A police investigation is currently underway to find the missing luggage of two United Airlines travelers who flew to Barcelona earlier this summer.
“We kind of planned this trip for a long time. It was like the trip of a lifetime,” Dan Adams told NBC 4 Los Angeles of his getaway with his partner Kurt.
To ensure the safe arrival of their luggage, Adams inserted AirTags into all four of the couple’s checked bags.
But, when he and Kurt went to baggage claim, only three of his bags showed up at the carousel. “I looked on the phone to see where it was, and it was only a few feet from where I was standing. I figured they probably forgot to put it on the belt that takes it up to the carousel from down below. It’s probably just stuck there, and somebody forgot it,” Adams told NBC 4.
When Adams informed a baggage rep about the situation, she went to go look for his missing luggage, but returned empty-handed.
“She came back and said, ‘No, there’s no sign of your bag. Probably somebody took it.’ I said, ‘Nobody took it. The AirTag shows it right there.’ She said, ‘We don’t go by AirTags, we go by our own system,’ ” recalled Adams.
After the rep assured him that the bag would turn up and be delivered to him later that night, he and his partner left the airport. “We were tired, jet-lagged, and I said okay. And that was my mistake. I trusted United when I shouldn’t have,” said Adams.
Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty
The bag never arrived, however, and when Adams checked his AirTag app later that evening, he was in for another surprise — the bag had moved 34 miles away from the city in the opposite direction.
“It came into Barcelona and then just kept moving out of Barcelona,” he said. “I knew at that point that I’d never see that bag again and all the stuff that was inside of it.”
Adams eventually filed a claim with United, though the airline didn’t reimburse him for everything at first. “I’ve been a really good United customer for years and years. And they know that. Yet they treated me this way,” he told NBC 4.
In a statement to PEOPLE, United said, “We reimbursed the customer and issued travel credits for the frustrating experience. Police in Barcelona are handling the investigation into this missing bag.”
The company added, “In the coming months, United will begin accepting Find My item locations as part of our customer service process for locating mishandled or delayed bags. We’ll share more details over time.”
Still, Adams was displeased with how United Airlines handled the whole ordeal and has words of advice to help other travelers avoid the situation he found himself in.
“I just want people to know what happened to me, so it doesn’t happen to them,” he said. “Even if you take precautions of putting an AirTag into your luggage to see where it is, there are elements out there that are going to make sure you don’t get your luggage, no matter what.”