An American Airlines passenger arrived at her destination and received a shredded bag with half of her belongings missing, she said. (Kristen Horabin Facebook)
An American Airlines passenger was in for quite a shock when she arrived at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport on Sunday after a weekend getaway in Florida.
Kristen Horabin and her husband had checked their bags for the return flight to Texas after a weekend trip to Tampa.
Once they arrived at DFW, Horabin’s husband’s suitcase came out of the baggage carousel, Horabin told WFAA, but not hers.
“We waited and waited and waited and my bag never showed up,” Horabin said to WFAA. “And then the woman behind the counter said, ‘Oh, maybe that’s your bag over there.’ I look over, and it’s my belongings heaped in a bin and half of them are destroyed and most of them are missing.”
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Horabin said her bag was sitting in a plastic bin at a different carousel and had been torn to shreds.
“The suitcase was shredded,” Kristen told the news outlet. “Most of the clothes that were left were shredded, and what was left was covered in black grease and toothpaste. There was a lot of toothpaste – it must have exploded on whatever impact there was.”
“I’d say about 50 percent of my belongings were gone,” she added.
According to WFAA, in the bin with the bag was a broken blow dryer, some torn and stained clothes and two mismatched shoes.
“It’s just stuff. Stuff can be replaced. It was really just more shocking the way it was handled,” she said to WFAA.
In the bin with the bag with her damaged bag was a broken blow dryer, some torn and stained clothes and two mismatched shoes. (Kristen Horabin Facebook)
Horabin said she received her ruined bag without an explanation from American Airlines.
“I guess what I find so appalling is that, after it happened, someone gathered up what was left of my bag and my belongings and put them in the bin and sent it on its way,” she said. “The bag just popped up on the carousel with my destroyed belongings, or half of my destroyed belongings, heaped on top.”
An American Airlines spokesperson confirmed to Fox News that Horabin was instructed to immediately file a claim about the incident, which she did.
Within 24 hours of her report, American Airlines reached out to Horabin and apologized and told her they were sending her a $3,500 check for the damages and a $300 travel voucher, WFAA reported.
“We apologize for the damage that occurred to Ms. Horabin’s bag; we know how difficult it is to arrive at your final destination and a find a bag extremely damaged. Our team has received the claim, and reviewing what may have transpired during its transit. We are also in touch with Mr. Horabin directly and have resolved her claim. In 2017, American transported more than 160 million checked bags. While it extremely rare to receive a report of a broken and/or damaged bag such as this one, our team will always work with our customers directly to resolves these claims," American Airlines said in a statement to Fox News.
According to the airline spokesperson, the incident is currently being investigated. It appears the bag may have accidentally been caught on a piece of machinery during travel.
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Horabin told WFAA that she hopes the airline will consider being more communicative with passengers when events like this happen – instead of just sending a damaged bag through the carousel.
“Send someone up to say, you know, something happened to your personal effects and we’re sorry,” she said. “And I really honestly would have walked away and counted it as an unfortunate accident. I hope in the future that happens for other passengers.”
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