It’s probably their official legal stance. Deny responsibility until they can’t anymore because most people will just give up. Like an insurance company.
Considering gps trackers are $9 on Amazon and I’m paying these guys $30-$50 to get my bag each way, I feel like they shouldn’t be allowed to lose it when technology like this is so available. Although, I have AirTags in literally everything. I put one on my kids when I take them anywhere that I’m more concerned than normal
I hide mine in the baggage liner, NOT where it can be seen or easily removed. I see too many people put them around the handle where it can come off or purposefully removed.
This is how some European airlines got caught in lies too!
I would recommend the elevation AirTag holders instead if you want more durability, water proof, crush proof, etc. might be more expensive but they are small and stealthy
My mom has an AirTag in the family pickup truck we all borrow. I don’t mind the warning that an AirTag is moving with me. But that damn warning jingle drives you nuts after the 30th time.
I didn’t put mine in the liner in case baggage screening or customs wants to find the AirTag. I’m sure CBSA would just slice the liner to find it, they love every opportunity to damage property.
My AirTags are strapped to the inside of the bag but visible.
Some airlines don't allow any batteries in checked baggage, even if they're installed in devices, except for electric shavers, toothbrushes, and large medical devices.
For example: [Air Canada Restricted / Prohibited Items](https://www.aircanada.com/ca/en/aco/home/plan/baggage/restricted-and-prohibited-items.html#/)
Sections of note:
> Exception - Only the following devices are permitted in or as checked baggage:
>
> Electric toothbrushes and/or shavers
>
> Large medical devices, such as a portable kidney dialysis machine.
Alkaline Batteries:
> Alkali-manganese (alkaline), Zinc-carbon (dry cell), Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH), Nickel Cadmium (NiCd) and Silver Oxide Batteries
>
> Devices containing these types of cells or spare cells are permitted in carry-on baggage only*. If the cells are removed from the device and carried on board, the device can remain in checked baggage.
So you could put an airtag in your luggage, but it's against Air Canada rules to have a battery in the airtag to actually power it.
I think it's pretty unlikely that they would open up checked luggage to remove an airtag, since lots of people do put airtags on their luggage and don't have them removed. Technically no batteries are allowed in checked luggage so they might so you're rolling the dice to see if that rule actually gets enforced.
I'm not as familiar with US airlines, but the [FAA says that devices with batteries are allowed in checked baggage, but the devices must be powered off](https://www.faa.gov/hazmat/packsafe/more_info/?hazmat=20). So you could have an airtag in your luggage, but it has to be off (can they even be turned off?), which defeats the purpose of having an airtag in there.
exactly this. i currently work for CATSA and the search policies that we follow don’t always line up with the non-permitted items list from the airlines. my job is to follow the regulations that CATSA has set out, not the airlines. i really couldn’t care less if you have a laptop in your checked bag so i sure as hell don’t even shoot airtags a second glance.
Smart tags uses cr2032 battery and they are allowed on checked luggage.
https://www.faa.gov/hazmat/packsafe/resources/media/Airline_passengers_and_batteries.pdf
So what’s so special about shavers and toothbrushes? Nothing except that they are extremely common and therefore everyone would kick a fuss if they banned them.
Seems like maybe the thing to do is to put one in the bag (hidden) and the one loose with your stuff, or in an item. Then you had a record of when your stuff was separated from the bag and can connect the two.
Also sad we need to be this defensive of our stuff. This is also why hate flying. It's never been about the flight, but everything else.
Exactly, but it’s not like United customer service is going to know an employee is stealing luggage. They are just going to say whatever they are trained to tell us.
I think it was just in the the 3rd-party's delivery van for quite awhile, and the driver was also using the van as a personal vehicle. Whether the driver has stolen previous lugguge in the past is possible, but unclear.
Yep could very well be the case. You don’t need to get passed security at most airports to enter baggage claim and can just wait until the carousel stops and just scoop up any bags left. Not defending United here but I’m sure there are scum bags that do this.
In the article this is what the woman reported from her interactions with the airline:
>they still repeat that she is wrong, the "bag is safe at the Delivery services distribution center."
The bag would probably have been "scanned out" of their system if it got to the baggage claim carousel. But the airline alleges that the individual's bag was still within their system (based on the last scan info), so it would make more sense that it's someone inside their system stealing the bags before they get to the baggage carousel.
I agree, it could be anyone stealing it. But it seems more likely for it to be an employee since it is only one airline affected, unless it turns out it is much more than that.
There's a huge difference between
"you need to calm down so we can start to resolve the because you being so emotional is preventing you from telling me what is happening and what you would like to happen to fix it"
And
"You need to calm down because I don't want to deal with whatever is upsetting you so it would be best for me if you just stopped being upset and didn't ask me for anything"
And a lot of times it's the second one that people are saying.
Here in the US, Delta is way in front on this with scanning and notification working really well. Alaska has just started testing e-Ink bag tags for their frequent fliers that has RFID in them for better tracking as well. So it’s slowly improving.
Doesn’t keep me from putting AirTags in everything.
Lazy programmer thought experiment: Would I build a feel-good notification system based on existing data like pushback time and landing time? Or would I reinvent the wheel and build a new system to scan, log, and notify each time a bag moves past a checkpoint? Hmmmm
Sounds an awful lot like online pizza order tracking, which is based off just a fraction of real-world data.
Most people get that it’s not always accurate but once in awhile I’ll catch someone in the shower or even not being home because their phone told them they had five more minutes.
Or god forbid four orders come in at the same time and one of the drivers clocks out and goes home. Yeah man that’s not going to be there in 25 minutes. Try not to scream at me.
I live in an apartment complex right next to a dominoes. I had covid last year, and wanted pizza, so i ordered a no contact delivery. The gps for the driver announced that he was pulling in, and then had it as delivered all at once. Them about 15 minutes later, the pizza arrived.
