AirTag followed lost wallet to 35 cities on American Airlines

An American Airlines passenger who left his wallet on a plane claims his Apple AirTag appeared to have located the misplaced belonging when the airline said it could not.

Ferguson, Missouri-based customer John Lewis tweeted about the episode in an effort to regain possession of his wallet, which he said he left behind because he was scrambling to make a connecting flight after the first leg of his trip was delayed. 

He said he called American Airlines as soon as he realized he'd left it behind in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Jan. 24. 

"The crazy part is is that I've called and contacted American Airlines and they say they can't find my wallet. The crazier part is that I do have the AirTag on my wallet, so I'm able to trace my wallet and it's still on the plane and it has gone to over 35 cities since Tuesday."

American's response to Lewis was that a crew had "thoroughly cleaned the plane," and that no wallets were found, according to the passenger. 

"And they say they thoroughly cleaned the plane but how can you thoroughly clean the plane if the wallet is still on the plane and you haven't gotten it yet?" Lewis said in a video posted on Twitter. 

He took responsibility for losing his wallet, but claimed he deserved better customer service as a "platinum member." 

He even wondered if he'd earn bonus miles on his wallet's journey.

"The even crazier part is I'm watching my wallet get all of these miles, are they going to apply this to my account? Do I get to keep all the miles that my wallet has been accumulating over these last days?

He estimated he watched his wallet — or least the AirTag he had tucked in the wallet — travel over 100,000 miles.

On Jan. 30, he updated his followers on his wallet's status after the airline reported that it had located the AirTag, which had been removed from the wallet. 

"Unfortunately, all that was found was the AirTag, not the wallet," he said. "That means the cleaning crew says they cleaned up so well, somebody from the cleaning crew took the wallet and just left the AirTag."

He said he was told that the AirTag was found stuffed under a seat. It's possible that the wallet did not actually travel as far as he had estimated and that only the AirTag racked up mileage in the sky. 

American Airlines did not immediately respond to CBS MoneyWatch's request for comment on the situation.

Passengers leery of airlines' abilities to keep tabs on their checked bags and possessions have taken matters into their own hands by stuffing AirTags in their luggage. The small devices from Apple have proven effective at reuniting passengers with misplaced belongings. 

They've also been used for more nefarious purposes, to stalk ex-partners, for example, which has prompted Apple to upgrade their security features.