In a recent incident highlighting the challenges faced by air travellers, Alberta resident Julie Taillefer experienced the frustration of lost luggage upon arriving at Calgary International Airport.
Despite the inconvenience, Taillefer thought she had the upper hand as she put an Apple AirTag in her bag, allowing her to track its location. The AirTag said that her bag remained within the airport terminal, even as Air Canada struggled to provide answers.
Taillefer’s bag never arrived at the luggage carousel. She then filed a claim with Air Canada and contacted the airport’s lost and found department, but that didn’t do anything. The airline suggested that another passenger might have mistakenly taken her bag, a claim Taillefer disputes, noting the sparse crowd at the baggage carousel during her arrival after midnight.
“It’s fairly frustrating,” Taillefer told Global News. “I can see my bag sitting there, but I can’t get it.” After Global contacted Air Canada, the airline confirmed her bag was unloaded at the airport on May 4, 2025.
This week on Thursday afternoon, Air Canada reached out to Taillefer. They were still trying to find her bag, but to no avail. Yet, she knows the exact location thanks to the AirTag. “I can’t get a hold of anybody and give them details… I don’t know if they’re even trying.”
This incident underscores broader concerns about Air Canada’s customer service. According to the 2025 J.D. Power North America Airline Satisfaction Study, Air Canada ranks near the bottom in customer satisfaction across multiple classes.
The study evaluated airlines based on factors such as airline staff, digital tools, ease of travel, level of trust, onboard experience, pre/post-flight experience, and value for price paid. Air Canada’s low scores suggest ongoing issues in meeting passenger expectations.
With planes usually full nowadays, Air Canada always asks passengers to consider checking their carry-on bags. This is why you always should have AirTags with you while travelling if you’re forced to check your bag against your will.
Ironically, Air Canada was one of the first airlines to join forces with Apple back in December, to allow customers to share AirTag location data with employees—for the sole purpose of finding lost bags. The integration with Find My is supposed to let employees get access to your AirTag location and find the bag. Clearly that is not happening here and that is just unfortunate.
“Exciting news for all of us travelers! Starting this week, United, Delta, and Air Canada will accept Find My item locations to help track delayed bags, with more airlines coming soon. Such a game-changer!”, said Apple SVP Marketing, Greg Joswiak, back in December. Taillefer’s experience here with Air Canada and her AirTag just makes this Apple integration look terrible.
Want to see more of our stories on Google?
P.S. Want to keep this site truly independent? Support us by buying us a beer, treating us to a coffee, or shopping through Amazon here. Links in this post are affiliate links, so we earn a tiny commission at no charge to you. Thanks for supporting independent Canadian media!
I though airlines are already accepting air tag locations from customers to find their luggage?
Would not be surprised if the baggage service team members never saw the memo, or just too lazy to do anything about it..lol.
Another ignorant comment by suki. It's not the job of the "baggage team members" to find missing luggages.
No it's the baggage teams responsibility to put the bag in the right place the first time. Then ac should be finding it via the customers airtag. Ac is one of the worst.
I did not know that double emoji faces have been keeping track of all my comments on this site..lol. Gemini lied to me that “baggage team members” find missing luggage. I should have fact-checked Gemini on such an important topic to avoid offending any AC staff.
She’s definitely something of a stalker.
I thought it was a dude, just changed his nick from while ago. Who knew.
Isn't it their job to get it from the cargo hold on the plane into passenger baggage claim, do nobody has to air-tag it in the first place?
Too lazy if they can't even get it from the plane to the carousel for a flight that was half full. Ridiculous
Very few, some that do are international airlines—not Canadian even if they claim to have a partnership with Apple.
Ah yes, it's the PASSENGER'S responsibility to take our own checked bags to the cargo hold of the plane despite service staff sending it off down the chute when boarding, and then grabbing it from the cargo hold when deplaning lmfao. Silly us for not knowing we have to fetch our own checked bags from the cargo hold and place it on the baggage carousel ourselves! Lmfaooo be so fr. 😭🙏🏻💀🤡
Just another normal day with North American Airlines. It's like taking your car to the dealership and showing them the fault code on your OBD reader. They'll say they still need to use their own equipment and charge your $150-200 in the process just to verify the code.
Shocked ac won't do a thing 🙄
Interesting placement of article above the AC/WestJet worst airlines article.