06 January 2023 , 16:07
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A passenger furious about her lost luggage tracked it all the way to McDonald's and to someone's home.
Valerie Szybala used an Apple AirTag to track down her bag after a transfer through a chaotic airport led to it being lost.
She was flying home to Washington DC in the US and needed to get a connecting flight through Chicago.
Except her bag didn't make it aboard this second leg of the journey.
So she asked United Airlines to deliver her luggage directly to her home.
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However, when the bag left the airport on December 29, Valerie said "that's where the real chaos began."
Although the bag seemed set for delivery, it never arrived, and she was forced to use Apple's Find My tool to locate the bag with an Apple AirTag.
The frustrated passenger used an AirTag to track her bag (Getty Images)AirTags are designed to be attached to luggage and keys to help people find them if they ever get lost.
After a series of delays, Valerie said she located her suitcase in a block of flats.
When she went there, her bag was nowhere to be found, but she did find a suspicious number of empty United Airlines bags by some bins.
After being told by an airline official who said "calm down you (sic) bag is at the delivery service", Valerie tracked her luggage to a nearby McDonalds.
It shortly returned to the apartment complex where she claims it was "being held hostage".
United Airlines have said they are investigating what happened (Getty Images)When Valerie's AirTag went to a shopping centre in the suburbs, she thought all was lost. Fortunately, the bag arrived—but not before she cornered the guy who had her bag.
Valerie has warned other travellers to fit a tracking device to their luggage, saying that without the AirTag she wouldn't have her bag back.
She added: "If your bag arrives on a later flight than you and they offer to hold at the import for pickup or delivery, never choose delivery. The 3rd party delivery service is where this got sketchy."
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A spokesperson for United Airlines said: "We've been in touch with this customer to discuss 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."