An American Airlines passenger was forced to check her carry-on luggage at the gate — only to have it destroyed after it was seemingly run over by a truck.
The frustrated traveler went to pick up her suitcase from the baggage claim where she was informed that it had been “banged up,” she shared on Reddit.
“However… it was actually mangled,” the passenger wrote. “Every non-clothing item was completely destroyed and all my clothes were filthy.”
The inside of the luggage, including clothes, shoes, and other items were covered in powder makeup that had been crushed and crumbled into dust, photos the traveler shared show.
“I didn’t know what to do, so I just started crying (silly, I know, but I was now in a strange city with literally nothing but my phone and a bunch of dirty clothes),” she shared.
The woman’s Invisalign retainer was also ruined in the crush and she said she was worried the airline wouldn’t cover the additional cost for the dentist visit needed to replace it.
She said a nice staffer at baggage claim helped her file a claim for the damaged goods and she was given a new carry-on — “but like … what the heck was I supposed to put in it??” she added.
Other Redditors recommended making a detailed bullet-point list of every item that was wrecked and its cost.
One commenter, a maintenance engineer, said the airline passenger’s bag was likely run over by a work truck on the tarmac.
The engineer admitted they once drove over a piece of luggage themself.
“One night, raining heavily — with that stupid asphalt/concrete mix that seems to turn into a black hole yet make every light super glaring into my eyes — just driving as usual with a colleague to one of our overnight aircraft in our work truck,” they wrote. “I swear there’s a weird noise coming out of the front end.”
They said their colleague shrugged it off, believing it was just the “piece of s–t work truck.”
The Redditor said they stopped the truck after another hundred feet.
“Sure enough — standard black generic bag like every other piece of luggage is wedged basically under the front of the truck,” they wrote. “It looked much like OP’s pictures above, but bit more of the top worn away.”
The maintenance engineer offered a warning for many travelers who have generic black luggage.
“These black bags [are] impossible to see on these rainy nights,” they said. “Just an accident. Falls off a cart. Gets collected in another vehicle.”
Just two days earlier, a Delta passenger shared a pic of their checked bag — which had been massively shredded and torn apart — on Reddit.