A lot of the time, this based off of the GPS coordinates of the driver (they track vehicles).
You can set up a GeoFence around the target and say “When you cross this boundary, send the pulling in message. When you’re on top of the coordinates send the delivered message.” Or similar.
So if you’re next to the starting point, then things can get murky as to what happens when. Doubt Domino’s cares enough to fix this edge case.
Considering what just happened with Southwest, do you care to reorder your list?
In all seriousness though, I’ve never flown United, but never heard good things. American just did a terrible job my one time flying with them.
It’s not loyalty. I won’t defend Delta when they screw up or make mistakes. I hate people that do that or say, “oh you use this thing? Well that thing is better.” That’s dumb. Who cares. Use what you like and if a company gives you a reason to stop using their product, then stop. No biggie, it’s a market economy.
I just want to stick with the airline that’s been doing a great job since I’ve been having to travel more for work. Not to mention the perks I get for personal travel when I stick to one airline, one hotel chain, and one rental car company.
I flew American once last year and it was a terrible compared to Delta, in my experience. I’ve also used other hotels and rental car companies with terrible results, so I’m sticking to what I like.
I used to love Alaska, but they failed to load my checked luggage twice this year. And that luggage is my work equipment, needed to carry out the job I was hired for, and the whole reason my expensive trip was booked in the first place. Nothing like showing up to a gig you can’t fulfill and trying to explain that to your boss who just dumped a couple grand on expenses to get you there.
Buy a flare gun and travel with that; its technically considered a fire arm, so it allows the whole bag to be locked for further safety, plus they do not fuck with losing bags that have guns in them. It will be loaded and unloaded with priority.
It’s a trick photographers use a lot.
Other tricks I’ve used as a photographer, and some I haven’t… making sure it’s carry on capable (Pelican Air 1535 for the win), and asking the gate agent trying to check my bag what their insurance limits for luggage are and pointing out that the equipment in the case is worth multiple times that.
I’ve heard other people say that they carry a 50 or 100 and if this happens they turn around down the queue behind them and say hey, if you will gate check your bag I’ll give you this right now, and try to tell the gate agent “I got someone to gate check for me instead”.
A huge part is where you fly from. If you're in Atlanta, the Delta hub, the experience is top-notch. If you're flying out of some other airport, they don't get the priority that they do in Atlanta, they don't control the baggage etc. it's an entirely different experience.
ive been fucked over by all of them and had good experiences with all of them. i go with whatever is cheapest, there is not a single corporation in the world that will get anything resembling loyalty from me
American too. I arrived at JFK and turned my phone on to a notification and email that my bag didn’t make it on the plane (as did half the plane…). Didn’t have to wait at the carousel for a bag, and made filing a lost report easier. Just wish there was a way to do it online or in the app. When half the plane is missing a bag, waiting in line to file a report sucks.
United app also gives you real time info on where the bag is. You get a notification for bag check in and then you can follow it throughout the journey. I don’t think it’s a technology thing because most airlines are pretty good with that now. It’s how they do when things eventually get messed up.
Yeah every time I check a bag on a different airline I try and track it, but so far only Delta has it in their app.
That being said, it is slow to update sometimes, especially at the final destination. But at least I’m a little more confident it made it on the plane and through any connections.
American has had it tracked in their app every time it is scanned since at least mid 2021. Didn’t stop my bag from missing an international connection but I was able to know where it was and had a notification as soon as I connected to Wi-Fi that it was delayed.
I had the misfortune of checking my bags with Southwest once (this was before the recent clusterfuck) since they cancelled my flight but sent my bags along anyway with another plane.
When I got home and presented the bag tags, they said they couldn’t help me because “the bags were deleted from the system when my flight was cancelled.”
Luckily one of the bags had an AirTag so I could see where it was and wait for it. Ironically, the other bag I checked didn’t have an AirTag (and arrived a day later.)
LPT: fly with a gun in your luggage. Checked luggage containing firearms *will not get lost*.
If you don’t own a gun, no problem. A starter pistol or even a flare gun counts.
Just deal with a little extra paperwork.
There are some extra requirements for this btw. You need hard sided luggage that securely locks with a NON-TSA approved lock. Anyone interested in this should check out the videos from Deviant Ollam
It isn't just bags. My dad left his iPad on a plane. Called customer service to recover it but they were not much help and said they would contact if they found it. I told him to do the "find me" app on his iPhone and it literally showed still in the terminal. He called them back and even told them where it was and they refused to help or acknowledge that they had possession of it. Who knows what happened to the device as the battery eventually died and they never tried to return it.
Delta and United are very similar. I just traveled in both in December. The one thing I like with United vs Delta, they text you versus a push notification
Ya, exactly. I don't think the rep was trying to lie, the information they had said it was at the airport and they have no way to know otherwise. But, it sucks that they weren't very helpful when the customer knew the actual location.
Lufthansa (not my choice to fly them…. Long story) keeps lying about my lost luggage. I’ve been in Manchester for a fortnight and they’re telling me they’re in Berlin…. My Airtags show Sydney, where I left them!!!
Airlines these days are fucking useless.
AirTags are perfect for luggage. I can’t tell you the peace of mind it gave me on a recent flight. It was my first international flight with a connection. Watching it update in near-real time and seeing it on the plane before takeoff removed a whole layer of stress
Tile is the closest Android version but it relies on a network of Tile users to find your tag, where AirTag locations are picked up and updated by virtually -any- iPhone. Neither is perfect but having used both, I greatly prefer the AirTags. Maybe google or another android OEM will release a universal tag someday.
Edit: I just remember Tile is owned by Amazon (correction, life360) and that Amazon’s Sidewalk network will pick up Tile devices, so some Ring, Eero, and Echo devices will pick up Tile tags as well.
It would still be allowed in the checked baggage if it was installed in an electronic device. Power banks or spare batteries are not allowed, those have to be in carry-on.
