Woman shares 'helpful' hack after five day airport ordeal
It's not just Aussie travellers who have seen airport chaos in the recent months with one woman in Canada taking matters into her own hands after the airline she was travelling on lost her bag.
Kelly Laing, a rather determined marketing manager, was heading back home on a short flight from Toronto recently. When she got to the Toronto Pearson International Airport, she knew it might be a difficult trip when she saw only one person working at the Air Canada customer service desk with a line of around 50 people.
"The lineups were horrible, you just saw people standing everywhere, and you could tell that there's not enough staff," she said.
When she landed at St. John's International Airport, not enough luggage came out for the 30 travellers waiting.
A seasoned traveller, Ms Laing had added an Apple AirTag to her bag, a tracking device connected to the Find My app. When she checked her phone to locate her suitcase, it was still in Toronto.
"That's when my stomach dropped," she told Yahoo.
"We talked to the worker at the airport, and he said, 'Yep, about 30 bags didn't make this flight. I don't have an explanation for you, but we're hoping to get you your bag within the next 24 to 48 hours."
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"Air Canada staff were like, 'Oh yeah, we'll reimburse you for stuff,' but I don't trust them. They have a three-hour wait time for their phone line. I don't know when you'd ever see the money for anything reimbursed."
From home, Ms Laing watched her suitcase through the tracking system. But after five days, it was still sitting in Toronto. She never bothered calling customer service because the wait time was over three hours.
"I had no updates from them. Not an email, not a phone call to let me know, 'okay, this is going to be more than 48 hours,' nothing. It was radio silence," she said.
Despite never hearing from the airline, on the sixth day she noticed her bag had finally arrived at her local airport.
After driving to the airport, she was eventually able to track down her luggage, sharing the journey on TikTok.
"If you're travelling, try bringing a carry-on with you and pack as many things as possible. If you do bring a checked-in bag, get a tracking device because they do work. I'm so happy I thought of bringing mine," she said.
With countless stories of lost luggage in recent months, TikTok users praised the nifty solution with many saying they were convinced to buy a similar tracking tag for their next trip.
"I was thinking to buy air tags for my luggages on my next travel. That’s very helpful," one person commented.
"The amount of people about to buy air tags," joked another.
"Ours [luggage] was going to Texas, and went to Florida instead. Thanks to AirTags we can see where it is," one user commented.
with Yahoo News Canada
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