Man says he watched his wallet fly to 35 cities after airline lost it

The disgruntled passenger shared a video on social media

Helen Wilson-Beevers
Thursday 09 February 2023 17:21 GMT
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Passenger alleges American Airlines can’t find his wallet
Passenger alleges American Airlines can’t find his wallet (Twitter/@BADASSVEGAN)

A man says he watched his wallet fly to more than 35 cities after an airline allegedly lost it.

Passenger John Lewis shared a post on social media, showing an image of his AirTag tracking the misplaced wallet.

He said in the post: “So I left my wallet on my American Airlines flight on Tuesday and they say they can’t find it, but I have my Apple AirTag in my wallet and I have been able to watch my wallet travel to 35 countries and counting.”

In the tweet, shared on 29 January, Mr Lewis also embedded a video of him talking about the situation unfolding.

Mr Lewis claims that he landed in Fort Lauderdale and quickly realised he didn’t have his wallet when he went to rent a car.

“The crazy part is that I have called and contacted American Airlines and they say they can’t find my wallet,” he says in the video.

Mr Lewis continues: “The crazier part is that I do have the AirTag on my wallet so I’m able to trace my wallet and it’s still on the plane and it has gone to over 35 cities since Tuesday, and they say they thoroughly cleaned the plane.

“But how can they thoroughly clean the plane if the wallet is still on the plane?”

After adding that he is a platinum member, Mr Lewis asked the airline to “step up.”

The tweet is captioned with the words: “@AmericanAir come on now… help your boy out. I only fly with you and you treat me like you don’t even know me.”

Acknowledging that it wasn’t the airline’s fault he lost it in the first place, Mr Lewis posted: “Like I said, I know it’s not your fault that I left the wallet (even though that flight was delayed over an hour so I was in a rush to sprint through the airport).”

Followers were quick to comment underneath, with one user asking: “So, is there a chance that someone found your wallet, stole it and simply left the AirTag behind which is why they can’t find it?”

Another popped a pun in their comment and said: “Crazy to find this tweet. Did you get re-#unitedAIRLINES with your wallet?”

In a response to the tweet, @AmericanAir replied: “Oh no, we’re sorry you left your wallet behind. Join us in DMs with your record locator, description and Lost and Found claim number.”

In a subsequent post by Mr Lewis a day later, he says he “got a lot of help from a lot of employees that work with American Airlines” after news of his lost wallet broke.

“I didn’t really get much help from corporate even though they did a real good job of reaching out publicly,” he added.

Thanking those who did help, Mr Lewis said: “Unfortunately all that was found was the AirTag and not the wallet”, before alleging that “somebody from the cleaning crew took the wallet and left the AirTag,” after he called and reported it missing.

Highlighting that he was told the AirTag was found buried under the seat, Mr Lewis says his wallet wouldn’t have fit into that space on its own.

He finished the post by saying he needs to cancel his cards and added: “Shout out to everybody who sent help”.

The Independent has contacted American Airlines for comment.

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