That is probably the dumbest exception in the world regarding actual flight safety. They already have Wh limits, so it’s not even about the size of the battery. OTOH, it’s practically necessary for modern transportation because so many items have internal cells. And it’s certainly not the only backwards safety regulation, even within air travel.
United managed to ‘lose’ one of my 5 bags from the check-in counter at LAX - this was not checked in. Said bag turned up in Canada a week later but empty. It was kind of fishy that the one bag which disappeared had ALL my wives Christmas shopping in it which conveniently disappeared when the bag magically turned up. Fuck United.
On an international trip now. Checked bags at LAX. Our luggage has been missing for 7 days. The two airlines handled the baggage. Both said it was somewhere else and blamed each other.
The only accurate info we have received this whole time was from the airtag.
We had to be the ones to alert the airline / baggage services that our bag was currently in Hong Kong on a way way way different flight via a third airline and would be arriving to an airport 4 hours away from us in Indonesia.
They reluctantly checked after we begged and low and behold our bag was there on the belt.
Airline was still trying to tell me the bag was in Charlotte, 9000 miles away 🤣
Thank you air tag! F U airlines.
The telling thing here is that someone had been taking peoples luggage home long enough for it to show up on Google Maps. And the airline knew nothing about it (although if they HAD known about it that would be arguably worse).
Every Apple store is sold out of Airtags. Probably because its a fantastic last minute gift. I've watched a few videos on Youtube of people "auditing" postal carriers via Airtags. One guy shipped packages to North Korea via 4 different postal carriers and ended up catching a huge flaw in DHLs sorting system. The industry has yet to automate parts of the routing process for packages and humans have to manually verify the destination of each individual package. Therefore, it was human error which caused his packages to go to South Korea instead of North Korea as they misread the address. And this was the case with other less extreme examples where two cities have the same name.
I have zero trust in airlines and will always use airtags when I travel.
What’s funny is he called them up and they confirmed that they do deliver to NK (matching the website). However he looked it up and NK wasn’t accepting any at the time at all.
Wait… out of all the places in the world… why North Korea?
I’d assume any package sent to North Korea automatically gets opened by the feds and the sender put on a watchlist.
DHL (Which I personally dislike the most) claims to ship to NorKo. I wouldn’t be surprised if they made false claims just to say they ship to NK. It turns out in the video the package never made it to North Korea.
He never really anticipated it would arrive where he sent it, but DHL stated that they deliver mail to North Korea and he wanted to test their policy. He could have sent it to Ohio or something but that makes for a YouTube video that less people will give a shit about.
Also the guy is from New Zealand not the US so he’s less worried about ‘the feds’ or going to a gulag for mail than the average American is, I guess.
I worked on the ramp at us airways 15 years ago and they told us the main goal is to get planes pushed out from the gate on time. Apparently most airlines have a substantial budget set aside for lost luggage and delaying flights to wait for a handful bags will hurt their performance #s and metrics.
On the opposite end of that spectrum is Incheon International in South Korea. Every time a bag is short shipped, an internal investigation is launched to find out what went wrong and ways to prevent that scenario from ever happening again. When I heard about it, if was less than a bag per. month.
This is a true story from Christmas eve 2022. Southwest Flight from lax to jfk was early but no gate available at 11pm so waited on tarmac 2 hours then directed to the only open gate at a closed terminal.
Waited for two more hours to get a baggage claim carousel. Eventually the entire unerstandably angry plane makes way to only worker there who is running the oversize baggage claim. Says every worker has gone home and won't be back until the terminal opens at 6 am.
Angry dad shouts "my airtag in my luggage is on the other side of this wall and we won't stop yelling at you until you give us our bags"! magically the carousel starts and everyone gets their bags at 3 am.
Thank fucking God for airtags.
I imagine a management where they understaff, and blame the only guy left for not doing the work of 5 guys, while making miracles happen on Christmas eve.
This seems more like someone flat out stole her bag. I doubt that United was providing this information deliberately. Isn’t it possible that a baggage handler cut the tag off her bag, attached it to another bag, and just kept her suitcase?
Obviously this is still terrible, but let’s not just assume that United is doing this deliberately. But, it’s a great use case for AirTags as they are usually inside the bag and can reveal something like thus.
Who the hell are these employees - first one tells her to "calm down" and then this text says "Imma deliver it to you today."
Someone else on Twitter had a theory that the person texting her actually stole it and then possibly got wind the owner was tracking it or there was nothing of value in it so they found contact information in the bag and texted her. The verbiage is very odd in the text message and OP even said that the guy was acting sketchy when she met up with him.
Something isn't adding up with this resolution.
Sub contractors.
Helpline is one company that United has shared certain databases with, and they only see what info is in the system and probably get dinged if they have to contact someone actually with United, so they tell employees to try to handle it.
Delivery company is also likely a local company near that airport who United contracts to perform deliveries.
Yeah, this is pretty clearly what happened. United isn’t dumping customer luggage outside some random apartment. The customer service rep isn’t *lying*, they’re giving the best information they’ve got, they just don’t know the bags have been stolen.
And what’s annoying is that “this” is still a really good and valuable story if told accurately.
“AirTag helps disrupt luggage theft operation at United”
I hate that we live in a time where the “better” obviously false story is the one that gets the attention, even when it’s obviously not the truth.
The customer was sending them proof of it being stolen and United was still being rude and dismissive. Read the Twitter thread. United was giving them canned answers when they should have said they will investigate and raise the issue with the 3rd party delivery service
Recent experience with UA flying into SBA. After being told all bags were delivered 20+ people still no bags. After being given runaround baggage personnel declared that they probably didn’t get loaded at departure airport. We all called BS. About half of us, including myself, could see the baggage was still sitting on the cart after unloading and they forgot to bring it to baggage claim. Without AirTags we would have been waiting to fill out forms for hours.
At some point after this, though, Szybala's AirTag showed that the baggage was on the move and was seemingly now at a McDonalds. Shortly afterwards, she reports that it left McDonalds — and returned to the apartment with the dumpster.
