of mishandled bags has dropped about 63%.

7. Airlines in Asia have a lower rate of lost bags (nearly two per 1,000 passengers) than North America ( three per 1,000 passenger).

8. In 2013, airlines took an average of 36 hours to return delayed bags to their owners.

9. Airlines worldwide collect about $10 billion from checked bag fees but spend about $31 billion to move luggage from airport to airport.

10. By the end of 2016, more than 60% of airlines say they expect to send luggage location updates and allow travelers to file missing bag reports via smartphones.

ALSO:

SeaWorld reports latest drop in attendance amid Blackfish controversy

United Airlines to install 500 device charging stations at airports

Carnival Cruises reports loss as it rebounds from calamities at sea