Passenger says bottle of whisky he checked in for flight came back a third empty

A United Airlines passenger has claimed that a bottle of expensive whisky he packed in his checked luggage arrived opened and with a third gone.

Christopher Ambler shared a picture of the Glenmorangie “A Tale of Cake” Highland Single Malt, which currently retails at £449.95 on Amazon, to Twitter, with the seal clearly opened and a third of the contents drained.

“Hey @united – bottle of expensive scotch in checked bag,” he wrote.

“Arrived opened and a third gone. No leakage. It was sealed new when packed and seal broken by opening. Your baggage handlers are thieves.”

United replied: “Hi there. We are sorry to hear about this. We encouraged [sic] to file a report by calling Baggage Resolution Center at 800-335-2247”.

They followed this up with a second note asking Mr Ambler to DM his confirmation number for travel and baggage claim number so the matter could be escalated.

The decision of the thief to only drink a third of the bottle, rather than snatch the entire tipple, is a confusing one, however.

“Foul, foul, I say!” wrote one user.

“Of particular concern is that they may have done something untoward to the remaining contents, rendering further consumption a dubious proposition,” they added.

Another social media user appeared to admire the sheer gall of the thief, writing: “What class… swigging like a king”.

Suffering the loss or damage of personal items when travelling serves as a reminder of the value of taking out adequate insurance cover.

In 2022, one passenger took the extreme measure of hacking into IndiGo’s website to locate his luggage after he ended up with the wrong bag by mistake.

Nandan Kumar, a software engineer, said multiple calls to the airline were fruitless, prompting him to resort to an unorthodox solution.

According to Mr Kumar, he was able to identify the name and number of his fellow traveller by hacking the airline’s website and contacted them directly to exchange bags.

He had three bits of advice for the airline: “1. Fix your IVR and make it more user friendly; 2. Make your customer service more proactive than reactive; 3. Your website leaks sensitive data, get it fixed.”

IndiGo strongly refuted Mr Kumar’s accusation that the airline’s website “leaks sensitive data”.

The Independent has approached United Airlines for comment.