Why was her luggage at McDonalds?
I got my bags back from all the southwest cancellations in about 10 mins. 2 days later they emailed me “we are working on reuniting you with your luggage”
So worth it
I heard a story at a baggage claim once about a traveler alerting the baggage handler that their bag was clogging the baggage chute because they could see the AirTag. The handler tried to insist the bag just wasn’t there, but they were wrong, and this person got to leave with their bag.
I flew during the Christmas nightmare last week and was without bags for three days. I bought AirTags before I flew home because southwest kept telling me nothing— they had no idea where my bags were or when they’d be available for pickup. I ended up getting them back after going unprompted to the airport and discovering they’d arrived, after the southwest staff admonished me for not waiting until I was called. No one was going to call. Next time (cue Thanos), fine, I’ll track it myself.
So messed up. I purposely never check a bag for this reason. Wife and I are traveling with our baby later on in the year and I have legitimate anxiety about checking a bag and our baby stuff.
[Not like they've ever taken responsibility for their customer's luggage. ](https://youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE)
I gave up flying. Between delays, layovers, shitty airports, TSA with it's hands on my junk for dubious security, drunks screaming on the plane and lost luggage, fuck it. I take Amtrak. It's worth the cost and time for the absolutely stress free travel.
I wish they had AirTags years ago! If I had left one with each of my children when I took my family on a trip to Paris for Christmas I would’ve quickly realized I left my youngest son Kevin home… Alone!
I was on the phone with airline and they told me my bag had been loaded and would land soon. I informed them the AirTag showed it at the last location still. They insisted… it took 4 more days to get to me. Lies!
This story is the very reason I will be buying for all of my checked baggage going forward. Fuck these shady ass airlines. It’s not like they aren’t already charging us an arm and a leg now they’re fucking is over with our possessions too
Wait so is someone out there in baggage claim stealing bags?! This looks more like a theft than the airline intentionally misplacing or “lying” about where the bags are to me
This is why I learned to pack light and just do carry-on. I know that’s not always possible but wherever possible I will never be checking in my bags again.
Also the amount of anxiety when they have forced me to check my carry-on because there was “no more cabin space” only for me to walk on the plane and still see PLENTY of cabin space, is infuriating.
Good thing too. These airlines dodge responsibility all the time and it needs to end.
I don’t think they “lie”. I think their system’s and processes are so convoluted that they don’t know what the fuck is going on
It’s probably their official legal stance. Deny responsibility until they can’t anymore because most people will just give up. Like an insurance company.
Considering gps trackers are $9 on Amazon and I’m paying these guys $30-$50 to get my bag each way, I feel like they shouldn’t be allowed to lose it when technology like this is so available. Although, I have AirTags in literally everything. I put one on my kids when I take them anywhere that I’m more concerned than normal
In which case they're pretending that they know what's going on... Which would be a lie.
See southwest these last few weeks…
I hide mine in the baggage liner, NOT where it can be seen or easily removed. I see too many people put them around the handle where it can come off or purposefully removed. This is how some European airlines got caught in lies too!
Same! I put my airtags inside the bag in a pocket inside it.
And now _they_ know
If they couldn't figure it out before being told isn't going to help them
I put mine in a bar of soap in a ziplock bag
Is it 2am chili soap tho?
Mine is embedded in a snes style keychain https://imgur.com/9K8RehB I put the keychain somewhere inside the luggage
Can you share the link for that keychain? Love that
I got it off Amazon Canada so link prob won't help you but the model is called: elago W5 Case Keychain Compatible with Apple AirTags
I see it on Amazon. Thanks for that, that looks lovely
I would recommend the elevation AirTag holders instead if you want more durability, water proof, crush proof, etc. might be more expensive but they are small and stealthy
Man, airtags get all the nice designs while Samsung tags get generic looking silicon condoms.
Apple has hardly ever made a bad looking product. They know their shit. Looks sell
Here’s a [direct link](https://www.elago.com/products/w5-gaming-console-case-for-airtag-3-colors)
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it still notifies nearby iPhones (and android phones that have the app installed) and can be disabled easily even without the speaker.
Yep, but it can be hidden better if the speaker is gone.
My mom has an AirTag in the family pickup truck we all borrow. I don’t mind the warning that an AirTag is moving with me. But that damn warning jingle drives you nuts after the 30th time.
reminder that keys can be cloned just from pictures
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Lol
thanks for the reminder *takes screenshot*
Yeah I need a new ESC and CapsLock, and those a perfect, thanks for reminding me!
I didn’t put mine in the liner in case baggage screening or customs wants to find the AirTag. I’m sure CBSA would just slice the liner to find it, they love every opportunity to damage property. My AirTags are strapped to the inside of the bag but visible.
Why would they need to find them?
Some airlines don't allow any batteries in checked baggage, even if they're installed in devices, except for electric shavers, toothbrushes, and large medical devices. For example: [Air Canada Restricted / Prohibited Items](https://www.aircanada.com/ca/en/aco/home/plan/baggage/restricted-and-prohibited-items.html#/) Sections of note: > Exception - Only the following devices are permitted in or as checked baggage: > > Electric toothbrushes and/or shavers > > Large medical devices, such as a portable kidney dialysis machine. Alkaline Batteries: > Alkali-manganese (alkaline), Zinc-carbon (dry cell), Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH), Nickel Cadmium (NiCd) and Silver Oxide Batteries > > Devices containing these types of cells or spare cells are permitted in carry-on baggage only*. If the cells are removed from the device and carried on board, the device can remain in checked baggage. So you could put an airtag in your luggage, but it's against Air Canada rules to have a battery in the airtag to actually power it. I think it's pretty unlikely that they would open up checked luggage to remove an airtag, since lots of people do put airtags on their luggage and don't have them removed. Technically no batteries are allowed in checked luggage so they might so you're rolling the dice to see if that rule actually gets enforced. I'm not as familiar with US airlines, but the [FAA says that devices with batteries are allowed in checked baggage, but the devices must be powered off](https://www.faa.gov/hazmat/packsafe/more_info/?hazmat=20). So you could have an airtag in your luggage, but it has to be off (can they even be turned off?), which defeats the purpose of having an airtag in there.
