A passenger has called out United Airlines for allegedly lying about where her lost luggage was. After flying from Chicago to Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. in bad weather, she realized her bags didn’t make the flight. Fair enough — it could be delivered to her house when it got there. Unfortunately, things didn’t go very smoothly. Valerie Szybala was continually told that her bags were “at the delivery service,” but what they didn’t know is that she had placed Apple AirTags inside the bag. They told an entirely different story.
I’d just like everyone to know that @united has lost track of my bag and is lying about it. My apple AirTag shows that it has been sitting in a residential apartment complex for over a day. Out back by the dumpsters, I have found other emptied United Airlines bags. pic.twitter.com/fcoq4nj3zb
— valerie szybala. (@vszyb) January 1, 2023
- Szybala’s bags were traveling all over town. The trackers allowed her to watch on her phone as her bags went all over, even stopping at McDonald’s for a bite to eat. While she was freaking out about getting her stuff back, it seemed the courier due to deliver it wasn’t in much of a hurry.
- She started a Twitter thread to document the entire saga. The thread included screenshots of a conversation with a United Airlines rep, who told her to “calm down,” though it’s unclear if she was talking to a person or a bot. She even shared the map of her bags being transported everywhere but to her house. At night, it settled in at a nearby apartment complex, which she pinpointed thanks to the AirTags’ tracking abilities. She headed over there, only to find several emptied suitcases next to a dumpster. Hers wasn’t among them, but she was understandably worried. However, United assured her that her bags were fine.
- After three days, Szybala was told they delivered the bag to the wrong address. The courier apologized for the mix-up and said they’d deal with it. In reality, the bags seemed to have been dumped in an apartment complex across town. “The dude who picked up was around the corner, so he drove back to meet me near the building,” she wrote on Twitter. “He looked a little surprised to have two news crews filming. He asked if he was in trouble or something, but at that moment I was too happy to have my bag back to ask more questions.”
- Valerie Szybala still doesn’t know what the courier was doing with her bags for several days. “I don’t know that this guy was telling the truth, I suspect he was not. Nothing I’ve been told by this guy or @United explains why my bag spent 3 days in an apartment complex garage, with occasional shopping excursions. I’d still like some answers,” she posted. “The two empty bags I had seen by the dumpster were gone today. The helpful building resident said they weren’t picked up by trash collection, she saw someone bring them back inside! Which adds to the sketchy factor for sure.”
- United Airlines claims it’s investigating the situation. “We are working with our baggage delivery vendor to understand the details of this situation,” the company said in a statement to Mashable. “We’ve been in touch with this customer to discuss this situation and confirm she has received her luggage. The service our baggage delivery vendor provided does not meet our standards and we are investigating what happened to lead to this service failure.”
WHEW this has been a wild ride y’all. I’m happy to report that I got my bag back!!! I’ll give more details & lessons learned later. For now wanna say thank you for all of the support, and shout out to the building resident and local news crews who came out to help =) pic.twitter.com/hCDXMreiDC
— valerie szybala. (@vszyb) January 2, 2023