Choosing to check a bag or two when flying can often be risky business for travelers reliant on having the contents of their bag arrive with them.
Even the Transportation Security Administration recommends that passengers who have items like medications that they may need during their travels with immediacy keep them in their carry-on to avoid being stuck with those items lost in another airport or otherwise unavailable in a checked bag.
However, with limits on bag sizes from a variety of airlines, some passengers are left with little choice as to how they must transport larger, important items.
A disappointed passenger
One Air Canada passenger says part of her wedding ensemble was left behind at the airport by the airline, even on a very short direct flight. In a pair of videos documenting the situation, content creator Kelly Klaing (@kellyklaing on TikTok) says she believed checking her bags for this flight would be less risky, as her itinerary did not have any layovers and was fairly short.
However, only three of her four checked bags made it to their destination. The bag containing her wedding veil, shoes, dress train, and hair styling products she had planned to use for her wedding did not.
Luckily, her dress itself was in her carry-on, so not all was lost.
“The plane was not full,” she says in the video. “This was actually the largest plane I’ve taken from St. John to Toronto in the last eight months, and there was more than enough room for luggage.”
@kellyklaing Air Canada, you legit have one job. How did three of my four bags make it on the plane but the most important bag didn’t…💍🫣 #aircanada #torontopearsonairport #weddingweightloss #weddingtiktok #weddingtok #weddingweightlossgoals #bridetok #bridetobe #2024bride #2025bride #weddingfitness #weddingweek #bridetobe #foryoupage #foryou #fyp #torontobride #fypシ゚ #75hardchallenge #75hardprogress #bodytransformation #greenscreenvideo ♬ original sound – KELLY FROM TIKTOK
Not all hope is lost
In a follow-up video to the first in which she explains how her bag is missing, she says she actually ended up using an AirTag she had packed in the bag to track it from airport to airport. While her original flight did not include any layovers, her bag spent the night in Montreal before flying out to meet her at the baggage carousel in Toronto.
“I tracked the flight and I could see my little AirTag moving,” she says in the video. “I drove to Pearson Airport and I parked. The second that plane landed, I got out of my car, I walked across the tunnel into Pearson, walked right into the luggage area—no one stopped me, so I don’t know if that’s a thing—saw that my AirTag was landed and in Pearson, waited for my bag to go on the little roundabout, picked up my bag and left the airport.”
@kellyklaing Replying to @Thwink Air Canada, lost my wedding dress UPDATE…💍🫣 Air Canada, you legit have one job. How did three of my four bags make it on the plane but the most important bag didn’t…💍🫣 #aircanada #torontopearsonairport #weddingweightloss #weddingtok #weddingday #weddingseason #bridetok #bridetobe #2024bride #2025bride #weddingwear #weddingweek #weddingweekend #fyp #fypage #fypp ♬ original sound – KELLY FROM TIKTOK
The Daily Dot has reached out to Klaing via comment on the video and email, as well as to Air Canada via email regarding the video.
Per Air Canada’s baggage policy, missing or delayed baggage can be arranged for pickup or shipped to the traveler via FedEx or a similar ground carrier in the area. Klaing said she went so far as to retrieve the bag herself because she was unsure of how much she trusted the airline to successfully deliver her bag undamaged.
Some viewers commented on Klaing’s video, agreeing with her that losing a checked bag on a direct flight was highly unusual, and shared that they and their loved ones had experienced the same thing.
“Losing a checked bag on a DIRECT flight is crazy!” one commenter wrote. “How did they even manage to do that?!”
“My sister got on a direct flight between Halifax to Gander, NL with a broken foot a few years ago,” another said. “Air Canada ‘lost’ her wheelchair. Sending you ALL the good thoughts to get it ASAP!”
“I had a 2 hour direct flight with West Jet and they just didn’t put half the plane’s luggage on the plane,” one said. “Next flight they would bring the luggage was 5 days later.”
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