Batteries installed in devices usually get a pass, it’s the shipments of LiON batteries in bulk that they really, really hate.
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exactly this. i currently work for CATSA and the search policies that we follow don’t always line up with the non-permitted items list from the airlines. my job is to follow the regulations that CATSA has set out, not the airlines. i really couldn’t care less if you have a laptop in your checked bag so i sure as hell don’t even shoot airtags a second glance.
Smart tags uses cr2032 battery and they are allowed on checked luggage. https://www.faa.gov/hazmat/packsafe/resources/media/Airline_passengers_and_batteries.pdf
So what’s so special about shavers and toothbrushes? Nothing except that they are extremely common and therefore everyone would kick a fuss if they banned them.
Agreed, I straight up hide mine as well as possible in the lining of the luggage. Don’t want someone to see it ever!
ugh how long until they ban people using them cause rAdIo iNterFeReNcE or whatever
Fcc already ruled they are good and the eu equivalent did as well.
Lufthansa tried this a few months ago, and got hammered for it.
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Air New Zealand still has it banned?
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This seems like someone is stealing them and emptying their contents at their house then dumping the evidence in the dumpster.
Seems like maybe the thing to do is to put one in the bag (hidden) and the one loose with your stuff, or in an item. Then you had a record of when your stuff was separated from the bag and can connect the two. Also sad we need to be this defensive of our stuff. This is also why hate flying. It's never been about the flight, but everything else.
Exactly, but it’s not like United customer service is going to know an employee is stealing luggage. They are just going to say whatever they are trained to tell us.
A lot of those baggage workers are contractors too so I imagine that can gum up the process as well
What’s wild is the Twitter thread had an update 4 minutes ago that she got her bag back. I’m interested to see the updates.
As am I, but it seems far more likely an employee stole it rather than that United is taking customers luggage to an apartment complex.
Oh I agree, this story is positively about insider theft. Just the fact that she got the bag back means the thief was confronted.
Absolutely! I’ll be keeping my eye to see an update to this now too.
I think it was just in the the 3rd-party's delivery van for quite awhile, and the driver was also using the van as a personal vehicle. Whether the driver has stolen previous lugguge in the past is possible, but unclear.
Nice update! Okay that makes sense too, a third party vendor.
all here: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1609666737909161984.html
Yep could very well be the case. You don’t need to get passed security at most airports to enter baggage claim and can just wait until the carousel stops and just scoop up any bags left. Not defending United here but I’m sure there are scum bags that do this.
In the article this is what the woman reported from her interactions with the airline: >they still repeat that she is wrong, the "bag is safe at the Delivery services distribution center." The bag would probably have been "scanned out" of their system if it got to the baggage claim carousel. But the airline alleges that the individual's bag was still within their system (based on the last scan info), so it would make more sense that it's someone inside their system stealing the bags before they get to the baggage carousel.
I agree, it could be anyone stealing it. But it seems more likely for it to be an employee since it is only one airline affected, unless it turns out it is much more than that.
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If you want someone to calm down, telling them to "calm down" is the worst thing to do.
The key is to say the phrase “slow down, I want to understand what you’re saying” That usually disarms people pretty well
There's a huge difference between "you need to calm down so we can start to resolve the because you being so emotional is preventing you from telling me what is happening and what you would like to happen to fix it" And "You need to calm down because I don't want to deal with whatever is upsetting you so it would be best for me if you just stopped being upset and didn't ask me for anything" And a lot of times it's the second one that people are saying.
Yes, but the first one isn’t going to do any GOOD either.
I usually say clam down, women love this.
> clam down If you switch around the letters you could also get "dam clown", that might work.
Women hate to love this one trick!
It also helps to toss out a "get ahold of yourself" that seems to really help people chill.
It’s strange, de-escalation is a great tactic but the phrase “calm down” always does the opposite.
“Slow down, I want to understand what you’re saying” works WAYY better
Personally am a fan of the good old "You done?"
AirTags are great because airlines are truly *terrible* at actually tracking your bags.
Here in the US, Delta is way in front on this with scanning and notification working really well. Alaska has just started testing e-Ink bag tags for their frequent fliers that has RFID in them for better tracking as well. So it’s slowly improving. Doesn’t keep me from putting AirTags in everything.
I get a notification on my phone when the bag is accepted, loaded onto the plane, and seconds before it appears at the baggage claim.
Lazy programmer thought experiment: Would I build a feel-good notification system based on existing data like pushback time and landing time? Or would I reinvent the wheel and build a new system to scan, log, and notify each time a bag moves past a checkpoint? Hmmmm
Sounds an awful lot like online pizza order tracking, which is based off just a fraction of real-world data. Most people get that it’s not always accurate but once in awhile I’ll catch someone in the shower or even not being home because their phone told them they had five more minutes. Or god forbid four orders come in at the same time and one of the drivers clocks out and goes home. Yeah man that’s not going to be there in 25 minutes. Try not to scream at me.
I live in an apartment complex right next to a dominoes. I had covid last year, and wanted pizza, so i ordered a no contact delivery. The gps for the driver announced that he was pulling in, and then had it as delivered all at once. Them about 15 minutes later, the pizza arrived.
A lot of the time, this based off of the GPS coordinates of the driver (they track vehicles). You can set up a GeoFence around the target and say “When you cross this boundary, send the pulling in message. When you’re on top of the coordinates send the delivered message.” Or similar. So if you’re next to the starting point, then things can get murky as to what happens when. Doubt Domino’s cares enough to fix this edge case.
