I’ve written a few stories before about lost luggage. While it often ends up with the passenger and their missing item reunited (after awhile), sometimes the stories end up with luggage gone awry. More and more, we are seeing passengers use Apple Air Tags (on sale at Amazon) or similar devices to track where their luggage is. Hopefully that helps reunite people with their luggage so it doesn’t go to the abandoned luggage store.
British Airways Loses $8,000 Bicycle
As reported by CNN, 68 year old bicycling enthusiast Barry Sherry was setting off on what he thought might be his final bicycle trip to Europe. As he told CNN, “I’m 68 – I’m getting old. I keep doing these epic bike trips [abroad] and with each one I think it’s probably the last I’m going to do. Those beautiful climbs in Switzerland that I love so much, those may be in my past and not my future anymore – but I wanted one more trip to Switzerland.”
He booked a ticket with American Airlines from Washington to London to Zurich. The London to Zurich section was on codeshare and oneworld alliance partner British Airways (it wasn’t clear to me from the article if the Washington to London leg was also BA or if it was American). When he got to Zurich, his $8,000 bicycle was nowhere to be found. At first, he wasn’t too concerned – Barry has taken many of these trips and sometimes his bike ends up in the oversized luggage department or elsewhere.
Using An AirTag
But after not finding his bike at the Zurich airport, he started using the “Find My” app to locate his Air Tag. Sure enough, his bike had never made it to Zurich. Unfortunately, even with multiple flights per day between London and Zurich, British Airways failed to deliver his bike. Barry ended up not being able to take the first part of his journey in Switzerland, as it took four days (and constant tweets) before he got his bike. By that point, he had moved on to Luxembourg which was the next part of his journey.
Credit Cards With Lost Luggage Insurance
While they may not have saved this particular case, there are a few credit cards that offer a cash benefit if your baggage is lost or delayed. Three such cards are below, with their current signup bonus offers:
- card_name – bonus_miles_full annual_fees
- card_name – bonus_miles_full. annual_fees
- card_name – bonus_miles_full. annual_fees
Unfortunately in this case, credit card delayed baggage insurance usually only covers $100 or so per day if your luggage is lost, and would likely not cover missing out on being able to take the bicycle trip due to lack of bicycle. It’s always a good idea to read the fine print on these credit card insurance policies as it can make a big difference.
(SEE ALSO: Successfully Getting A Capital One Venture X Trip Delay Insurance Claim (Here’s How To Do It))
The Bottom Line
68 year old Barry Sherry had his bicycle lost for several days by British Airways in London, ruining the first part of what was supposed to be an epic bicycling trip through the Swiss Alps. He eventually was able to locate his bag (still in London) through use of an Apple Air Tag. Whether the Air Tag actually helped him in getting British Airways to do something is unclear, but he was eventually reunited with his $8,600 bicycle after several days.
Do you have any lost or delayed luggage stories? Leave them in the comments below
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Only BA flies from DC to London. American has no international service to the area except Canada & Bahamas.
Thanks for the clarification!
It would have been a great ending to this story to read that BA made some magnanimous gesture here. These things do happen and getting stressed out only hinders the situation but although the lost days cannot really be compensated for a generous gesture would be the right thing to do and would be worth its PR weight in gold. After all how much would a complimentary space available ticket have actually cost?