LITTLE ROCK, AR -- Danielle Weaver says all she expected for Christmas was a trip home to Atco, New Jersey.

She didn't know her boyfriend Ken Reid bought her a beautiful engagement ring. She had no idea he packed it into a carryon bag to take on the plane. Or that he planned to propose to her at the skating rink at New York City's Rockefeller Plaza.

All Danielle knew is that Ken was completely distraught when he realized he had the wrong luggage.

“I opened the bag instantly knew there were different clothes, different lay out,” Ken said. “My heart just dropped and I felt sick to my stomach.”

The saga of the missing ring begins on December 22 when the couple boarded a small US Air Express plane in Little Rock, Arkansas . At the last minute, Ken says he was told his carry on bag was too big. It was taken from him at the gate, a yellow tag was put on it and it was loaded on the plane. They landed in Charlotte to make another connection.

“We got off the plane and there were just two bags left,” Ken said. “Hers very unique and one that looked just like mine.”

They took off again flying from Charlotte to Washington D.C. where there was another lay over. Ken opened this carryon bag - that wasn't his - and took it to US Airways. He says employees told him to leave the bag and wouldn't take any information from him.

“I said can I just take it to Philly she said (she’d) call airport security or police if I took the bag because it would be stealing,” Ken explained.

They flew into Philadelphia and filed claim reports, but Ken was still trying to keep the ring a secret from Danielle. Until US Airways inadvertently spilled the beans to her on the phone.

“I was bawling,” she said. “I was crying.”

And they say it seemed no one at the airline was interested in helping them.

“It's made it very stressful,” Danielle said. “A lot of tears, a lot of hours on the phone just getting run around in a circle. Time we could have spend with the family.”

“We want to find this gentleman’s bag and that's our goal,” said Morgan Durrant, US Airways.

US Airways says a few things went wrong. It would have helped if Ken or the other passenger put personal information on their carryon luggage as a precaution. But neither did that.

Ken says US Airways should have given him a stub off the ticket they put on his carry on. That might have helped find it later. But even if he had a stub, US Airways says bags taken at the gate are not recorded and tracked liked checked in luggage. So US Airways doesn't have much of a trail to follow.

“But we're not giving up,” Durrant said.

Neither is the newly engaged couple.

“If someone does have it and they're contemplating what to do, if they would just please give it to us and just keep the bag,” Ken said.