The airline said her bag was lost, but her tracker said otherwise. So she flew to get it

[Eugene]

Source: CNN

The airline said her bag was lost, but her tracker said otherwise. So she flew to get it

Julia Buckley, CNN
Published 4:24 AM EDT, Sun August 6, 2023

Tales of airline passengers tracking their own lost bags are becoming ever more popular, as numbers of suitcases mishandled by airlines continue to spiral, and travelers invest in tracking devices.

But a passenger flying back to the airport where the tracker is showing, to collect it themselves when all official avenues fail? That’s a new one.

Sandra Shuster, from Denver, took matters into her own hands when her lost bag was showing as being at Chicago O’Hare airport – but her airline, United, was doing nothing about it.

Shuster and her 15-year-old daughter Ruby, who plays lacrosse, were flying back from Baltimore via Chicago on July 17, when their checked bag went missing.

The pair – who’d been to Baltimore for a tournament – had traveled with carry-on bags for their clothes, but had checked one bag containing Ruby’s lacrosse kit. When they arrived at Denver after midnight, the bag wasn’t on the belt. United representatives at Denver gave them a case number and told them the bag should arrive on the 8.30 a.m. flight from Chicago in just a few hours. When it didn’t, Shuster called the toll-free number for lost baggage that she’d been given.

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Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/airtag-lost-luggage-flight/index.html

Link to tweet

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Good for her! Her persistence got the bag back. Wow, what an incredible story. nt

[erronis]

2. The parent took a day off, booked a flight to CHI, found the bag, and were given a twit.

“What was difficult to comprehend was that it would have taken one call to Chicago to locate it, and nobody seemed able to do that. Why couldn’t the guy at baggage claim in Denver call Chicago? It would have taken one minute. It was a huge hassle for me to take the day off work and use my miles [to fly there].

“And there was no apology at any point – apart from a Twitter message saying ‘we know this has been frustrating and making you anxious.’

“United seems to be very siloed. They don’t have a way where these people can talked to each other and figure it out quickly.

“You can’t tell me in this day and age, with all the technology available, that they can’t figure this stuff out. Airlines need to do better.”

[RainCaster]

3. It's a cultural thing

United doesn't care about their customers.