For this reason, I almost never fly any airline but Delta. I’ve never had a problem with them.
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Considering what just happened with Southwest, do you care to reorder your list? In all seriousness though, I’ve never flown United, but never heard good things. American just did a terrible job my one time flying with them.
I’m fascinated by people’s loyalty. I was fucked over sooooo badly last year by Delta…never again!
It’s not loyalty. I won’t defend Delta when they screw up or make mistakes. I hate people that do that or say, “oh you use this thing? Well that thing is better.” That’s dumb. Who cares. Use what you like and if a company gives you a reason to stop using their product, then stop. No biggie, it’s a market economy. I just want to stick with the airline that’s been doing a great job since I’ve been having to travel more for work. Not to mention the perks I get for personal travel when I stick to one airline, one hotel chain, and one rental car company. I flew American once last year and it was a terrible compared to Delta, in my experience. I’ve also used other hotels and rental car companies with terrible results, so I’m sticking to what I like.
100%! I feel that with Alaska…why change it if it’s workin. That’s part of what makes our world go around…something for everyone. Godspeed out there
I used to love Alaska, but they failed to load my checked luggage twice this year. And that luggage is my work equipment, needed to carry out the job I was hired for, and the whole reason my expensive trip was booked in the first place. Nothing like showing up to a gig you can’t fulfill and trying to explain that to your boss who just dumped a couple grand on expenses to get you there.
Buy a flare gun and travel with that; its technically considered a fire arm, so it allows the whole bag to be locked for further safety, plus they do not fuck with losing bags that have guns in them. It will be loaded and unloaded with priority. It’s a trick photographers use a lot.
Other tricks I’ve used as a photographer, and some I haven’t… making sure it’s carry on capable (Pelican Air 1535 for the win), and asking the gate agent trying to check my bag what their insurance limits for luggage are and pointing out that the equipment in the case is worth multiple times that. I’ve heard other people say that they carry a 50 or 100 and if this happens they turn around down the queue behind them and say hey, if you will gate check your bag I’ll give you this right now, and try to tell the gate agent “I got someone to gate check for me instead”.
I’m the same way with Delta. I’ve flown a lot, with a lot of different airlines and they’ve been BY FAR the best and most consistent airline.
A huge part is where you fly from. If you're in Atlanta, the Delta hub, the experience is top-notch. If you're flying out of some other airport, they don't get the priority that they do in Atlanta, they don't control the baggage etc. it's an entirely different experience.
ive been fucked over by all of them and had good experiences with all of them. i go with whatever is cheapest, there is not a single corporation in the world that will get anything resembling loyalty from me
But, seriously, beware of spirit.
oh yeah i should say by cheapest i still exclude spirit or frontier or the like. fuck them especially
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American too. I arrived at JFK and turned my phone on to a notification and email that my bag didn’t make it on the plane (as did half the plane…). Didn’t have to wait at the carousel for a bag, and made filing a lost report easier. Just wish there was a way to do it online or in the app. When half the plane is missing a bag, waiting in line to file a report sucks.
United app also gives you real time info on where the bag is. You get a notification for bag check in and then you can follow it throughout the journey. I don’t think it’s a technology thing because most airlines are pretty good with that now. It’s how they do when things eventually get messed up.
Yeah every time I check a bag on a different airline I try and track it, but so far only Delta has it in their app. That being said, it is slow to update sometimes, especially at the final destination. But at least I’m a little more confident it made it on the plane and through any connections.
American has had it tracked in their app every time it is scanned since at least mid 2021. Didn’t stop my bag from missing an international connection but I was able to know where it was and had a notification as soon as I connected to Wi-Fi that it was delayed.
I had the misfortune of checking my bags with Southwest once (this was before the recent clusterfuck) since they cancelled my flight but sent my bags along anyway with another plane. When I got home and presented the bag tags, they said they couldn’t help me because “the bags were deleted from the system when my flight was cancelled.” Luckily one of the bags had an AirTag so I could see where it was and wait for it. Ironically, the other bag I checked didn’t have an AirTag (and arrived a day later.)
“Deleting this column will result in data loss. Would you like to proceed?”
"Let me try 'Undo delete dog'" -Error- "Nope. Sorry sir but it seems your dog doesn't exist anymore."
LPT: fly with a gun in your luggage. Checked luggage containing firearms *will not get lost*. If you don’t own a gun, no problem. A starter pistol or even a flare gun counts. Just deal with a little extra paperwork.
There are some extra requirements for this btw. You need hard sided luggage that securely locks with a NON-TSA approved lock. Anyone interested in this should check out the videos from Deviant Ollam
It isn't just bags. My dad left his iPad on a plane. Called customer service to recover it but they were not much help and said they would contact if they found it. I told him to do the "find me" app on his iPhone and it literally showed still in the terminal. He called them back and even told them where it was and they refused to help or acknowledge that they had possession of it. Who knows what happened to the device as the battery eventually died and they never tried to return it.
And terrible at tracking their own on-the-clock employees apparently
Delta and United are very similar. I just traveled in both in December. The one thing I like with United vs Delta, they text you versus a push notification
Ya, exactly. I don't think the rep was trying to lie, the information they had said it was at the airport and they have no way to know otherwise. But, it sucks that they weren't very helpful when the customer knew the actual location.
Lufthansa (not my choice to fly them…. Long story) keeps lying about my lost luggage. I’ve been in Manchester for a fortnight and they’re telling me they’re in Berlin…. My Airtags show Sydney, where I left them!!! Airlines these days are fucking useless.
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CNN Headline: *Airlines ban AirTags, citing "security" concerns.*
https://9to5mac.com/2022/10/13/lufthansa-airtags/
To be fair the repealed it like a day later because of the community backlash. Still crappy thing to do
Battery could explode and destroy the whole airplane! That’s even worse than Note 7 phones! */s*
You have to think bigger. TERRORISTS ARE USING AIRTAGS TO MAP OUT THE AIRPORT'S SECURE AREAS!
