An Apple AirTag rescued a man's lost luggage after two different airlines couldn't

AirTag in luggage
(Image credit: Karen S. Freeman / iMore)

Nobody likes losing their luggage at the airport and it's even worse when not one, but two different airlines manage to do it for you. So when that exact thing happened to Winston Sih, it was lucky that he had an AirTag to call upon.

The story goes that Sih was supposed to make his way from Chicago to Toronto earlier this month when he was diverted to Washington by United Airlines. Following another delay, he was sent to Toronto on another flight — but his suitcase never made it.

As you've probably guessed, the bag remained in Washington, which was bad enough. But then things got worse and might have remained that way if it wasn't for one intrepid AirTag.

AirTag to the rescue

Speaking to DailyHive, Sih said that United Airlines then put the missing bag on an Air Canada flight bound for Toronto.

"Because of the confusion and the airlines not coordinating who was supposed to drop the bag off at Sih’s home, it was taken off the baggage carousel at Pearson," the website explains. From there, the bag just waited. And waited. But there was nobody there to collect it.

Then the runaround started.

"When he tried to contact the airlines to let them know he still hadn’t received his bag, they told him that, according to their systems, it was still in Washington," DailyHive reports. But thanks to the AirTag, Sih was able to confirm exactly where the AirTag was.

Despite numerous promises and conversations with United Airlines and Air Canada staff, the bag never materialized at Sih's home — so he took matters into his own hands and went to collect it with his iPhone 14 in hand.

"Luckily he found an Air Canada staff member who authorized him to be escorted to the secured baggage hall," DailyHive continues. "Sih used his iPhone 14 to locate his bag 'thanks to [the] AirTag,' he added."

Who knows what would have happened if it wasn't for that little AirTag.

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.

  • Annie_M
    Love this!!!
    Reply
  • Barry Sherry
    My experience was similar but different. British Airways "lost" my bike at Heathrow all the while I could see it since I have an AirTag in my bike. But no one at British Airways would lift a hand to get it. Or probably, all "customer support" has been replaced by algorithms and automated responses. The people I talked to didn't touch the luggage and could only "put a note in the file."

    https://cnn.com/travel/article/airtag-lost-bike/index.html
    Reply
  • Annie_M
    Barry Sherry said:
    My experience was similar but different. British Airways "lost" my bike at Heathrow all the while I could see it since I have an AirTag in my bike. But no one at British Airways would lift a hand to get it. Or probably, all "customer support" has been replaced by algorithms and automated responses. The people I talked to didn't touch the luggage and could only "put a note in the file."

    https://cnn.com/travel/article/airtag-lost-bike/index.html
    Welcome to iMore! What a saga for you!!! Thank goodness for the AirTag!
    Reply
  • FFR
    Barry Sherry said:
    My experience was similar but different. British Airways "lost" my bike at Heathrow all the while I could see it since I have an AirTag in my bike. But no one at British Airways would lift a hand to get it. Or probably, all "customer support" has been replaced by algorithms and automated responses. The people I talked to didn't touch the luggage and could only "put a note in the file."

    https://cnn.com/travel/article/airtag-lost-bike/index.html

    Heathrow has been misplacing everyones luggage for the past 11 months.
    Reply