Ontario couple tracking lost baggage shocked that Air Canada gave it to charity

Authored by blogto.com and submitted by nthensome

After months of tracking their lost luggage with an AirTag and trying to retrieve their belongings, one couple was stunned to learn that Air Canada had allegedly donated their suitcase to a charity.

Nakita Rees, a dancer, choreographer, and athletic therapist from Ontario, took to TikTok to describe their ordeal after returning from their honeymoon in Greece.

After landing in Montreal, Rees said they had to recheck their bags for their flight to Toronto. After arriving at Toronto Pearson Airport, she said, “My bag made it back; my husband’s did not.”

They filled out a lost bag report and checked their AirTag tracker, which showed that the bag was still in Montreal, where it sat for four weeks.

“We were a little frustrated but weren’t upset,” she said.

As they saw their bag being transported from Montreal to Etobicoke, they said they were “pumped,” assuming their bag was headed for a storage facility.

However, the AirTag showed that the bag was in a residential community.

If anyone is missing luggage from an @AirCanada you MUST watch this!!!! Your bags may have been donated to a charity & may be being held in #Montreal or #Toronto #baggageclaim #lostluggage

Check out nakitarees's video! #TikTok https://t.co/66uqLdbWwL — Lyndsay Jenkinson (@Lyndsay_J) January 21, 2023

“My husband said when he looked at the AirTag tracker it showed up at two different locations, two different houses that were about a street or two apart,” said Rees, adding that he went to these houses to find out what was going on.

When they checked the AirTag again, their bag was apparently in a storage facility. But once there, Rees said that “it sat there for a month, two months, three months. No movement, nothing from Air Canada.”

After several phone calls with Air Canada, the couple finally decided to head to the storage facility and try to find their bag.

“[My husband] started peering through some doors with his flashlight in the public storage facility until he found the one that was piled floor to ceiling high with luggage,” she said.

That’s when they got the police involved and were shocked to learn what they found.

“Our luggage was donated to a charity on behalf of Air Canada because they deemed it lost even though we were tracking our luggage last for the last four months,” Rees said. “It was never actually truly lost because we know where it was the entire time.”

Police told her they found over 500 pieces of luggage in the facility, with some bags containing iPhones, laptops, iPads, and more AirTags.

“They said they could hear AirTags beeping,” said Rees. “Cops are unimpressed [with] how Air Canada is handling this in that they are taking possession and ownership of our property and deciding what needs to be done with it and donating it.”

She said she hadn’t been able to find out the name of the charity yet.

Air Canada compensated them for a quarter of the value of the three weeks of clothes in her husband’s suitcase. The airline sent an e-transfer to her account.

“So I looked into the terms and conditions to see if me accepting compensation changed over ownership to Air Canada, and there’s nothing,” she said, adding that their bag has been “wrongfully donated.”

And for those who find themselves in the same situation, Rees urges them to keep pushing by speaking up and emailing airline executives.

“Because they will not do anything and they will not change until enough people start spreading the word,” she said. “We need this to be huge because this is wrong and this is criminal. And this is my property that was donated without my consent and without my knowing.”

ScryForHelp on January 23rd, 2023 at 20:16 UTC »

That "charity" seems extremely lucrative for shady sorts. Unwanted clothes and luggage containers get processed for donations while phones, jewelry, potentially personal information, etc all get siphoned off and sold under the table while the unwanted scraps are donated to secondary charities to deal with.

OminousG on January 23rd, 2023 at 17:53 UTC »

Not only their luggage. There was so much luggage, with so many air tags, that the police were overwhelmed and weren't able to simple pick up the original luggage that was being tracked. It was taking days for them to go through it all.

awildyetti on January 23rd, 2023 at 15:54 UTC »

I recently flew round trip Washington (IAD Dulles) to Montréal on AirCanada. Flight out fine. Flight back…they were looking for volunteers to change their flight to Washington DCA (Reagan) which is about 35 min with no traffic. The reasoning was they needed extra fuel so they needed less passenger/luggage weight.

We had our vehicle in parking at Dulles. We asked them if they can give credit or pay for Uber/Lyft from one to the other. He literally scoffed at us and said no, why would we? Then made an announcement saying they won’t give you anything for the change.

So yeah this sounds like AirCanada.