A pair of United Airlines passengers were informed that one of their bags was missing, even though an AirTag the couple had placed in the bag showed it as being close by, according to a Daily Mail report.
Dan Adams and his partner Kurt were on the initial leg of a long-planned “vacation of a lifetime,” which was a two-month-long European vacation. The couple didn’t want to run the risk having their baggage lost or stolen, so they placed an Apple AirTag in each one of their bags.
When the travelers arrived in Barcelona, they pulled out an iPhone to check on the locations of their four checked bags in the “Find My” app.
“We get to Barcelona. Get off the flight, go into the airport. And I get out my phone. And all four bags are there, so I’m like, “Yay, they made it,” Adams said.
While they successfully collected three of their four bags, the final piece of luggage failed to make an appearance. Initially, there wasn’t any call for concern, as the app showed the bag as being only feet away from them.
“I looked on the phone to see where it was, and it was only a few feet from where I was standing. I figured they probably forgot to put it on the belt that takes it up to the carousel l from down below. It’s probably just stuck there, and somebody forget it,” he added.
When they contacted a baggage representative to get someone to retrieve their final bag, they were instead told that someone had likely stolen it or taken it by mistake.
“She came back and said, ‘No, there’s no sign of your bag. Probably somebody took it.’ I said, ‘Nobody took it. The AirTag shows it right there,”‘ Adams recalled.
However, the baggage rep told them that the airlines “go by their own system,” and refuse to acknowledge AirTags as a way to find lost luggage.
The pair, tired from their long journey, eventually accepted United’s promise that the bag would be tracked down and delivered to them later that night, and left to go to their Barcelona lodgings.
“We were tired, jet-lagged, and I said ok. And that was my mistake. I trust United when I shouldn’t have,” Adams said.
The fourth bag was never delivered to the couple, and Adams instead watched on his iPhone as the AirTag inside the lost/stolen bag did some traveling of its own. He watched as the bag traveled for 34 minutes, traveling into Barcelona, then leaving the city.
“I knew at that point that I’d never see that bag again and all the stuff that was inside of it.”
Adams believes the bag was stolen by an airport worker and is having second thoughts about United Airlines, after the company did little to assist him.
Although a claim was filed with the airline for his belongings, Adams says he hasn’t been reimbursed for anything. “I’ve been a really good United customer for years and years. And they know that, yet they treated me this way.”
United said in a statement that: “Police in Barcelona are handling the investigation into this missing bag.”
The airline added that Adams had been reimbursed for his “frustrating experience” and had been offered a $200 travel credit.
“Even if you take precautions of putting an AirTag into your luggage to see where it is, there are elements out there that are going to make sure you don’t get your luggage, no matter what,” Adams said.
Although Adams had been informed that United didn’t recognize AirTags as a way to track baggage, the airline mentioned that it will begin participating in Apple’s upcoming iOS 18.2 feature that uses Find My item locations to locate mishandled or delayed bags.
As we recently reported, 15 major airlines are participating in the new Find My “Share Item Location” feature that allows users to temporarily share their AirTag’s location with an airline. The location sharing is disabled once a passenger has received their luggage. Links that do not get disabled automatically expire in seven days.
Over 15 airlines will begin offering the feature “in the coming months.” The participating airlines include Delta, United, Air Canada, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, KLM, Lufthansa, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand, Austrian Airlines, Aer Lingus, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, Iberia, SWISS, Turkish Airlines, and Vueling. More airlines will follow in the future.
United is working to implement the feature systemwide in “early 2025,” according to a quote from the airline when the new feature was announced.