How Can the TSA Help Us Take a More Relaxing Vacation?

By Colin Stern

Time for a Vacation

You're taking some much needed time off from work in New York City and you're planning to spend it in Miami, lounging on the beach sipping margaritas. However, since you don't live anywhere near Miami, you're going to need to take a flight.

However, you want this flight to be as stress-free as possible - you've dealt with plenty of stress at work. You decide that losing bags is one of the most stressful experiences that could happen on your flight, so you decide to try to minimize the possibility.

After some googling, you find historical records of claims from passengers sent to the TSA asking for compensation for lost or damaged bags. Using the data, you decide to plan your trip to avoid the airports and airlines which are most likely to ruin your trip by losing your bag. Which airports and airlines should you avoid, and which should you fly? When should you fly? And what should you bring in your carry-on instead of your checked bag?

Let's take a look at the worst airports....

Airports by Volume of Claims

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Every airport in the United States is displayed on this map with the icon size representing the square root of the number of claims to the TSA of lost of damaged baggage in 2015. The scale forces large airports to occlude less of the nearby airports. Hover over the airplane icon to see how many claims came from that airport. In New York, we see that JFK and LaGuardia lose the most bags of any airports in the area, while Westchester County Airport and Stewart International Airport are better alternatives. In Florida, meanwhile, Miami International Airport is slightly better than Orlando International Airport. Keep in mind, however, that the data is not normalized based on the number of visitors to each airport.

Now, let's look at the airlines...

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Number of Claims by Airline

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The height of each bar represents the square root of number of claims the TSA received pertaining to each airline. The scale allows smaller airlines to be visible on the chart. Our data says that Southwest and Delta lose the most bags, while Virgin America and Emirates are better alternatives. Once again, keep in mind that the data is not scaled based on the number of passengers of each airline.

Alright, we have an idea of our origin and destination airports and which airline we're going to fly. But what is the best time of year to fly?

Volume of Claims

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The line chart shows the number of claims in each month of 2015. It looks like baggage loss is fairly constant throughout the year, although January and July are slightly worse than average. February and November look slightly better - a perfect time to be a Florida Snowbird!

As for the types of stuff lost...

Number of Claims by Item Type

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The pie chart shows the breakdown of claims which had a given category of item. Airlines seem to lose a lot of clothing, and not a lot of cameras. So bring clothing in your carry-on instead! Of course, keep in mind that the data is not normalized by the total amount of each item put into checked baggage in 2015. Additionally, clicking on an item type does not select it in the other visualizations; however, selections in other visualizations are shown here.

But what happens if you do lose your bags? Which airport is most likely to compensate you?

Percent of Denied Claims by Airport

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Here, the airports are sorted by the percent of claims from them which were denied. JFK denied 60% of claims which is slightly below average. Meanwhile, Westchester County Airport denied 75% of claims, a bit worse. In Florida, Fort Lauderdale International Airport denied only 56% of claims, while Miami International Airport denied 70%. Ultimately, it seems that across all airports, getting compensated is rarely better than 50/50.

In conclusion,

if we're flying from the New York area, we'll want to avoid JFK and fly from Stewart International Airport instead. We'll want to fly Emirates (though you'll need to change planes in Dubai) and not Southwest. In Florida, we'll want to avoid Orlando International Airport and instead fly into Miami International Airport. If we have a choice, we'll want to fly in February and not July. We'll want to bring clothing in our carry-on and leave cameras in our checked bags. With the power of data science, we should get to Miami with our bags! Now, how to minimize the cost of those margaritas...