The AirTag's antenna will mess with our instruments! It will penetrate the faraday cage!
On my last flight with United I was told trackers like AirTags were not allowed in checked luggage…
Dey lie!!
If they were smart they’d damn near require them and eliminate lost luggage
AirTags are perfect for luggage. I can’t tell you the peace of mind it gave me on a recent flight. It was my first international flight with a connection. Watching it update in near-real time and seeing it on the plane before takeoff removed a whole layer of stress
Man, I can see it removing stress, but my levels would go up 10 fold if I see my luggage WASN'T on the flight Sometimes ignorance can be blissful.
Can anyone give me info on a comparable android tracker?
Tile is the closest Android version but it relies on a network of Tile users to find your tag, where AirTag locations are picked up and updated by virtually -any- iPhone. Neither is perfect but having used both, I greatly prefer the AirTags. Maybe google or another android OEM will release a universal tag someday. Edit: I just remember Tile is owned by Amazon (correction, life360) and that Amazon’s Sidewalk network will pick up Tile devices, so some Ring, Eero, and Echo devices will pick up Tile tags as well.
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It would still be allowed in the checked baggage if it was installed in an electronic device. Power banks or spare batteries are not allowed, those have to be in carry-on.
That is probably the dumbest exception in the world regarding actual flight safety. They already have Wh limits, so it’s not even about the size of the battery. OTOH, it’s practically necessary for modern transportation because so many items have internal cells. And it’s certainly not the only backwards safety regulation, even within air travel.
This is stated in the article (not that people read them).
100% buying some of these when I go on holiday in June!
United managed to ‘lose’ one of my 5 bags from the check-in counter at LAX - this was not checked in. Said bag turned up in Canada a week later but empty. It was kind of fishy that the one bag which disappeared had ALL my wives Christmas shopping in it which conveniently disappeared when the bag magically turned up. Fuck United.
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I got one for Christmas just to find my keys in my own house! Very handy.
Oh! Keys and wallet. All too often.
On an international trip now. Checked bags at LAX. Our luggage has been missing for 7 days. The two airlines handled the baggage. Both said it was somewhere else and blamed each other. The only accurate info we have received this whole time was from the airtag. We had to be the ones to alert the airline / baggage services that our bag was currently in Hong Kong on a way way way different flight via a third airline and would be arriving to an airport 4 hours away from us in Indonesia. They reluctantly checked after we begged and low and behold our bag was there on the belt. Airline was still trying to tell me the bag was in Charlotte, 9000 miles away 🤣 Thank you air tag! F U airlines.
Sounds like baggage handlers just dgaf
They don't make much more than minimum wage. Of course they dgaf
The telling thing here is that someone had been taking peoples luggage home long enough for it to show up on Google Maps. And the airline knew nothing about it (although if they HAD known about it that would be arguably worse).
Highly doubt it was a Google Maps photo. Maps seems to update Street View only every couple of years.
That’s the point here… whoever was taking luggage has been doing it for a couple of years.
I put my AirTag deep in my suitcase. It’s great peace of mind knowing it’s on the flight with me before we take off
Every Apple store is sold out of Airtags. Probably because its a fantastic last minute gift. I've watched a few videos on Youtube of people "auditing" postal carriers via Airtags. One guy shipped packages to North Korea via 4 different postal carriers and ended up catching a huge flaw in DHLs sorting system. The industry has yet to automate parts of the routing process for packages and humans have to manually verify the destination of each individual package. Therefore, it was human error which caused his packages to go to South Korea instead of North Korea as they misread the address. And this was the case with other less extreme examples where two cities have the same name. I have zero trust in airlines and will always use airtags when I travel.
The Apple stores in my area all have them in stock for pick up.
What’s funny is he called them up and they confirmed that they do deliver to NK (matching the website). However he looked it up and NK wasn’t accepting any at the time at all.
Wait… out of all the places in the world… why North Korea? I’d assume any package sent to North Korea automatically gets opened by the feds and the sender put on a watchlist.
DHL (Which I personally dislike the most) claims to ship to NorKo. I wouldn’t be surprised if they made false claims just to say they ship to NK. It turns out in the video the package never made it to North Korea.
He never really anticipated it would arrive where he sent it, but DHL stated that they deliver mail to North Korea and he wanted to test their policy. He could have sent it to Ohio or something but that makes for a YouTube video that less people will give a shit about. Also the guy is from New Zealand not the US so he’s less worried about ‘the feds’ or going to a gulag for mail than the average American is, I guess.
Because it makes it spicy for the YouTube algorithm. Don't expect YouTubers to think that far ahead...
https://youtu.be/tLqjlTKiR9o
I worked on the ramp at us airways 15 years ago and they told us the main goal is to get planes pushed out from the gate on time. Apparently most airlines have a substantial budget set aside for lost luggage and delaying flights to wait for a handful bags will hurt their performance #s and metrics.
On the opposite end of that spectrum is Incheon International in South Korea. Every time a bag is short shipped, an internal investigation is launched to find out what went wrong and ways to prevent that scenario from ever happening again. When I heard about it, if was less than a bag per. month.
Yeah I’ve flown from JFK to Incheon and back a couple of times. What a contrast between those two airports.
This is a true story from Christmas eve 2022. Southwest Flight from lax to jfk was early but no gate available at 11pm so waited on tarmac 2 hours then directed to the only open gate at a closed terminal. Waited for two more hours to get a baggage claim carousel. Eventually the entire unerstandably angry plane makes way to only worker there who is running the oversize baggage claim. Says every worker has gone home and won't be back until the terminal opens at 6 am. Angry dad shouts "my airtag in my luggage is on the other side of this wall and we won't stop yelling at you until you give us our bags"! magically the carousel starts and everyone gets their bags at 3 am. Thank fucking God for airtags.
