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Emily Tuite says she was traumatized after an airline lost the bag containing her waterproof prosthetic leg, which she needed for activities on her beach vacation, such as swimming and getting up in the shower.
Tuite, 26, of Texas, spent her entire recent vacation in San Diego on the phone with Allegiant Airlines in a desperate search for the bright blue bag she checked in for her September 1 flight.
Finally, on Monday afternoon (September 12), Tuite’s bag containing her expensive custom medical device was returned, days after her vacation ended.
“I spent nearly every day of my 8-day trip stressed out, worried, and trying to get information from Allegiant,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it took 12 days to get my medical device back.”
“It can take more than a year to get a leg done. With insurance it is not easy to have medical devices made for you. I felt like I had to do everything I could to somehow get the bag back, so yeah, I did a lot to get there,” she told the local Austin station. KXAN.
Emily Tuite’s waterproof prosthetic leg that was lost by Allegiant Airlines during her beach vacation and only found 12 days later at an airport in Provo, Utah
Tuite flew from Austin, Texas to San Diego, California, on Sept. 1, only to be told days later that the suitcase containing her prosthesis had never come aboard the flight.
Tuite told the Daily Mail that her experience with Allegiant Airlines was “traumatic” because of the amount of time she spent speaking to employees, which amounted to zero progress.
“They never called me back after promising they would. It seemed almost impossible to get in touch with them,’ Tuite said.
At one point in the saga, she was told by an airline representative that her bag never made it to her flight from Austin, despite being given a tracking number.
Tuite concluded that someone must have stolen her bag with precious cargo.
But just one day after KXAN reached out to an Allegiant media spokesperson, Tuite received a call that her bag had been found.
The blue suitcase was somehow accidentally tagged with another passenger’s information and had been in a baggage claim in Provo, Utah the entire time.
“So they called that person and said, ‘We have your bag,’ and that person said, ‘It’s not mine.’ Meanwhile, I’m panicking, panicking, thinking my stuff is gone, like it’s just been stolen from the airport, so I’ve really learned a lesson about flying and tracking your stuff,” Tuite said.
Allegiant refunded Emily the price of her checked bag, which seems insufficient given her inability to enjoy much of her 8-day vacation without her medical device
An airline spokesperson said Allegiant has given Tuite a “$60 refund, covering her baggage fees.”
“In addition, we have kindly requested Ms Tuite to provide receipts for reimbursement and processing,” said the spokesperson.
Tuite said she had asked the airline to refund the cost of her flight, which they refused.
Tuite expressed disappointment that the airline didn’t even offer to cover the cost of her flight, as her entire trip had been “spent on the phone contacting them.”
“It is frustrating to think that there is no other compensation for losing someone’s medical device for 12 days,” she added.
Tuite said she will invest in Apple AirTag devices for future trips so she can keep an eye on her luggage herself.
Despite the weight of her waterproof prosthesis, she said she’ll be carrying it as a carry-on as well rather than experiencing another nerve-racking delay.
‘As a disabled person, you don’t always want to have your device with you. You would hope you could check it. But hopefully, if I check it with an Apple AirTag in it, at least I’ll know where it is myself,” she said.
Tuite advised passengers to be vigilant at the baggage claim and ask that the correct information is printed on the baggage so that it does not end up in the wrong place.
“I’m not sure why they put the wrong label on my luggage, but it affected both my trip and my confidence in future travel as someone who has to fly with a medical device,” she told the Daily Mail.
American Airlines has processed 52 million bags and ‘mishandled’ 454,000 of them in the past six months
American was the worst airline for baggage mishandled in the first six months of the year, losing 8.7 of every 1,000 baggage. JetBlue was next at 7, followed by United at 6.6, Delta at 6.1 and Southwest at 4.5 sacks
Allegiant isn’t the first airline to struggle with passenger baggage issues this summer.
A few weeks ago, it was revealed that American Airlines has lost nearly half a million luggage in the past six months alone.
According to the Daily Mail report, other leading airlines, including Jet Blue, United and Delta, weren’t that far off the Americans as baggage slips plagued summer travelers around the world.