I eagerly await the reports of the U.S. Dept of Transportation (www.dot.gov/airconsumer, click on Air Travel Consumer Reports), giving me the on-time and mishandled baggage reports of major airlines. Here are results for July.
Which airline had the highest percent of on-time flights? Believe it or not, United and US Airways were tied with the best records at 83.2%. Continental was a close second at 82.8%, followed by American (80.3), American West (78.7) and Delta (78.6). American Eagle came in last (in 10th place) at 76.2.
As for airlines most likely to damage or lose your luggage, top honors--a dubious distinction--went to American Eagle, with 9.66 reports per 1,000 passengers. The next worst was Northwest (5.10 reports), followed by American (4.48). The airlines least likely to hurt or lose your bags were US Airways (2.71), followed by Alaska (3.03) and Continental (3.38). As I hope all you all know by now, if you're carrying anything valuable or difficult to replace, do yourself a favor and put it in your hand luggage and schlep it with you on the plane.