Sandra Shuster and her 15-year-old daughter Ruby, who plays lacrosse, were flying back from Baltimore via Chicago on July 17, when their luggage went missing. According to a report by CNN, the pair were in Baltimore for a tournament and were travelling with carry-on bags for their clothes, they had checked one bag which had Ruby's lacrosse kit.
When the pair arrived at Denver after midnight, they couldn't find their bag on the belt. United Airlines representative helped them with a case number and told them they will get their luggage on the 8.30 am flight from Chicago. The bag did not arrive and Ms Shuster called the toll-free number for lost baggage, the media outlet reported.
"They said, 'Your bag's going to come in later today on one of two flights.' I said 'OK, great,' but it never came. So I called later that afternoon and they said 'Your bag is still in Baltimore,'" says Ms Shuster told CNN.
Although, Ms Shuster knew that her bag was not in Baltimore after she started her bag on Apple AirTag. "This is a unique equipment, and we have to check it. Airlines are getting worse, rates of lost luggage are getting higher, and I wanted to know where it was - so I bought the tag," she explains.
The AirTag showed that the bag was at O'Hare.
"I told them I could see it at Terminal 1 baggage reclaim in Chicago, and they said 'We have no record of it.' I asked them to call Chicago, and they said 'No, we're not allowed.' They said they'd put notes in the system and the baggage team would take care of it."
The airline told her that she had the wrong claim number.
Ms Shuster's daughter borrowed some kit for that trip.
While the airline kept saying that the bag was stolen, Ms Shuster was convinced it was still there. "It had moved maybe 50 feet, and the AirTag was embedded in the bag - I doubted someone stole it," she says. "He was implying it could be a double win but I wasn't trying to game the system - to replace what was in that bag was much harder."
She reached out to United's Twitter team, but they said they couldn't locate it.
"We've let our baggage team in ORD know that you'll be arriving," they initially replied - before half an hour later messaging again to say, "We recommend that you remain in Denver while we continue to work through our processes to bring your bag back to you."
The woman did not trust United's processes. So, she decided to take the next flight to Chicago and get her lost luggage.
"So I jumped on the plane, flew to Chicago, got to baggage claim, and it took them 30 seconds to give me my bag," she said.
"Meanwhile I'd already sent pictures of the bag, the claim ticket and its location to United. It's gobsmacking that they can't figure out how to do it better in this day and age."
