American Airlines loses and delays more checked bags than competitors – around half a percent and at times up to 1% of bags. And they take longer to get bags to baggage claim, too. They can’t compete with Delta and Alaska which guarantee delivery of checked bags to baggage claim within 20 minutes of flight arrival. American tracks this metric but does a poor job meeting it.
A connecting flight significantly increases the chances that your bag will be lost. Right now, when an incoming aircraft comes in, baggage is separated:
- Bags headed to baggage claim
- Bags connecting to other flights
- Priority bags, which are stored with local bags
Connecting bags on American then get transferred in hubs to those connecting to other American Airlines flights, and to those connecting onto American Eagle flights. That’s due to union contract issues, since different drivers generally have to be used to mainline and regional bags.
The airline has 3 changes to make baggage reliability better, according to Julie Rath who is American’s Senior Vice President of Airport Operations (and had a brief tenure running the AAdvantage program). She offered these comments during an employee meeting following the airline’s first quarter earnings call on Thursday.
- American Airlines has a new managing director “solely focused on improving baggage handling”
- Priority unloading of bags where there’s a connection under 60 minutes – “load those bags in the front of our bins that have to connect the fastest” – rolls out by middle of June. By the way your numbered bag tag tells the airline how tight your connection is (a number 1 is a tight connection).
- T-Link is a routing tool that helps employees “know which plane you need to go to to connect the bags first.” They’re using a computer to tell employees where to go next as they’re moxing bags around the airport.
If a bag is lost, they’re also working to reduce standing in line at the baggage office, and also to have baggage offices work to identify where bags are. The number one thing they have for this is scanning of bags, and they’re “working to get better at scanning” on the ramp (where employees don’t always scan each bag as they should). Ms. Rath reports a “20 percentage point improvement” for scanning bags on and off the aircraft, but they “need to improve” scanning at baggage claim. (American has rejected investing in RFID tracking or electronic bag tags.)
Last summer American Airlines Chief Operating Officer David Seymour reported that they were working on getting connecting bags off of planes first but now there appears to be a focus on shorter connections. Seymour also reported efforts to improve how employees running bags are routed around airports, especially big hubs. They also improved tracking of connecting bags in Dallas where each terminal has a separate area for connecting bags.
Here’s an important tip for traveling on American with checked bags: if you’re forced to standby for a flight at the gate, your bags will not make it. That’s not just playing the odds, it is literally how American’s systems are designed.
American’s “Deviate” (DV8) system reroutes bags. If your itinerary changes, and you have bags checked, a new tag for your bag gets printed when the bag is scanned. However this only gets triggered if you have to be checked in for your new flight with a seat assignment for the bag to get rerouted. If you stand by at the gate, or you’re rebooked without a seat assignment, your bag isn’t going with you because there’s not going to be enough time for American to locate the bag and get it onto your plane after you’ve been given your boarding pass.
AA’s situation is not as bad as the numbers seem. I’ve seen this happen many times:
1. AA gate agents force pax to check bags at the gate.
2. Pax rip off the bag tags and carry on those bags anyway.
3. Flight departs and those bags are now “lost” but not actually lost.
This happens because AA is too aggressive in forcing pax to check bags at the gate.
It’s 2023 and AA has just started segregating hot connection bags when loading?
@Jim – Going for greAAt
UA GS
Lost bags are not defined by bag tags but whether pax file lost baggage claims
If AA doesn’t scan the bag after the bag is tagged at the gate, it is obvious the tag was ripped off
I was super dedicated to this airline. America West to US Airways to AA. They finally produced the straw that broke my back. For better or for worse I moved to UA. After some adjustment it’s been for the better. See you later AA
Mr. Dunn, there are quite a few reasons that the jetway checked bag may not get scanned. There may be confusion among the ramp employees regarding if some bags have already been scanned as they came down the baggage slide on the jetway at different times. Some employees don’t understand the value of last minute bags being scanned and just don’t do it. The ramp lead may have already closed out the scanner for the flight or as he is sitting in his tractor out of the rain closing out the flight on the scanner and an employee throws the bags in the cargo pit and the lead does not see it happen. Maybe the employees don’t scan those bags because they have been treated badly by management.
Re: airlines decline to use RFID.
If I place my own TILE transmitter on my bag, and it is lost, will the presence of the TILE help me locate it? Anyone had experience with this? Thanks.
Kenneth: there are already countless stories of people whose bags were lost or reported missing, and who found them back using Tile or an Apple Air Tag. Here are the results using a simple Google Search. It can help to add a Tile/Air Tag but make sure it is not in an obvious place as thieves now know to look for them. https://www.google.com/search?q=passenger+found+bag+air+tag&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS921US921&oq=passenger+found+bag+air+tag&aqs=chrome..69i57.5383j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
@UA GS –> “1. AA gate agents force pax to check bags at the gate.” EVERY airline asks for volunteers to check their carry-ons at the gate, until the bin space is full — or the bag is too big — and *then* the pax doesn’t have a choice. “2. Pax rip off the bag tags and carry on those bags anyway.” This probably happens, but I’ve never seen it. Sure, sometimes the pax will walk their carry-on down the jet bridge and drop it off at the bottom, but sometimes the gate agents take the bags away from the pax and run them down the jet bridge themselves (or have a ramp worker do it).
@Joe United –>. Spot on!
I would say I have had very good luck re: my checked baggage, regardless of whether it’s a carry-on or a standard piece of luggage. Mostly it’s been during IRROPS when my flight is cancelled and I’m put on a different flight, but literally that’s only happened twice TTBOMK. Once, we had our daughter’s car seat go to SAN, except we flew to LAS. (Southwest had it delivered about 30 hours later.)
At one of its hubs, ORD, AA outsources its baggage services counter staff to Prospect Airport Services, the same vendor used for wheelchair assistance. Until AA insources it’s baggage services staff, at the very least in hubs, I don’t take their commitment to improve baggage performance seriously…