AirTag again exposes lies told by airlines about lost luggage
A Canadian man recounts how only an AirTag got him his luggage back after United Airlines lost it and persisted in lying about where it was.
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Happened on a recent flight with me. Company told us luggage was still on the origin airport, someone had an air tag and vehemently asked them to do a double check, and they miraculously found where it was supposed to be in the first place..
On a recent trip we just went up to the youngest looking baggage worker, showed them, asked very nicely, and they walked back and found it. Tipped em 20 bucks for 5 minutes of effort. They were super nice.
The airline was less than helpful, actively saying the bag was lost.
Take photos of your luggage before checking them. That way you can show the employees exactly what they’re looking for.
Luckily our bag was a very distinctive color with a large brand logo but yep
Ugly luggage unite!!
Tipped em 20 bucks
So we're paying an extra baggage fee now?
The airline was less than helpful, actively saying the bag was lost.
The young baggage worker is the airline. They are a representative of the company.
The employee was an airport employee, not a specific airline employee.
I was under no obligation to tip, I didn't mention money until he hustled, was very nice, and accomplished the task. I invented the idea of giving him money for his help, I was never prompted.
A fee is not a tip. A fee is mandatory, and issued prior to service, a tip is optional.
This guy saved a day of my vacation and I decided that fortunate exchange with him was worth 20 dollars at least, and he was thankful for the exchange.
You have no clue what you are talking about.
Would you be willing to pay $20 to make sure your bag made it to your destination?
Let's cut to the chase:
Any point you are trying to make about the "system" the industry or me being a rube for giving money away doesn't hold water.
I'm capable of two thoughts at once:
For the cost of my ticket, I expect my bag to get there when I do, no further changes required.
No. That was the previous deal, the deal has been altered. You now have to pay an extra fee to ensure the bag gets to its destination, otherwise you roll the dice.
This doesn’t mean I condone the industry habits.
You enabled industry habits. Its the same reason why tipping in restaurants still exists, because people pay it. If the majority of people decided not to, then the culture of tipping would die out.
technically subverted airport policy to specifically retrieve my bag. I appreciated him going out of his way, and possibly even carrying some risk for my benefit,
This is enabling. Nothing has fundamentally changed with the current system, and there has been no feedback to the industry. So it will remain as it is.
When did I try to change the industry by interacting with the airPORT employee? I provided feedback via stern conversation with the airline rep, whatever little/nothing that does. I also strictly do not check a bag any more, so am no longer within that cost cycle.
The airPORT employee is not in the cycle you are inventing in your head. He is entirely separate from it, and benefits nothing at all from the airLINE practices.
The airPORT employee operated without any assumption of reward beyond a "thanks", so his actions were free of financial feedback, because they were decided prior to knowledge of monetary incentive. Further the airLINE is not aware of, and did not profit from his action, so my tip did not 'enable" their practices, as the only information they digested from the exchange is my criticism of their failure.
Read the room dude, you don't always have to agree with the crowd, but you're obviously wrong on this one, and I'm all done talking to you
you’re obviously wrong on this one
Ah, true, I didn't see that before. I should have just read what you wrote.
Unfortunately this is like feeding a dog from the table to get them to go away. You’re essentially rewarding bad behavior.
Unless there is ever an incentive to not lose your luggage or a punishment if they do the airlines will continually do this.
We're suppose to tip airline workers now?
We tipped under no obligation, the guy specially went out of his way for me, and I thought that was special.
The guy literally salvaged a whole day of vacation for me
And that is exactly the point of tipping, at least for me. It's like a reward for extraordinary service
I don't come from somewhere with a tipping culture, but if someone came to me with an airtag tracker and said hey can you get my bag, and my job is to get your bags, I would happily just do my job instead of thinking "fuck you" and start to fight.
Shit I would even apologise for having lost it in the first place.
It would not even occur to me that someone would tip, or I would be getting one.
Happened to me on a recent trip to a country well known for crime.
Your luggage is lost sir, you’ll have to fill in a form.
My luggage is about 15m away behind that wall. Here, see this map. Go get it.
10 min later: Oh your luggage is here sir. Terribly sorry.
Not sure if incompetence or shenanigans but I got my luggage back.