I lost my AirTag on an Alaska Airlines flight — it’s traveled to 37 cities

Alaska Airlines
Alaska Airlines
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Catch it if you can.

Éric Béteille, a content designer at Meta who lives in San Diego, California said he lost his AirTag on an Alaska Airlines flight in July and since then he’s watched the tracking device travel to 37 different cities.

Béteille said he realized his AirTag was traveling without him by accident.

“It took me a couple of weeks to even realize it was missing because I never lost my actual luggage. I was just checking the Find My app a few weeks after my flight and was surprised to see that AirTag still hundreds of miles away from me,” he told The Post.

Béteille wrote about his AirTags’ many travels in a Facebook post.

AirTag batteries can last for about a year. Christopher Sadowski
AirTag batteries can last for about a year. Christopher Sadowski

“Last July, an AirTag tracker fell out of my luggage tag in the cargo space on an Alaska Airlines flight from San Francisco to San Diego,” he said in a Facebook post in a group called Dull Men’s Club.

“I’ve been tracking it around the western US and Canada ever since,” he added.

Béteille said he made a map of all the routes his AirTag takes and found that the tiny jet-setting device makes an average of 5 trips per day on a plane called the Ebraer E175LR.

“The Find My app didn’t give me the flight history. It only tells me where the AirTag is at any given moment. I figured out the aircraft number and then got detailed tracking from the Flightradar24 app,” he told The Post.

Using Flightradar24, he could track all the places his AirTag has flown including Austin, Texas and Vancouver, Canada.

Béteille said that he’s been to 34 of the 37 cities the AirTag traveled to, although unlike the AirTag he’s ventured outside of North America.

“I’ve been all over the US, parts of Europe and Asia. Keep trying, little AirTag!” he said.

He said he never contacted the airline to get the AirTag back. “Who wants to spoil the fun?” he said.

So far the AirTag has been to 37 countries. Christopher Sadowski
So far the AirTag has been to 37 countries. Christopher Sadowski

Commenters on his Facebook post lauded him for tracking the device and asked him several questions.

“Did you message Alaska Airlines on X or Facebook and ask for it back,” one person asked.

“I’d rather see it continue on this journey!,” Béteille replied.

“Surly the battery would have run out? How has it lasted so long,” another pondered.

According to Apple’s website, the battery can last about a year.

“Great idea! Thinking about drop one of my AirTag to somewhere. Maybe on a big container ship or on RR cart,” said a third.