Lost bag with AirTag saga is over -- but United still hasn't explained itself

AppleInsider

A woman who tracked her lost luggage with AirTag has been reunited with her belongings, but only after she gained significant media attention.

Valerie Szybala recently took to Twitter to document how United Airlines lost her luggage, then proceeded to insist she was wrong about where the tracking device said it was.

Now, the story seems to end happily, with Szybala reporting that her luggage had been returned to her as of Monday afternoon.

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

Previously, Szybala's AirTag showed her bag at a residential apartment, even though United Airlines insisted that the bag was "safe at the Delivery services distribution center."

Later, the bag was tracked to a McDonalds, a shopping center, and then returned to the apartment complex.

According to Szybala, she returned to the apartment complex accompanied by a local news crew when she received a "sketchy" text from someone claiming to be a courier. The courier told her the bag had been erroneously delivered to a different passenger.

The courier returned her bag, which was still locked and had all its contents. Szybala did not question the courier's story as she was "too excited to have [her] bag to ask whether he'd had it all weekend."

She ends the Twitter thread by telling travelers to use a tracking device like AirTag and photograph their belongings in the event that they need to file a reimbursement claim.

This is not the first time that AirTags have revealed unexpected journeys of the luggage they are placed in. In June 2022, one man tracked down his missing baggage to an office in Melbourne Airport. Then in August 2022, a couple visiting Portugal reported that their luggage got to see more of the country than they did.

Also, in late 2022, Lufthansa briefly banned AirTags on a hopefully mistaken interpretation of FCC regulations regarding batteries. It then reversed the decision.

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robin huber

They will never explain themselves. Not a priority. 

mikethemartian

The universe will reach thermal equilibrium before that happens.

DAalseth

I grew up in aviation. As a kid I loved to fly
After 9/11 it became less and less pleasant and I only flew when I needed to. 

Now though flying is aggressively nasty and abusive. I just don’t. The airlines can all go bankrupt as far as I’m concerned. No company that treats its customers that badly deserves to stay in business. 

Applejacs

DAalseth said:

I grew up in aviation. As a kid I loved to fly
After 9/11 it became less and less pleasant and I only flew when I needed to. 

Now though flying is aggressively nasty and abusive. I just don’t. The airlines can all go bankrupt as far as I’m concerned. No company that treats its customers that badly deserves to stay in business. 

You’re not a COMCAST customer are you?

DAalseth

Applejacs said:

DAalseth said:

I grew up in aviation. As a kid I loved to fly
After 9/11 it became less and less pleasant and I only flew when I needed to. 

Now though flying is aggressively nasty and abusive. I just don’t. The airlines can all go bankrupt as far as I’m concerned. No company that treats its customers that badly deserves to stay in business. 

You’re not a COMCAST customer are you?

LOL No, but as I understand it would apply to them as well. 

lkrupp

I’m thinking it’s time for a return to heavy regulation of the airline industry. The free market and ‘competition’ just isn’t working in their case. Sure, prices will increase but maybe the service and on-time performance will get better.

InspiredCode

lkrupp said:

I’m thinking it’s time for a return to heavy regulation of the airline industry. The free market and ‘competition’ just isn’t working in their case. Sure, prices will increase but maybe the service and on-time performance will get better.

Good regulation is very hard to do which is why heavy regulation usually has worse outcomes. They might never lose your bag, but the price might be 4 times as high for example. Regulation should be used sparingly and only to fix issues that can’t be fixed using market based policies.

dewme

This is crazy. Now we’re getting into a sequel and possibly a recurring series to gripe about one person’s delay in getting her bag delivered like it’s a world history defining event? Over the past few weeks tens of thousands of people missed their flights and had their holiday travel ruined due to airline related issues, some of which were weather related but some of which were due to the airlines having systems that failed miserably under stress. At least one person missed his heart transplant operation due to airline failures and that story barely received any coverage compared to AirTag Karen's “horrific baggage delivery delay.” A little bit of perspective, please. 

The AirTag devices are pretty awesome for what they do, but nobody including Apple fully understood the unintended consequences that would result from them being deployed on the scale that Apple products enjoy. This includes misuse like stalking, but also the increased burden on law enforcement that will result from people engaging the police whenever they believe their AirTag is providing evidence of a crime in progress. Whether a crime is involved or not, suddenly having a bunch of people expecting an immediate reaction from law enforcement to AirTag related calls isn’t something the municipalities planned for in advance. The same deal with emergency features like fall and crash detection. Did Apple consult with law enforcement and emergency responders to help prepare them for the increased demands that were going to be imposed on them?

