A US flyer tracked his lost luggage back to London and was told by American to go pick it up from the airport — even though he was 4,000 miles away in North Carolina

On the day after he got home from Europe, Jamie O'Grady got a text from a stranger saying he had found his missing luggage at the airport.

He told American Airlines about the text, but they asked him to collect the bag himself even though he was thousands of miles away.

O'Grady arrived in Raleigh, North Carolina the next day after spending a day at the airport in London. The first leg of the flight appears to have been operated as a codeshare with Finnair.

The golfer dropped off two bags at the airport, one with general luggage and the other with his clubs.

He waited an hour at the luggage carousel for his bags, but they never showed up. The staff at the American Airlines desk didn't know where to look for his bags.

He was floored by the amount of unclaimed baggage at the airport and feared he would be the same person.

I was horrified by the amount of luggage in that area. I was not sure if my bags would be transferred behind the scenes for the flight.

They did not make it here when I returned.

None of O'Grady's colleagues lost their bags on the flight. Both of his were lost.

He got a text from a stranger saying that he had stumbled across his golf bag at the airport. The passenger reached out after he noticed that O'Grady had the same area code.

The bag should not have been on the carousels. It should have stayed behind the scenes and been moved.

He told the company that his bag was still at the airport.

"We suggest that you head down to the airport to have this sorted out asap," the airline said in a reply that O'Grady shared on the social networking site. There is a 4,000 mile distance from Raleigh to Heathrow.

—Jamie O’Grady (@JamieOGrady) July 13, 2022

According to a report by the US Department of Transport, one in every 140 bags on flights operated by American Airlines were mishandled in April.

The proportion of bags mishandled by Southwest, Delta, and United is much higher than the proportion of bags mishandled by American Airlines.

Two days after he arrived in Raleigh, American Airlines flew one bag into the city. He told Insider that he didn't trust the airline to deliver his bag to his address.

He said that he didn't get his golf bag back until late on July 15th. He said the experience was frustrating.

A combination of understaffing and soaring demand for travel has caused airlines and airports to delay and cancel thousands of flights.

He said it took him two and a half hours to get through security after leaving the airport.

He's traveled all around the world. I have never seen anything like this before.