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Airline ‘lose’ woman’s luggage for two months despite €40 item showing it was at airport

Published 08:00 6 Aug 2023 BST

Updated 12:12 4 Aug 2023 BST

Her

Airline ‘lose’ woman’s luggage for two months despite €40 item showing it was at airport

By Charlie Herbert

She described the experience as ‘horrible and traumatizing’

A woman claims £1,000 worth of items went missing after the airline “lost” her luggage for two months – despite her AirTag showing them at the airport. Sarah Waite, 25, had travelled from her home in Los Angeles to Athens, where she was going to learn modern and ancient Greek literature, a lifelong dream of hers. But when she landed in the Greek capital, Sarah discovered her luggage had not made it onto the plane and would arrive later. The journey had involved a layover in Paris, and her luggage had been left in the French capital. A week later though, Sarah received a notification from her £35 AirTag, which was on her luggage, saying that the bags had left Paris and were finally in Athens. But when she went to pick it up, Sarah claims Air France staff told her they didn’t have it despite the AirTag showing its location at the airport.

The registered nurse spent two months without her luggage after the flight on May 14. And when she was finally able to retrieve it, Sarah claims her suitcase had been damaged and £1,000 ($1,200) worth of items were missing, including shoes and makeup. She described the whole experience as “horrible and traumatizing.” She said: “I went to claim my luggage and almost all of the passengers were informed that it was arriving later. “We all had to make a claim at the Air France desk at 2 am local time. “There were probably about 60 people that stayed to file the claim, me being one of them.” The registered nurse spent two months without her luggage after the flight on May 14. And when she was finally able to retrieve it, Sarah claims her suitcase had been damaged and £1,000 ($1,200) worth of items were missing, including shoes and makeup. She described the whole experience as “horrible and traumatizing.” She said: “I went to claim my luggage and almost all of the passengers were informed that it was arriving later. “We all had to make a claim at the Air France desk at 2 am local time. “There were probably about 60 people that stayed to file the claim, me being one of them.”

Two months later, on July 20, Sarah was still able to track her AirTag, which continued to tell her the bags were at the airport. So she travelled to the airport again to make a final attempt to recover her stuff, confronting staff at the airline desk. She said “The people helping me were very rude, yelling at me when I expressed frustration, telling me there is nothing they can do even though they work at the airport and can take me to the AirTag location. “They even threatened to call the police on me because I started video recording the situation.” A video shows the interaction between herself and the staff where an argument breaks out under frustrating circumstances. According to Sarah, the staff eventually agreed to take her to the lost and found where she was finally able to retrieve her luggage. When she was reunited with her luggage, Sarah claimed that it was clear her suitcase had been damaged and items lost.