An American leaflet tracked lost luggage to London and was told by an American to pick up luggage from the airport, even though it was 4,000 miles away in North Carolina.

• A stranger sent a text message to Jamie O’Grady stating that he had found his luggage at the baggage claim at London Heathrow Airport.

• American Airlines has told O’Grady to collect bags from the airport, even though he has returned to the United States.

• O’Grady was on a trip to Portugal from his home in North Carolina.

The day after returning home from a trip to Europe, Jamie O’Grady from North Carolina received a text from a stranger saying she found her luggage lost at the baggage claim at London Heathrow Airport.

Talking to the insider, O’Grady told American Airlines about the text, just to ask the airline to collect the bags himself, even if he was 4,000 miles away.

O’Grady flew from Faro, Portugal on July 9, arriving in Raleigh, North Carolina, the day after his transfer at Heathrow Airport. He booked a flight via American Airlines, but it seems that the first segment of the flight was operated as a codeshare with Finnair.

O’Grady dropped two bags when he checked in to Faro. One has general luggage and the other has a golf club.

He told insiders that he waited an hour to wait for his luggage at the Raleigh-Durham International Airport luggage carousel, but the luggage did not appear. Later, American Airlines desk staff told O’Grady that his bag had never actually been scanned and he didn’t know where it was.

Earlier, as he roamed Heathrow Airport, O’Grady was “hurried” about how much unclaimed baggage was left at the airport and was afraid he might face the same fate.

“I fell completely to the floor depending on how much baggage was in the baggage claim. I thought of myself.

“And behold, they didn’t get here when I came back,” he said.

O’Grady said he was on a plane with about 30 colleagues, but no one had lost his bag. But O’Grady lost both of him.

The morning after he returned to the United States, he received a text from a stranger saying he had come across a golf bag for Heathrow’s baggage claim. Passengers contacted after noticing that O’Grady had the same area code as him.

The story continues

“My bag shouldn’t have been in those carousels,” O’Grady told Insider. “It remained behind the scenes and should have been transferred.”

O’Grady sent a screenshot of the conversation to American Airlines customer service, telling the company that his bag was clearly at Heathrow Airport.

“We recommend heading to the airport to sort this out as soon as possible,” the airline replied with a screenshot shared by O’Grady. twitter.. Heathrow Airport is about 4,000 miles from Raleigh.

About one in 140 bags of flights operated by American Airlines or its brand codeshare partners was mishandled in April. report According to the US Department of Transportation.

This is higher than the percentage of mishandled bags by Southwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines, and significantly higher than the percentage of American Airlines bags mishandled in April 2021.

O’Grady told insiders that he flew a bag to Raleigh two days after American Airlines arrived.

O’Grady didn’t get his golf bag back until late July 15, he said — almost a week after leaving Faro. His entire experience was “irritating,” he said.

Passengers are facing increasing travel turmoil as airlines and airports are delaying and canceling thousands of flights due to a combination of staff shortages and spikes in travel demand. Lose your luggageWhen Facing a huge line for check-in and security..

O’Grady said it took about two and a half hours to leave the airport for a transfer at Heathrow Airport and pass security on re-entry.

“I traveled all over the world,” he said. “I have never seen anything like this”

Read the original article Business insider