Kiwi business traveller stranded in San Francisco after United de-planes his wallet and passport

UPDATE 4pm: Beleaguered business traveller Ben Kepes has finally been reunited with his carryon bag, and items inside it including his passport, at San Francisco airport. A United supervisor handed it over in time for him to make his Air NZ flight to Dunedin.

The entrepreneur says United offered him a partial refund of his fare as a make-good. His response: "FFS". Try again.

UPDATE 9.15am: United spokesman Jonathan Guerin says:  “The luggage of a customer [New Zealander Ben Kepes] travelling from Nashville to San Francisco was mistakenly shipped to the wrong city. We located the customer’s bag and rerouted it to San Francisco, where it arrived today at approximately 11:42 am local time. We are in contact with our customer to apologise for our mistake and to coordinate the retrieval of his luggage.”

United originally said Mr Kepes' luggage was inadvertently removed from the plane on the Chicago stopover of his Nashville-to-San Francisco trip, then mistakenly sent back to Nashville, prompting fresh fury from the Kiwi (who said it was taken from under his seat while his flight was still on the tarmac in Nashville).

Mr Guerin now says the airline "messed up our original statement, it was an innocent mistake" and that Mr Kepes' account of events is correct.

Asked about Ben Kepes' beef that the airline required him to collect his de-planed hand luggage, including his wallet, from the airport, Mr Guerin replied, "He’s out exploring beautiful San Francisco before his flight to New Zealand tonight. We will deliver his bag to him when he comes back to the airport to catch his flight."

Asked about United not offering any assistance when the Kiwi business traveller turned up in San Francisco wallet-less, Mr Guerin said there "will be something" for Mr Kepes when he arrives at SFO to be finally reiunited with his belongings.

Mr Kepes says the airline has his number, but has yet to call him.

EARLIER: United Airlines customer service and PR doesn’t seem to have got any more nimble since David Dao was violently dragged off a flight on April 9 – at least if Ben Kepes' experience of the past 24 hours is anything to go by.

The Christchurch-based marathon runner, tech blogger, startup investor, speaker and owner of Cactus Outdoor had been attending a conference in Nashville.

He boarded a United flight to San Francisco yesterday and took his business class seat. But at some point before take-off, a flight attendant mistakenly picked up his hand luggage from under his seat and removed it from the plane. It contained his passport, wallet,  phone charger and his boarding pass for his next flight from San Francisco to New Zealand with Air NZ.

Mr Kepes says he doesn’t blame the flight attendant – mistakes happen – but he’s furious with United’s follow-up customer service.

If you follow Mr Kepes on social media, you know he’s constantly travelling around the globe, and frequently to destinations in the US. He says he probably takes United flights about 30 times a year.

He says staff at the airline’s baggage services desk in San Francisco seemed disinterested.

The airline says his hand luggage is now en route. But he’s annoyed United wants him to schlep back to the airport to collect it himself.

It has cut no ice with United that Mr Kepes has been sharing his situation with his 25,000 followers on Twitter.

And it’s still not clear if he will make his flight back to New Zealand.

At 5.30am today he told NBR, "It’s now 12 hours since I left San Francisco airport to head to the city and I've not had any communications from United. I think my bag is en route, I think they still expect me to schlep down to San Francisco Airport to pick up my bag, and I think that I'll still be able to fly home to New Zealand but we'll see."

His flight to New Zealand was due to leave in 11 hours.

Mr Kepes says Air New Zealand, unlike United, is being understanding about his situation. Still, with his passport still AWOL with United, it simply can't board him on an international flight.

United did not immediately respond to a request for comment.