Furious over girlfriend's lost baggage, techie launches website to expose airlines

Traveling for a vacation only to find out later that your luggage has been misplaced? This nightmare has been witnessed by a few unlucky passengers. However, one such unlucky couple decided to take matters into their own hands after their baggage didn’t reach them even after two weeks. Pieter Levels, a techie who created many products before, made a new website that ranks airlines by the number of items they’ve lost.

The website is aptly called ‘luggagelosers.com’ and it is already live and ticking. Two Indian airlines are among the top 5 luggage losers: Air India and Spice Jet. However, the rankings on luggagelosers.com are based on social media reports. While it offers an interesting perspective, the ratings can’t be taken too seriously. 

The brilliant idea sprung from a personal vendetta. Levels' girlfriend’s suitcase went MIA thanks to a Spanish low-cost airline called Vueling Airlines. He then decided to take matters into his own hands. “I made this because Vueling lost my girlfriend's suitcase two weeks ago and still haven’t returned it,” he said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).


The website’s ranking system is not just a random list. It considers the size of each airline, factoring in flights and fleet size. "It's a live ranking of airlines by how much luggage they are losing right now," Levels explained. So, it’s like a real-time scoreboard of luggage mishaps.

Even if the list is indicative, Indian carriers are having a rough time. Air India is leading the pack for the most lost luggage, followed closely by, WestJet Airlines, Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia, and then SpiceJet. India also tops the list when it comes to ‘Most luggage lost by airline country’. 

The website also shows the airlines that are very good at not losing customers luggage. Latam Brazil and Scoot are two of the best airlines, according to the list. 

Since airlines don’t openly share their lost luggage data, luggagelosers.com relies on social media reports and other instances spread across the internet. He explains, “My robot scrapers scour the internet 24/7 for people talking about their lost luggage and which airlines they flew, in 100+ different languages. By cross-referencing that with actual lost luggage data it estimates very closely how much luggage is constantly being lost. And yes, it takes into account airline size differences by flights and fleet size. All major airlines are tracked 24/7.”

✨ I made a new site called

🧳 💨 https://t.co/Jm4ChY05B4

It's a live ranking of airlines by how much luggage they are losing right now

So you can avoid flying with them (and hopefully they can improve)

Airlines losing most luggage rn:
🇮🇳 Air India
🇮🇪 Aer Lingus
🇬🇧 British… https://t.co/GHIgtIB1Iw pic.twitter.com/069r3BNR79

— @levelsio (@levelsio) June 30, 2024

This means the rankings are as good as the tweets and posts they’re based on. It’s a clever, crowd-sourced solution, but take the results with a pinch of salt.

Whether you’re a frequent flyer or an occasional traveler, luggagelosers.com offers a unique, if somewhat unscientific, look at which airlines are most likely to send your suitcase on an unplanned vacation.