We've already seen that law enforcement and emergency responders are fully behind all of these new technologies coming into their world. They are highly supportive and ramping up their ability to respond. The same response will undoubtedly be seen in the airline industry as they adapt how they do their business to new technologies that overlap their areas of concern. But none of this can happen overnight and doing it when you’re already treading water and operating under duress with staffing shortages makes it even more difficult. Just like hospital ERs they have to triage and prioritize and sometimes those who aren’t at the top of the list are going to feel like they are getting substandard service. Hey, it happens. But making your individual grievances the center of attention outside of your personal scope of concern doesn’t help those who are trying to solve, sorry to say it, much larger problems. Difficult times call for resilience and perspective, up to and including having to suck it up and get in line. Don’t become part of the problem.

browncoat3

I actually had a similar experience happen to me a couple years ago. I left my iPad on Delta flight in Orlando. I called Delta to let them know I left it and they said they would look for it. I started tracking it and  watched it leave the airport through a service road and stop in a parking lot just outside the airport. I sent a message to my iPad saying I can see you have my iPad. As soon as I sent the message it turned around and came right back the way it had come and then sat in a random part of the airport by one of the stores. Meanwhile I was on the phone with customer service telling them all of this. They said sorry we can’t find it, we don’t know what happened. I kept telling them I can see it right where it is. They still said sorry can’t find it. 

Next day I get a call from them saying they found it and would overnight it. I tried to press them for an explanation but they wouldn’t give one to me. 

Airlines can be a mess sometimes. 

iwastheone

Airplanes are become a subway train now days...

flydog

lkrupp said:

I’m thinking it’s time for a return to heavy regulation of the airline industry. The free market and ‘competition’ just isn’t working in their case. Sure, prices will increase but maybe the service and on-time performance will get better.

Great idea Mr. Putin.

flydog

dewme said:

This is crazy. Now we’re getting into a sequel and possibly a recurring series to gripe about one person’s delay in getting her bag delivered like it’s a world history defining event? Over the past few weeks tens of thousands of people missed their flights and had their holiday travel ruined due to airline related issues, some of which were weather related but some of which were due to the airlines having systems that failed miserably under stress. At least one person missed his heart transplant operation due to airline failures and that story barely received any coverage compared to AirTag Karen's “horrific baggage delivery delay.” A little bit of perspective, please. 

The AirTag devices are pretty awesome for what they do, but nobody including Apple fully understood the unintended consequences that would result from them being deployed on the scale that Apple products enjoy. This includes misuse like stalking, but also the increased burden on law enforcement that will result from people engaging the police whenever they believe their AirTag is providing evidence of a crime in progress. Whether a crime is involved or not, suddenly having a bunch of people expecting an immediate reaction from law enforcement to AirTag related calls isn’t something the municipalities planned for in advance. The same deal with emergency features like fall and crash detection. Did Apple consult with law enforcement and emergency responders to help prepare them for the increased demands that were going to be imposed on them?

We've already seen that law enforcement and emergency responders are fully behind all of these new technologies coming into their world. They are highly supportive and ramping up their ability to respond. The same response will undoubtedly be seen in the airline industry as they adapt how they do their business to new technologies that overlap their areas of concern. But none of this can happen overnight and doing it when you’re already treading water and operating under duress with staffing shortages makes it even more difficult. Just like hospital ERs they have to triage and prioritize and sometimes those who aren’t at the top of the list are going to feel like they are getting substandard service. Hey, it happens. But making your individual grievances the center of attention outside of your personal scope of concern doesn’t help those who are trying to solve, sorry to say it, much larger problems. Difficult times call for resilience and perspective, up to and including having to suck it up and get in line. Don’t become part of the problem.

What's even crazier is the time you spent ranting about it. 

lkrupp

flydog said:

lkrupp said:

I’m thinking it’s time for a return to heavy regulation of the airline industry. The free market and ‘competition’ just isn’t working in their case. Sure, prices will increase but maybe the service and on-time performance will get better.

Great idea Mr. Putin.

Well, you know they used to be and they ran on time, luggage didn’t get lost, there was plenty of leg room, and you were served decent food.  Then they were deregulated by Congress and Jimmy Carter in 1978 and the shit hit the fan almost immediately. You might not be old enough to remember those days.

And gimme a frick’n break with the Putin nonsense you moron.