United’s Lost Bag Delivery Service Takes Luggage To McDonald’s, Goes Shopping

by Gary Leff

When an airline loses your luggage, they’ll generally track it down and deliver it to you. That’s best case (sometimes there’s so much lost luggage bags just get thrown in the trash).

It’s not airline employees who are going to take it from the airport to wherever you’re staying. A few years ago Delta even tested leveraging the gig economy, using a service that’s basically Uber for lost bag delivery. You could even sign up to become a lost baggage delivery driver!

The saga of one United Airlines customer’s lost bag, tracked down using an AirTag, is the story of one of these third party delivery services. The airline turns it over, and basically loses track of the bag, assuming that their contractor will do their job and make the delivery. The story eventually has a happy ending.

On New Year’s Day, Valerie Szybala shared that United lost her luggage. And she had an AirTag showing that the bag wasn’t where United kept insisting that it was. She pushed back on the airline’s explanation that her bag was at the ‘delivery services distribution center’ and the airline told her to “calm down.” They promised “we will deliver the bag to you, don’t worry.”

Szybala was concerned because she’d tracked the bag to a dumpster behind an apartment complex. There were other bags out by the dumpster, and possibly emptied, as well. United Airlines stopped responding.

Then the bag showed it was a href=”https://twitter.com/vszyb/status/1609719319713419264″ target=_blank>on the move! It stopped for a meal at McDonald’s. But then, presumably full from a meal, it returned to that same dumpster.

The next day, her bag was again on the move.

Then it return to that apartment complex – before finally being delivered.

I have to think that the apartment complex was adjacent to the vendor’s storage warehouse, that the bag was loaded into a vehicle and driven around with other bags that were delivered first. And – in no great hurry – the vendor’s drivers eventually got around to delivering it. It was likely a company such as nobody likes them.

(HT: @MrLindsayJones)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. It won’t be long before airlines start banning tracking devices in checked bags claiming they contain lithium batteries (which they usually do) as it makes it too easy to call them on their lies about the status of your luggage.

  2. @TheJetsFan Well Lufthansa tried and they got a earful and back down. I really doubt airlines will be banning the devices anytime soon. If they do, they all cell phones, laptop would be banned as well.

  3. I never, ever check a bag on a flight. If I can’t carry it, I don’t need it. It’s not like I’m being dropped in the middle of the Amazon; if I need anything at my destination, there are stores.
    Beats giving the airlines a shot at losing my bag.

  4. Looks like Gary Leff is desperate for news to distract from the epic Southwest meltdown. This is so minor compared to the SW debacle last week. Attention should be focused on that.

  5. I’ve had a couple of AirTagd bags lost and delivered. This is just the way it goes. As long as they get to you by the time they say they’ll get to you…

  6. This is the story of a bag being returned to the customer. The “Drama” did not exist!

  7. It is a big deal – not everyone is able to purchase tracking devices – nor should they have to. In most cases, those checked bags don’t fly for free. When you arrive at your destination, your bags should be there. End of story. Put an end to overbooked flights etc and excessive charges for almost everything.

  8. Who knows if it’s true. She’s a lifelong DC parasite and can’t reasonably be trusted. It’s probably a PR stunt to some degree as her United luggage facts don’t add up.

  11. Left a coat on a United flight. Obviously my fault, but I provided United with the flight & seat number where it was left and they couldn’t find it. Had an I.D. in the pocket.

  12. I tried to hire on for one such service to deliver luggage back to it’s owners but the man in charge of it here in Oklahoma City refused to give me any information on how to hire on because he didn’t have the time and on top of that has never returned my message for info on where to apply so that I could help to alleviate the situation….I wonder if that could be happening at this persons location as well.

Comments are closed.