Two Men Netted $550,000 By Claiming Airlines Lost Their Luggage

Two men in Florida were awarded $550,000 after claiming that the airline lost their luggage. The airline claims they did not lose the luggage and that it was a scam to get money from the airline. What are your thoughts on this case?

Two Men Netted $550,000 By Claiming Airlines Lost Their Luggage is a story about two men who filed a lawsuit against an airline for losing their luggage. They won the case and were awarded $550,000 in damages. Read more in detail here: airline breaking news.

Two men made $550,000 by claiming their luggage was lost by airlines.

on September 27, 2024 by Gary Leff

Baggage claim inspections were needed while exiting the airport with your bags when I was a child growing up in New York. I used to exclusively see this at airports in the New York region. I assisted in preventing individuals from picking up the incorrect bag, as well as someone from taking a bag that did not belong to them on purpose. I haven’t seen that procedure at a U.S. airport in a long time, and New York isn’t the same city it was when Ed Koch was mayor, so this isn’t really required.

Perhaps that would have deterred two men accused of stealing more than $550,000 from American airlines by filing fraudulent lost baggage claims since 2015.

Pernell Anthony Jones Jr., 31, of Kenner, and Donmonick Martin, 29, of Chalmette are accused of conspiring to file over 180 claims for nonexistent lost baggage with American, Alaska, United, JetBlue, and other airlines during a five-year period.

Jones traveled commercial planes using false identities and with forged identification from 2015 until last year, according to the authorities. He reportedly reported his baggage as lost when he arrived at his destinations and sought compensation from the airlines, who supposedly sent him refund cheques.

Prosecutors said Martin consented to enable his home address and PayPal account to be used for reimbursements, and that he fraudulently reported a missing luggage at Louis Armstrong International Airport on one occasion.

Naturally, they’d give a list of high-end assets packed in each suitcase to boost the claim to $3500 for a lost domestic bag. Last year, less than 45,000 checked baggage out of a total of 209 million were lost and never recovered.

American Airlines claims that

We appreciate the Department of Justice’s interest in this case.

It doesn’t seem like collecting your checked baggage and reporting the item missing would be problematic as a one-time event. Airlines are considerably better at tracking your baggage than they used to be. When I check my baggage, I check the American Airlines app to see when they’re scanned at each step of the process, even from one flight to the next and off the plane. Although an airline will be aware that a bag has been unloaded, it is possible that it did not make it onto the belt or that it was stolen by another passenger.

It would be suspicious if one individual regularly submitted missing luggage complaints. It would be even more suspect if the same individual submitted these reports every time the checked luggage arrived at the destination airport. So, although it seems that the same location was provided for delivery of the missing bags that would never show up, and the same payment instructions were given for lost baggage compensation, it appears that utilizing false IDs to travel under various identities is important here.

I’m amazed the crooks didn’t submit missing bag reports using a credit card that provides lost baggage insurance (they used gift cards as debit cards for their purchase instead). If they’re already committed fraud, I’m not sure it’s that much of a leap to establish fake identities, obtain credit cards, and conduct more than just a bust-out but also insurance fraud.

Large-scale credit card fraud, on the other hand, can be done almost entirely online — yet this scheme required traveling and reporting missing luggage in person at a baggage office. Airports are among the most heavily monitored areas in the nation. There are cameras all over the place. The length of time it took to be captured is the most shocking aspect of this tale.

(Image courtesy of Paddle Your Own Kanoo)

More From the Wing’s Perspective

The Two Men Netted $550,000 By Claiming Airlines Lost Their Luggage is a story about two men who were able to claim over $550,000 in compensation. Reference: airline route news.