A woman is asking questions after JetBlue lost her bag—only to return it with $4,000 worth of items missing.
In a video with over 113,000 views, TikTok user Kendrae (@kenelimo) says she recently took a flight from Charlotte, North Carolina to Fort Lauderdale, Florida for a three-day trip.
However, once she landed, her luggage was nowhere to be seen—and there were at least 10 other people reporting the same issue.
Concerned, she reported the missing bag to baggage services, who informed her that her bag would be delivered “when it’s ready.”
“They had attitudes for some reason,” the TikToker recalls. “They seemed very dismissive about it.”
Expensive Items Are Missing
As her bag contained most of her clothing, Kendrae decided to buy some new outfits while waiting for it to be delivered. Finally, two days after she reported her bag missing, she received a call at 7:53pm telling her her bag was ready. Sick of waiting for the bag to be delivered, Kendrae opted to simply drive to the airport and pick it up herself.
When she arrived, she picked up her bag and signed paperwork confirming she collected it. But when she brought the bag back to where she was staying, she noticed something was amiss.
“My Louis Vuitton shades, they’re stolen. One of my red bottom heels, they’re stolen. I had two pairs of Gucci slides; they’re stolen. I had a bag in there—that’s stolen. Another designer purse—that’s stolen. FashionNova dresses—that’s stolen. I had a makeup bag—that’s stolen,” she summarizes. “So, half of my stuff is stolen.”
Kendrae then went back to the airport to try to resolve the situation. When she arrived, she was told she had to make a claim online—but when she tried to do that, she was told she was out of the timeframe to report it, even though she had only just received her bag.
Kendrae then tried to call, only to be told the wait was hours long. Instead, she asked the staff at the airport to process her request—who responded with a firm “No.”
While there were some attempts to file a claim with a supervisor, these, too, proved fruitless.
Things Get Worse
While this is happening, Kendrae says she was repeatedly assured no one from JetBlue tampered with her luggage—an idea she questioned.
“I said, ‘How can you assure me that?’” she recalls. “I said, ‘You can speak for everyone else? You just know all of your co-workers, they’re doing the right thing at work?’”
Furthermore, Kendrae says JetBlue had possession of her bag for several days, and only informed her that her bag landed at the airport after it was already too late to pick it up.
Regardless, she could not get a solid answer about who was responsible for her missing items. To resolve this, she filed a police report. She also spoke with a supervisor at JetBlue, who informed her that she may not be compensated for the missing items because she left the airport with the bag.
“I said, ‘But who thinks to check their luggage at the airport when they get it from the airlines?’” she states. “‘I didn’t think that you would have to check your luggage because I didn’t know y’all had thieves.’”
Kendrae further questioned why she wouldn’t be compensated if an investigation found video evidence of the theft. In response, the supervisor allegedly told her that such investigations “can take a while.”
In conclusion, Kendrae advises viewers to use locks on their bags—or just bring everything in a carry-on.
How Often Does This Happen?
Someone in Kendrae’s position should file a bag claim with the airline as soon as possible. If needed and relevant, they can also file a claim with the TSA and Department of Transportation. She may also be protected under a travel insurance policy, which may be included with a credit card used to book the flight.
Regardless of how the situation is resolved, one question remains open: Who stole the items?
It’s difficult to quantify how common item theft is in air travel. The DOT combines four different categories—lost, damaged, delayed, and pilfered luggage—into a single statistic called “mishandled baggage.”
Rates of this are pretty low. From all reporting U.S. carriers, about 1 in every 240 checked bags is mishandled. That rate for JetBlue is actually lower; only 1 in about 384 checked bags is mishandled.
Who Stole The Items?
Unfortunately, in situations like these, it can take a long time to determine who stole items from one’s bag. A person’s luggage is handled by many different people before it reaches a destination—and if one of these actors has bad intentions, they could theoretically remove items from one’s bag.
It’s not a question of whether it was a JetBlue worker or a TSA worker who stole the items. There are plenty of people involved in the baggage handling process who could have lifted the items.
For example, they could have been taken by a check-in worker, a TSA officer, a JetBlue baggage handler, a ground-handling contractor, an employee in the delayed-baggage area, another passenger who picked up the bag, a person at another airport (if the bag was accidentally misrouted), or even just another airline employee. These are just some of the many, many people who would have a chance to snag items from her bag.
Viewers Are Angry On Her Behalf
In the comments section, many users were upset about Kendrae’s experience.
Some had theories.
“If tsa open your bags they usually leave a card in there to let you know it was opened. This was definitely the airline,” a user declared.
“It the the airport baggage handling employees. They stole my stuff in cancun,” another stated.
Others simply shared their own experiences.
“This happened to me before and I got every dime back by filing a claim,” a commenter said.
“I had the same experience with Jet Blue. They stole my Gucci bag as well. I was told the same thing, that I was out of my window to file a claim. Sir, no one checks their bag at the airport,” offered a second. “Their resolve was to comp me a future flight. I declined. I’ll NEVER fly Jet Blue again! Why would I give you another opportunity to steal from me?”
@kenelimo Has this happened to anyone else?! 🚨 I flew with @JetBlue airlines for the first time and my experience was a complete nightmare. My bag and a few others bags was “left off” a flight from Charlotte, North Carolina to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Days later, I finally got the call to pick it up, only to find almost 4k worth of my belongings were missing. LV shades, 2 designer bags, 2 pairs of designer shoes, my Christian louboutin heels, my phone charger, Fashion Nova clothes, and even my makeup bag…gone. If you don’t already, please invest in a suitcase with a combination lock or use a carry on bag, if you have anything you care about in your luggage! #jetblue #airport #airlines #tsa #travel
BroBible reached out to JetBlue via email and Kendrae via TikTok and Instagram direct message.