Airlines in the United States mishandled 1,052,493 checked bags between January and June 2026, according to new figures from the U.S. Department of Transportation. This amounts to approximately 5,815 bags per day out of over 213 million bags enplaned during the same period.

American Airlines recorded the highest rate of mishandled baggage, with 0.73 bags lost for every 100 checked, and also reported the largest raw number of mishandled bags at 251,976 from more than 34.5 million checked during the first six months of the year. United Airlines followed with a rate of 0.66 mishandled bags per 100, totaling 192,191 from over 29.2 million checked bags.

At the lower end of the scale, Allegiant Air had the lowest mishandling rate at 0.12 bags per 100. JetBlue followed with 0.31, and Southwest recorded 0.32.

Despite these figures, the overall rate of mishandled bags has shown improvement. The rate fell from 0.52 bags per 100 in the first half of 2025 to 0.49 in the same period of 2026. The total number of mishandled bags also decreased from 1,152,475 to 1,052,493 year-over-year.

For June 2026 alone, airlines mishandled 194,063 bags out of more than 39.3 million checked, a decrease from the 221,543 bags mishandled in June 2025.

While a mishandled bag can cause significant disruption and unexpected expenses, the vast majority of checked luggage reaches its destination without incident. Travelers' experiences shared on platforms like Reddit suggest that many reported mishandled bags are eventually reunited with their owners, often arriving on later flights or being delivered by courier.

Jurgen Himmelmann, co-founder and CEO of Global Work & Travel, advises passengers to take precautions to mitigate potential baggage issues. These include taking photographs of the exterior and interior of luggage, keeping irreplaceable items such as passports and medication in carry-on baggage, removing old airline tags, and placing contact information inside the suitcase in addition to the external tag.

Utilizing baggage trackers like Apple AirTags can also provide reassurance by helping travelers locate their bags if they fail to arrive at the carousel, though their location updates may not always be immediate. For extended trips, packing a couple of days' worth of essentials in carry-on luggage is also recommended.