Sarah Waite, 25, traveled from Los Angeles to Athens with a stopover in Paris
An irate traveler claims £1,000 ($1,200) worth of belongings have gone missing after an airline ‘lost’ her luggage for two months – despite her AirTag tracker revealing it was at the airport.
Sarah Waite, 25, traveled from Los Angeles to Athens, with a stopover in Paris.
But when she landed in the Greek capital, she discovered that her suitcase had not made it onto the plane and would arrive later.
A week later, Sarah, who is originally from Los Angeles, received a notification from her AirTag, an Apple tracking device, saying her bag had left Paris and was finally in Athens.
When she went to pick it up, she claims Air France employees told her they didn’t have it, despite the AirTag showing its location at the airport.
When Sarah landed in Athens, she discovered that her suitcase had not made it onto the Air France plane and would arrive later. She ended up waiting two months before being reunited with it
The registered nurse spent two months without luggage after the May 14 flight.
And when she was finally able to pick it up, Sarah claims her suitcase was damaged and £1,000 ($1,200) worth of items were missing, including shoes and make-up.
Sarah described the whole experience as ‘horrible and traumatizing.’
It was the trip of a lifetime for Sarah, who traveled to Athens to pursue her dream of learning modern and ancient Greek literature.
So her dream trip didn’t start well when she landed in Athens without luggage.
She said: ‘I went to collect my luggage and almost all the passengers were told it would arrive later.
‘We all had to make a claim at the Air France counter at 2am local time.
“There were probably about 60 people who stayed to make the claim, including me.”
Sarah claims her suitcase was damaged and £1,000 ($1,200) worth of items were missing, including shoes and make-up
Hoping to speed things up, Sarah filed a claim online while waiting in the physical queue.
At 5 a.m., three hours after landing, she finally left Athens International Airport — without her luggage.
Sarah had an AirTag in her suitcase so she could see that the item was in Paris, where she had had her layover.
She said: ‘Luckily I had an AirTag in my luggage so I could see that Air France wasn’t lying and that it was actually still at Paris airport.’
Sarah kept in touch with airline staff over the next few days, but found communication difficult.
She said: ‘I kept in touch with Air France about my claim and they were not communicative at all, leaving me on hold for a long time and not connecting me to anyone who spoke English.’
A week later, on May 20, Sarah’s AirTag sent her a notification revealing that her luggage had left Paris Charles de Gaulle and was ultimately in Athens.
She decided to go to the airport, but when she arrived she couldn’t retrieve her belongings.
Sarah documented her frustrations over lost luggage on TikTok, revealing in one clip that she received $600 (£485) in compensation from Air France
Sarah said: ‘I went to the helpdesk and eventually to lost and found, with a lot of hassle and back and forth about my claim number.
“It wasn’t there and I couldn’t do anything about it even though my AirTag said it was there.”
Left without a suitcase, Sarah, who suffers from Graves’ disease, had to buy a number of items, including her thyroid medication.
The condition is an autoimmune disease that can cause hyperthyroidism, or an overactive thyroid gland.
She said: ‘I lost hope, but I continued to communicate with the airline every day and sent them receipts for the items I needed to purchase.’
Two months later, on July 20, Sarah was still able to track her AirTag, so she made one last attempt and traveled to the airport again.
When she arrived, Sarah went to the airline counter and confronted the staff.
She said: ‘The people who helped me were very rude, shouting at me when I expressed my frustration and saying there was nothing they could do, even though they work at the airport and can take me to the AirTag location.
“They even threatened to call the police because I started videotaping the situation.”
A video shows the interaction between herself and the staff, during which an argument breaks out.
According to Sarah, the staff eventually agreed to take her to the lost and found area, where she was finally able to retrieve her luggage.
When she was reunited with her suitcase, Sarah claimed it was clear it had been damaged and items had been lost.
She explained: ‘I got my bag, but again with extreme frustration.
‘I went to the help desk and was given permission to access the lost property.
“I went to the lost and found and then to the other lost and found, but my bag wasn’t there.
“I finally broke down and cried in front of the whole staff and then someone said, ‘Oh, we called you, okay, stay here.'”
She added: “It took extreme emotional expression for people to understand who I was and that I was being contacted, even though I told everyone who helped me that my name is Sarah Waite and that I was being called because my bags were found.
‘A young man took me to the customs area where my AirTag was tagged and I grabbed my bag.
‘My luggage was completely torn open, shoes were gone, make-up was gone, bags were missing and the original lock of the zippers was not in place.
“I’m still devastated, but at least my medication, which is in liquid form, if you have Graves’ disease, is viable.”
Sarah documented her frustrations over lost luggage on TikTokin which it was revealed in one clip that she received $600 (£485) in compensation.
Air France has not yet responded to requests for comment.