How to track your lost luggage after a flight

Losing a piece of luggage during air travel can leave a passenger frustrated and traumatised.

Imagine an airline loses track of your checked bag and you arrive at your destination — and your belongings do not.

Sadly, this is one of the realities of modern air travel today.

Globally, airlines mishandled 6.9 bags per 1,000 last year, according to SITA’s 2024 Baggage IT Insights Report.

That’s down 9.2 percent from a mishandled rate of 7.6 per 1,000 in 2022, even though passenger traffic increased by approximately 30 percent in 2023.

Among U.S. airlines, the mishandled-baggage rate was 5.77 per 1,000 last year, SITA said.

Baggage mishandling was far more likely on international routes than domestic ones, occurring at a rate of 12.1 per thousand for international itineraries compared to 2.4 per thousand for domestic ones.

Overall, airlines mishandled 36.1 million bags last year.

SITA uses IATA passenger traffic data combined with data from its own WorldTracer automated tracking solution to calculate the mishandled-bag rate.

While many passengers are taking matters into their own hands, putting tracking devices into their checked luggage so they can see where they are, there’s just one major problem: The airlines often don’t want to know.

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When American Airlines and British Airways lost mountain biker Barry Sherry’s bicycle en route to the Swiss Alps in 2023, he showed airport staff in Zurich the exact location of his bike — but they were unable to do anything with it, CNN reports.

“But should Sherry be so unlucky on a future trip, he might just score an easier recovery,” the report added.

Travelers using Apple AirTags may be able to give third-party access to tracking information in the future — allowing airports and airlines to hunt for bags in real time.

A new third-party sharing option has appeared in beta versions of Apple’s new iOS operating system, according to reports from those who have seen it.

That means it’s likely to be rolled out across the board in the future. Apple has not responded to CNN’s request for confirmation or comment.

But travelers wanting their bags back will still have to move fast – the shareable tracking option is currently only available for a week.

The updated Find My app has the ability to “share item location,” creating a link that can be sent to a third party, even if they’re not using an Apple device. That means staff at airport desk and in airline call centers could see the live location from their own computer networks.

Another new option, according to CNN is to show Contact Info, will allow for a “lost” item to connect to any phone or tablet, and share its owner’s information.

The link will also expire once the owner is reunited with their device.

It is expected that just like Apple did, other brands like inTile, Eufy or Knog Scout would do the same thing soon.

Only time will tell if this improve airlines’ rates at reuniting passengers with their bags.