CLEVELAND -- A Channel 3 News analysis of a government database shows passenger complaints about lost, damaged and stolen luggage remain high, despite extra charges for checked bags. 

Luggage fees kicked in starting last year, with most airlines charging between $15 and $100 (round-trip) to check bags.

Airlines collected more than $2 billion in luggage fees since June of last year.

Still, according to an airline industry group, nearly 33 million bags were mishandled last year. The airlines argue that that number represents less than 2 percent of all checked bags.

Jennifer Ross, of Lakewood, complained that the airlines lost her luggage, both on the way to her destination and again on her return flight home to Cleveland.

"It's not a difficult job. We're not going to the moon. We're not doing surgery. It's checking luggage. You take it from one place and put it somewhere else," Ross told the Investigator Tom Meyer.

Tim Hesketh, of Solon, said the airlines lost his luggage and didn't return it until two months after he arrived home from an overseas trip.

"It's adding insult to injury when you get poor service and have to pay more for it," Hesketh said.

The airlines don't have to release their internal records on passenger claims involving lost and damaged luggage, but the Transportation Security Administration maintains similar records on an electronic database.

Channel 3 News reviewed those records and found that nearly 900 claims were filed at Cleveland Hopkins International airport in the past seven years, for an estimated value of about a half million dollars.

TSA paid out only 15 percent of what passengers said they were owed.

In addition to extra fees for checked luggage, those flying on certain days during Thanksgiving will have to pay a $10 surcharge.

Alisha Fisher, of East Cleveland, is frustrated, saying "You're paying extra money for the luggage but you're not getting the service back."

On the day Channel 3 News was at Hopkins, no one was watching to make sure passengers were picking up the right bags at the claim area.

The Investigator Tom Meyer and a co-worker snagged five bags, belonging to complete strangers, off conveyor belts of three different airlines.

They could have easily left the airport with the bags, but returned them. An airlines employee on duty at the time refused to answer questions.

The airlines say they spend about $3 billion a year on mishandled bags. That's money spent on tracking and shipping bags and reimbursing passengers.

The airlines know they're under increased pressure to do a better job because of the extra fees they're charging.

Some are turning to advanced scanners and luggage tags with radio scanners to track down lost luggage. But the technology is expensive and isn't widely used.