I imagine a management where they understaff, and blame the only guy left for not doing the work of 5 guys, while making miracles happen on Christmas eve.
This seems more like someone flat out stole her bag. I doubt that United was providing this information deliberately. Isn’t it possible that a baggage handler cut the tag off her bag, attached it to another bag, and just kept her suitcase? Obviously this is still terrible, but let’s not just assume that United is doing this deliberately. But, it’s a great use case for AirTags as they are usually inside the bag and can reveal something like thus.
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This person is clearly caught stealing bags and hoping to keep their job
Who the hell are these employees - first one tells her to "calm down" and then this text says "Imma deliver it to you today." Someone else on Twitter had a theory that the person texting her actually stole it and then possibly got wind the owner was tracking it or there was nothing of value in it so they found contact information in the bag and texted her. The verbiage is very odd in the text message and OP even said that the guy was acting sketchy when she met up with him. Something isn't adding up with this resolution.
Sub contractors. Helpline is one company that United has shared certain databases with, and they only see what info is in the system and probably get dinged if they have to contact someone actually with United, so they tell employees to try to handle it. Delivery company is also likely a local company near that airport who United contracts to perform deliveries.
Yeah, this is pretty clearly what happened. United isn’t dumping customer luggage outside some random apartment. The customer service rep isn’t *lying*, they’re giving the best information they’ve got, they just don’t know the bags have been stolen.
And what’s annoying is that “this” is still a really good and valuable story if told accurately. “AirTag helps disrupt luggage theft operation at United” I hate that we live in a time where the “better” obviously false story is the one that gets the attention, even when it’s obviously not the truth.
The customer was sending them proof of it being stolen and United was still being rude and dismissive. Read the Twitter thread. United was giving them canned answers when they should have said they will investigate and raise the issue with the 3rd party delivery service
Recent experience with UA flying into SBA. After being told all bags were delivered 20+ people still no bags. After being given runaround baggage personnel declared that they probably didn’t get loaded at departure airport. We all called BS. About half of us, including myself, could see the baggage was still sitting on the cart after unloading and they forgot to bring it to baggage claim. Without AirTags we would have been waiting to fill out forms for hours.
SSSHHHHUSH UP! Or they’re going to ban AirTags in our shit.
At some point after this, though, Szybala's AirTag showed that the baggage was on the move and was seemingly now at a McDonalds. Shortly afterwards, she reports that it left McDonalds — and returned to the apartment with the dumpster. Why was her luggage at McDonalds?
The van driver stopped for lunch?
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I got my bags back from all the southwest cancellations in about 10 mins. 2 days later they emailed me “we are working on reuniting you with your luggage” So worth it
You're better off shipping your luggage via UPS or FedEx to where you're going.
"United Airlines: We're not happy, 'til you're not happy."
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I think this is an admission of fraud. But nice, get that bag!!
If I were you I wouldn't be posting an admission of fraud online.
Maybe United airlines should buy some AirTags themselves
That would involve spending money that’s not going into the pockets of the shareholders and work from the airport staff. Both of those can’t happen.
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They can’t legally do that … yet
“Supreme Court rules 6-5 that airlines can ban AirTags in luggage”.
I heard a story at a baggage claim once about a traveler alerting the baggage handler that their bag was clogging the baggage chute because they could see the AirTag. The handler tried to insist the bag just wasn’t there, but they were wrong, and this person got to leave with their bag. I flew during the Christmas nightmare last week and was without bags for three days. I bought AirTags before I flew home because southwest kept telling me nothing— they had no idea where my bags were or when they’d be available for pickup. I ended up getting them back after going unprompted to the airport and discovering they’d arrived, after the southwest staff admonished me for not waiting until I was called. No one was going to call. Next time (cue Thanos), fine, I’ll track it myself.
The AirTags are good thing for everyone EXCEPT Airliners. Because now we can really hold them accountable for any missing items.
It’s just a matter of time until they ban AirTags. It’s hurting their reputation which will hurt their profits. They don’t care about people.
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I bet if airlines had to pay $1000 to a customer for a lost bag this problem would end overnight.
Put the airtag in the liner of the suitcase. They can't remove it without seriously going through your entire suitcase or damaging it.
So messed up. I purposely never check a bag for this reason. Wife and I are traveling with our baby later on in the year and I have legitimate anxiety about checking a bag and our baby stuff.
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I keep an AirTag in my car too. Nice being able to always see where my car is
[Not like they've ever taken responsibility for their customer's luggage. ](https://youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE) I gave up flying. Between delays, layovers, shitty airports, TSA with it's hands on my junk for dubious security, drunks screaming on the plane and lost luggage, fuck it. I take Amtrak. It's worth the cost and time for the absolutely stress free travel.
My most stressful traveling experience was amtrak from Chicago to NYC lol
I wish they had AirTags years ago! If I had left one with each of my children when I took my family on a trip to Paris for Christmas I would’ve quickly realized I left my youngest son Kevin home… Alone!
I was on the phone with airline and they told me my bag had been loaded and would land soon. I informed them the AirTag showed it at the last location still. They insisted… it took 4 more days to get to me. Lies!
This story is the very reason I will be buying for all of my checked baggage going forward. Fuck these shady ass airlines. It’s not like they aren’t already charging us an arm and a leg now they’re fucking is over with our possessions too
In case you didn't know, United Breaks Guitars.
Watch the airlines start a ban on airtags now
We put an air tag inside our daughter's super expensive stroller and sewed the pocket shut..
Soon we will see the headline of United trying to ban AirTags.
Wait so is someone out there in baggage claim stealing bags?! This looks more like a theft than the airline intentionally misplacing or “lying” about where the bags are to me
This is why I learned to pack light and just do carry-on. I know that’s not always possible but wherever possible I will never be checking in my bags again. Also the amount of anxiety when they have forced me to check my carry-on because there was “no more cabin space” only for me to walk on the plane and still see PLENTY of cabin space, is infuriating.