Woman Boards Flight In Philadelphia. Then She Looks Out The Window, And Realizes She’s In For A Headache

 

Every day, more than 3 million passengers fly into and out of the United States. Inevitably, some of them will lose their bags.

According to a 2023 piece in NPR, U.S. airlines lost about 2 million pieces of luggage every year. If the bags are eventually found, their owners can reclaim them. Otherwise, they are sold at a discount to interested buyers, contents and all.

Most of the time, you won’t know that your bag is lost until you get to your destination. Occasionally, however, you’ll see your bag getting lost or delayed in real time. At least, that’s what TikTok user Anna Lappe (@annalappe0) says happened to her.

What Happened To This Woman’s Luggage?

In a video with over 1.2 million views, Lappe shows the view outside of her plane window. Her pinned location indicates she’s at Philadelphia International Airport.

Near the gate stands a man. He is wheeling two suitcases while looking at a handheld device. After a few seconds, he does a cut-throat motion and walks away from the bags, apparently unable to load them onto the plane.

“POV: you watch your luggage miss the flight in real time,” Lappe writes in the video’s overlay text.

In the caption, she adds, “Looks like our suitcases weren’t ready to come home and extended their vacay without us.”

What Should You Do In This Situation?

If you ever find yourself in this unfortunate situation, there are a few steps you can take.

The first happens as soon as you check your bag. A gate agent will give you your luggage tag. Still, it’s best to also take a picture of the tag and the bag before setting off. This way, if there is an incident, you can provide exact evidence of what your bag looks like and how it was tagged prior to departure.

But, if you’re already on the plane and, like Lappe, you can see that a vacation-ruining disaster is brewing, there’s still time to act.

To start, you can tell a flight attendant what you saw. If necessary, you can also provide your seat number and baggage tag number. They may not be able to recheck the bag for the current flight. However, they can make the gate or ramp team aware of the issue so that it can be resolved expeditiously.

Next, when you arrive at your destination, you can go straight to your airline’s baggage desk and report the issue, providing them with all relevant information.

What If My Bag Never Comes?

Thankfully, having a bag fully disappear is pretty rare. That said, it definitely does happen. Airlines and regulators know how bad this can be, and so, they’ve adopted some protections for passengers experiencing baggage issues.

First, airlines in the United States are “required to compensate passengers for reasonable, verifiable, and actual incidental expenses that they may incur while their bags are delayed” on domestic flights, per the Department of Transportation.

Naturally, you can’t just claim your bag was filled with Versace and run up a major bill on the airline’s dime. Still, you can make reasonable claims to an airline to replace lost items. For example, if you planned a day at the beach but didn’t have your bag containing your beach gear, you can buy an outfit, swimsuit, and towel, then submit the receipts to the airline for compensation.

If your bag has been “delayed” for between five and fourteen days (depending on the airline), they will likely declare the bag “lost.” If this happens, the DOT says that an airline is required to compensate you for the bag and its contents up to a limit of $4,700 for domestic flights. The airline is also required to refund you your baggage fees.

Similarly, you can’t claim that your bag was filled with gold and get the maximum amount refunded. If you claim to have expensive items in your luggage, an airline may ask for evidence. This could include receipts.

Travelers Are Concerned

In the comments section, many users said that, if they were in this situation, they would try to complain to airline staff. However, this may not be as effective as they would hope.

“Y’all saying speak to cabin crew… cabin crew don’t decide these things, closed hold means flight released, flight released means tower knows you’re ready to leave,” explained a commenter. “You cant just go ‘uhm can we cancel all this stuff so they can put my bag in the hold?’ you would be delaying all other flights landing AND taking off. Just accept defeat and maybe make a claim with the airport/ airline.”

That said, many said that Lappe shouldn’t worry.

“This happens sometimes and im pretty sure they just load it on a different plane going to the same place. itll be there when youre there, probably,” noted a user.

Others said that Lappe could actually benefit from the situation.

“BRUH the airline is buying me a new wardrobe,” stated a user.

BroBible reached out to PHL via email and to Lappe via Instagram direct message and TikTok comment.