The American man flew from Costa Rica to Miami to get his luggage.
Robert Gentel told Insider that the trouble began on June 15. He was going to go back to his home in Santa Ana, Costa Rica, to celebrate his birthday. He booked a first class seat on American Airlines.
The bags were checked for the flight. Gentel told Insider the bags had thousands of dollars of drone gear in them, as he had participated in the Multi GP International Open drone race in Indiana from June 8 to June 12.
He said that his flight to Miami was canceled because of a maintenance issue. He was re booked on United Airlines flights to Houston and Costa Rica.
He told Insider that he checked with the American desk at the airport and was told his bags were on their way.
Later, Gentel found out they were not. He saw that they were going to Miami when he put Apple AirTags in the bags.
Gentel was in Costa Rica for his birthday on June 16 and spent the day texting American and United about his bags as he was bounced from department to department. Insider looked at some of the conversations he had with the airlines.
After a few days, one of Gentel's bags was sent to Costa Rica, but the other was stuck in Miami.
He told Insider that he was more and more worried that the luggage would not make it to him.
He flew from Costa Rica to Miami on June 20 to get the bag.
He said he gave the baggage tag to the person at the storage room after he arrived.
He said he carried everything he cared for on the plane back to his house.
He used credit card points to book most of the flights. Insider verified his flight information for all three flights. He contacted Insider after reading about a passenger in Ireland who bought a plane ticket to look for his lost bag.
Gentel's experience comes amid a chaotic summer travel season with flight delays, lost baggage, and disruptions as demand has returned to pre-pandemic levels. Chaos began over Memorial Day weekend in Europe. The ongoing Pandemic and bad weather are some of the issues that airlines are facing.
Gentel said he was relieved to get his gear back, even though the process to get his bag back was time consuming and tedious. Replacing my key drones racing gear like my goggles and controller would be a lot of hassle.
American Airlines didn't reply to the request for comment.
"We are dedicated to delivering bags to customers' final destinations on time, and when we miss the mark we work hard to connect customers with their bags as quickly as possible," said a United Airlines representative.
Gentel is going to have to think about what to do next when he travels with more gear.
He said that he was thinking about booking a friend on a ticket so that he wouldn't have to check in.
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