AirTag on American Airlines plane followed a lost wallet to 35 cities

An American Airlines passenger who left his wallet on a plane claims his Apple AirTag appeared to have found the misplaced property when the airline said it couldn’t.

Ferguson, Missouri based customer John Lewis tweeted via the episode to regain possession of his wallet, which he had left behind while trying to make a connecting flight after the first leg of his trip was delayed.

He said he called American Airlines as soon as he realized he had left them in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Jan. 24.

“The crazy part is I called and contacted American Airlines and they say they can’t find my wallet. The crazier part is I have the AirTag on my wallet so I can track my wallet and it’s still on the plane and has flown to over 35 cities as of Tuesday.”

American’s response to Lewis was that a crew “cleaned the plane thoroughly” and that no wallets were found, according to the passenger.

“And they say they deep cleaned the plane, but how do you deep clean the plane when the wallet is still on the plane and you haven’t gotten it yet?” Lewis said in a video posted to Twitter.

He took responsibility for the loss of his wallet but claimed he deserved better customer service as a “platinum member”.

He even wondered if he would earn bonus miles on his wallet’s journey.

“The even crazier part is watching my wallet get all those miles. Will they credit this to my account? Can I keep all the miles my wallet has accumulated over the past few days?

He estimated he’d put his wallet — or at least the AirTag he put in his wallet — over 100,000 miles.

On January 30, he updated his followers on the status of his wallet after the airline reported finding the AirTag that had been removed from the wallet.

“Unfortunately, only the AirTag was found, not the wallet,” he said. “It means the cleaning team says they cleaned up so well that someone from the cleaning team took the wallet and just left the AirTag.”

At least two articles were written about my situation lol…
Yes, I take responsibility for forgetting my wallet. Besides that, the reason I was in a hurry was that our flight was delayed an hour so I had to rush to my next flight. @americanair here is the problem… pic.twitter.com/QaCS9gOKao

— Bad Ass Vegan (@BADASSVEGAN) January 30, 2023

He said he was told the AirTag was found hidden under a seat. It’s possible that the wallet actually didn’t travel as far as he estimated, and that only the AirTag accumulated kilometers in the air.

American Airlines did not immediately respond to CBS MoneyWatch’s request for comment on the situation.

Passengers, suspicious of airlines’ abilities to track their checked bags and belongings, have taken matters into their own hands by placing AirTags in their luggage. Apple’s small devices have proven their worth for reuniting passengers with misplaced items.

They have also been used for more nefarious purposes, such as tracking ex-partners, prompting Apple to update its security features.

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