Malcolm Owen
An Air Canada passenger discovered their missing luggage was on a different continent after a flight, with an AirTag showing it was over 5,000 miles and an ocean away.
Paul Kliffer flew with his wife from Mexico City to Victoria on the return leg of a journey in November, but like many passengers, their luggage wasn't at the terminal when they arrived. However, following a growing trend to include an AirTag in their luggage, the bag was found to have failed to make it onto the plane.
An enquiry to Air Canada to claim for the lost luggage that was still stuck at Mexico City International Airport had the representative assuring it would be sent to the Kliffer's home in due course. However, after three days of checking, there was no progress on the situation, reports Global News.
"I went back out to Victoria and they again reiterated there was noting they could do except send a note to Mexico City," Paul Kliffer explained.
Two weeks later, he checked the location of the AirTag and saw that the bag had moved, albeit in an entirely wrong direction. Instead of moving from Mexico City to Victoria, the bag was suddenly shown in Find My as being in another international airport, in Madrid, Spain.
Further attempts to get assistance from Air Canada were apparently futile, as the passenger claimed the airline would "escalate the file up to a more important stage" and that they would make contact in 48 hours. "That never happened," he adds.
When asked by the report about the luggage, Air Canada regretted the delay and said they had told the customer they were moving to compensate them. On being provided a screenshot of the AirTag's Madrid location and pressed why it had given up on finding the bag, Air Canada declined to respond.
AirTag has become a thorn in the side of airlines when it comes to lost luggage complaints, including the apparent lack of action in some cases.
In April 2022, luggage containing sentimental objects from a wedding was found to have traveled from South Africa to Germany, instead of the intended destination of the UK. Following social media shaming, the missing bags were eventually received.
Another passenger discovered his bag went missing in Melbourne Airport in June, and in relocating his luggage, discovered a lost bag graveyard in a baggage handling firm's offices. The affair was then posted to YouTube.
In what was seemingly an attempt by Lufthansa to prevent similar stories, the airline temporarily banned AirTags as a dangerous item that needed to be turned off during flights. After widespread criticism in October, Lufthansa relented.
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William Gallagher
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10 Comments
Time for re-regulation and a few huge class action lawsuits. Time for criminal penalties for executives from whom these policies flow.
Money talks and bullshit walks. Hit ‘em in the pocketbook and your luggage will suddenly, miraculously, show up on your doorstep, I guarantee it.
Perhaps someday, perhaps in our lifetimes, there will be tourism to the Moon or Mars. In that case, lost luggage will sometimes accidentally end up in those places. The point I'm making is that the distance that a misplaced item of luggage travels is not really relevant. Lost is lost regardless of the distance. Who cares if it's 5000 miles away (Spain), 250,000 miles away (the Moon) or 250,000,000 miles away (Mars)?
Airlines track bags by scanned barcodes. They only know the last time and place a bag was scanned. Their system is not designed to cope with customers who actually can tell them where the bags actually are. They are dumbfounded and behind the curve. Also, it probably is highlighting the problem with incompetence, bag theft, and plain outright mismanagement of the situation.
Imagine if everyone used an airtag and somehow could send airtag search info to the airlines, as in let them actively track the bag. The industry can't afford to implement such a system. Instead, it just needs to listen to customers and work actively to help them. They also cannot afford this. It's cheaper to pay a bag claim.
This reminds me of an episode of Seinfeld where Jerry and Elaine had a run-in with a skycap about tipping, when they were flying back to NYC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCTiWQXDYaA&ab_channel=ManfredRiehm
Toward the end of the show, Elaine (and Jerry) are the only ones standing in front of a NYC airport baggage carousel, still waiting for Elaine's suitcase to show up. After giving up and about to leave, there's a short clip of a Honolulu airport baggage carousel going around with just one suitcase (with a lei draped over it) and no one around, with Hawaiian music playing in the background.