We Are Team #CheckedBags
And you should be too.
I've been fortunate to have traveled extensively my entire life (an army brat and enterprise roles), with over 200 flights and 500,000mi in just the past 15 years. During that time, it's been mostly good experiences, with some great and very few bad. On the bad side, it's usually a less-than-ideal seat mate (not Stephanie!) and on a few occasions a missed connection due to delays.
The Benefits
For Stephanie and me, the conveniences of checked luggage are multitude and outweigh any real or perceived risks. I'll focus this post on the one most travels will appreciate, and that's the convenience. Besides, everyone loves having less baggage in their lives, why not start with the airport!?
Right?!
Not our actual luggage!
Every time we check our bag, it's one of those signals to our brain that we're off to another adventure! Especially if you have long walks to the gate, it's nice to have only a backpack or purse, maybe a rolling carryon, to deal with.
In general, any flight that has us 3 or more overnights away from home, we take a checked luggage. While we can travel light, we usually choose not to - who knows what adventures lie ahead for us, so why not be over-prepared? Typically this may mean 1 extra outfit that's workable for a nice (not formal, just nice) dinner out, maybe an extra pair of shoes. And, we like to have some space in our luggage for souvenirs! We've seen the struggles of many travelers, returning to the airport for the flight home an struggle to figure out how to board their flight with shopping bags.
The Risks
Now, let's talk about the risks, or the perceptions thereof. Surprisingly, despite the social media stories that would have you believe otherwise, the actual risks to your luggage are grossly overstated. Here are the facts, compiled by Luggage Hero from their analysis of data provided by the airlines to the US Department of Transportation:
- In 2021, of 150 Million pieces of luggage managed by the airlines, approximately 700,000 pieces were declared mishandled. Mishandled includes delayed, damaged, or stolen. That's 0.04% or 1 in 250 pieces of luggage. - More recently, while that percentage has increased, in May of 2022, of the 17 carriers reporting, they managed over 41 million pieces of luggage and mishandled only 0.56% . That's less than 6 of over 1,000 pieces of luggage.
So while there is a risk of having your luggage mishandled, we believe the statistics show that it's not something worth being as concerned with as a primary reason for not checking luggage. Still, we'll provide resources below on what to do if you do fall into that less than 1% of airline travelers.
And, there is the cost. If you don't have elite status, a business or first class ticket, or are are flying on any airline other than Southwest, there is likely a charge for checking your baggage.
Introduced in 2008, US airlines slowly began to pass on the labor and weight costs associated with checked bags to their passengers, and it has become a moneymaker ever since.
For many, this is the primary reason for not checking bags, the cost. For a single passenger in the US, checking just one bag starts at about $60 additional on a round-trip ticket, but can soar to as high as $190 (thanks, Frontier)! Add a 2nd (not uncommon for a long stay internationally) or additional passengers to your itinerary, and you are likely to pay as much or more than you did for the airfare!
While this post isn't a referendum on the ridiculousness of checked bag fees (but I hope you're reading this, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg!), there are relatively inexpensive ways to pay $0 for at least the first 1 or 2 of your checked bags and maybe even those family members on your itinerary. This is where credit cards with travel benefits come in handy.
Each of the the major US airlines that charge for your first 2 checked bags (that's per person), American, Delta, and United, have branded credit cards through Visa, Mastercard or American Express that include at least 1 free checked bag for the cardholder and 1 traveling companion (who must be on the same itinerary). This is the best way to avoid those nasty fees, with the cards typically also having other travel benefits to boot. For other cards (e.g., points-back cards), you may be able to use accrued points that can be converted to cash to cover travel costs, which includes checked bag fees.
But back to the travel cards. There are many to choose from (we wrote about this recently), with annual fees starting at less than $100. Our #1 recommendation is the American Airlines AAdvantage Red card, which has (at the time of this writing) a low $95 annual fee and 60,000 AAdvantage miles after a single purchase of $.01! That $95 fee is offset before you even take a trip, with the miles awarded being enough for a round-trip domestic ticket for 1 or 2 travelers, depending upon destination and season. Other cards offer reimbursement for TSA Pre or Global Entry, no foreign transaction fees, trip insurance, and other travel related benefits as well.
An open suitcase is common in our home.
Now, this doesn't mean we traverse through the airport empty handed. We will usually have a backpack, a carryon, and a checked bag. Stephanie also carries a purse. The backpacks will hold any snacks we're bringing for the flight, Chris' assortment of cameras, cables, etc., and maybe a book. Our carryon will have any medications as well as a change of underclothes, especially if we have a multi-leg itinerary, but also just in case we do succumb to having our luggage mishandled. That's happened to us once in all our travels.
In the unfortunate but unlikely situation that your luggage is mishandled, what can you do? There are 2 tips we offer, to make the best of a bad situation:
Know your rights.
The US Department of Transportation just launched the Airline Customer Service Dashboard, which is a great resource for understanding your rights when cancellations or delays occur. Here you will also find links for most major airlines to their specific customer service websites. From our review, we couldn't do better in terms of the straightforward layout of regulations, amenities, and resource links than what the DOT has put together.
Leverage Credit Card Travel Benefits
As mentioned earlier, several credit cards provide benefits directly applicable to luggage mishandling. Note that most require you to have used your card to pay for all or part of your airline travel. If that's the case, you may be able to utilize the card to cover reasonable purchases of food, clothing, meals while awaiting your luggage. We had to use this feature once, when our checked luggage did not arrive in Cabo, Mexico, with us (our flight from ORD->DFW was delayed and we had to stay in Dallas overnight). We called American Express to confirm that they would take care of us, and were pleased to find out that they would, the only requirement being that we fill out an online form upon our return and upload receipts.
Pack (and Check!) Your Bags!
Travel continues to have fits and starts, as the entire air travel industry digs itself out of pandemic-related issues, to include personnel and equipment shortages. While things are perfect, it is in the best interest of the airlines that travelers have a great experience, and that includes the handling of our luggage. We hope this post allays any fears you have about the risks and costs associated with checked baggage, and that you consider taking full advantage of this convenience on your next adventure!