All I can say, is that I have been extremely lucky and have not lost any of my luggage while traveling to Krakow, Poland.
Of course that does not mean that the average person has not had this problem. Per the
Department of Transportation and an article in
USA Today over 10, 000 bags were lost a day by US Domestic Airlines in 2005. If I were a bell boy and lost 1-2 bags a day, I would be fired after 3 weeks. Why do the airlines get to get away with this? They should be fined for losing peoples luggage.
An example of how bad American Airlines was in October of 2005. There were 12 fellow employees that flew to Memphis, TN from Krakow, Poland and 7 of the 12 had there luggage lost/delayed.