Odds

The chances of your bags being lost when flying have gone up.

WASHINGTON - Add this to the nightmare scenario for summer air travelers: the growing chance that their baggage is on another flight, possibly to a different destination.

A congressional panel on Wednesday seemed sympathetic, but left the clear impression help is not on the way.

"I'm afraid more baggage turmoil is almost an inevitability," said Rep. John Mica (news, bio, voting record), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Aviation.

Mica, R-Fla., noted that the number of mishandled bags was 23 percent higher in 2005 than in 2004. For every 1,000 passengers, there were 6.04 reports of bags that were delayed, lost, stolen or damaged last year, according to the Transportation Department.

Lost baggage is one of those risks one takes when flying. It's inconvenient as hell, but there are lots more troubling things that can happen to oneself.

Just check out this list if you want to. I'd be more troubled about drunken pilots. If this list was true, its twice as likely as your bag getting lost.

TFM flew over 400,000 flight miles between 1997 and 2001. Were my bags ever lost? Exactly once, in 2000 when dear wife and I went to Poland. Our bags were left behind in Amsterdam. I flew most of my miles with Northwest, and their luggage service for elite flyers doesn't hold up well versus other carriers I've flown. It was my biggest peeve with NWA who treated me very well otherwise during my time as a Gold or Platinum Frequent Flyer.

It's just not good business to leave two of your elite FF's baggage behind. They had priority tags on them, but I learned from practice this meant little to nothing. On the other hand Singapore Airlines made sure their elite FF and First and Business Class passengers baggage got red carpet treatment(Singapore Air has a red carpet in front of their 1st class check-in at Manila airport!). They are always the first bags off.

Another thing- Doesn't Congress have something better to do than have hearings on lost luggage?

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