First off, the new official name is Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. I hate it too.
Let me give you some insight on the workings of bags. It's a crazy world out there on the ramp and can get interesting when people aren't paying attention.
You arrive at the airport and check your bags. The label is put the handle indicating all of your connections and your final destination. It is placed on the belt and sent down to the bag room. Let's look at domestic since International is a completely different beast.
In the bag room, someone sorts the bags and puts them into carts. Those carts are lined up according to time of departure. When that time nears, someone hooks up to that cart and drives the bags to the gate. The gate agents are then responsible for those bags.
We then start loading the planes. We separate the bags that will be local when they arrive (meaning, there are no cxs) and ones that have cxs. Those cxs bags are further separated into hot and cold bags, depending on how long there is between your arrival and your next departure.
During all this, drivers are bringing other bags from other gates for the passengers that are connecting. Again, those are placed on the plane as they come. Sometimes, they aren't separated like the others and thrown into the front of the plane because of time constraints.
All of this is when things are going well. Plently of things can happen. A driver can fail to get to the plane on time. The bag can fall off the cart en route to the plane. The bag can sit at a gate cause the driver overlooked it when he was getting the bags that were assigned to his route. Bags can be misread and placed on the wrong plane. Remember, we don't scan any domestic bags unless we reroute them at the end of the night. Usually, if we miss a plane, we just put it on the next one out of there.
On an average flight, there are 150-200 bags, plus freight and other various things. Some international flights have upwards of 400+ bags (each weighing about 50 pounds, but that's a different story altogether). When I'm on a gate, we will see 3-5 flights a shift, so I will see close to 1,000 bags total (on and off a plane).
There are so many chances for us to **** up your luggage. Seriously. If you had any idea how crazy things were down there, you would wonder how in the hell we get anything right. And a .6% error rate isn't too bad if you ask me. ****, how many of sports journalists would be able to have that type of success?
As an employee, I will not check my luggage. Not because I don't trust the system, but if my bags do get lost, I don't get reimbursed. At all. I'm just out of luck. And if I don't make a plane, then my bags may make it there before me, and the company doesn't like that at all.
Remember, we rank among the highest in air carriers (of the big ones) in successfully handling bags. I should get the actual numbers for you, but I can't access that stuff from home. If you're interested, PM me and I'll be happy to let you know.
I know it sucks to lose your luggage. It's never happened to me, ever. Knock on wood. Some people are unlucky, I guess.
Some advice to make sure it doesn't happen to you? Get to the airport at least an hour ahead of time. That allows for the process to work completely. Make sure your luggage has a sturdy, well-built handle, preferably on top and on the side. The label system works better when you do, plus it's easier for us to handle. Put your name on the outside and inside of your bag. The inside is most important. And an address. Should all the other label come off, we can at least open your bag and find out how it belongs to. And make sure to make your bag distinctive, so as to speed up identification of yours among the sea of black, wheeled bags.
