A United Airlines passenger accused the airline company of losing her luggage and then lying about it.
Valerie Szybala, who lives in Washington, DC, and works as an open-source intelligence analyst, claimed that her suitcase didn’t appear on the belt after her flight, and she received it six days later.
During that time, Valerie kept tracking her bag and found that it went on a trip to a shopping mall, a Mcdonald’s, and an apartment complex while the airline kept lying to her that her bag was at the delivery service.
According to Daily Mail, “Szybala landed at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday – only to find that her luggage was missing. She said United Airlines contacted her the next day to say her suitcase had arrived and they would deliver it to her home.”
On Monday, the Washington DC native took to Twitter and wrote a long thread in which she said that she had an Apple Airtag attached to her bag, due to which she could track its location.
“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,” she said.
“Folks please share so other United passengers who lost their bags know this may be their fate,” she added.
“Update: I was having a DM back and forth with @united, but their rep stopped responding when I pressed them to send me the details of their lost/stolen bag policy, so I can understand my rights and what I am owed.”
She also attached two screenshots of her conversation with an airline representative who informed her that her bag was safe at the delivery service distribution center.
“Anyone wondering why I felt compelled to take this to social media, check out my most recent chat with one of their support reps through the @united app,” Valerie wrote alongside the screenshots.
The Twitter thread went viral, and thousands of people participated in tracking the bag movement with Valerie.
“MAJOR UPDATE: for the first time since Friday my AirTag (and hopefully luggage) appears to be on the move… it’s at a McDonalds? The plot thickens… cc: @united,” she wrote in the thread.
“I’d love to provide more updates, but my AirTag seems to have settled into the mystery apartment complex for the night. I’ll check again in the morning,” her second update read.
“Good morning all. Here’s an update: my AirTag is on the move! It’s about 16 miles outside of the city in the suburbs. Hopefully, this means it is on a delivery run?” Szybala tweeted the next morning.
Later she said that her suitcase was not on the delivery run, but it had instead returned to the apartment complex.
Eventually, the intelligence analyst received her bag four days after the airline company claimed that it was at the delivery center.
“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,” Valerie wrote on Twitter.
Speaking to Fox 5 DC, Szybala said, “I’m really happy to have my bag back. I’m really upset at United. I still haven’t gotten answers why my bag has been in someone’s car in this building for three days and has taken trips out to go shopping several times. I don’t think they’ve told me the truth about what happened.”
United Airlines also released a statement to Mashable and said,
“We are working with our baggage delivery vendor to understand the details of this situation. 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.”
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Sources: Daily Mail – Twitter – Fox 5 DC – Mashable
