When I left my camera onboard on a United flight from San Francisco to Vancouver three years ago and miraculously recovered it, my family teased me for weeks about my penchant for leaving things behind on airplanes. While I vowed to never leave anything onboard an aircraft again, I’ve slipped several times since then. A couple weeks ago, in fact, I left my passport aboard a middle-of-the-night Armavia flight from Yerevan to Istanbul but was able to recover it shortly thereafter. My mother is funny–whenever I talk to her, she always admonishes me not to leave anything behind when I fly, every single trip. Well, last week she should have directed her sage advice at my brother instead.
My brother is an accountant and was on a long-term project in San Francisco which finally wrapped up last weekend. For the last several months, he’s been commuting down to Los Angeles on weekends, always flying Southwest Airlines (and for intra-California travel, I cannot blame him). Last Friday he was on a San Francisco – Los Angeles flight after a long day at the office and absent mindedly forgot that his iPad mini was in his seatback. Upon reaching LAX, he left the aircraft, collected his checked bag, drove home, had dinner, went to sleep, woke up, and it was only then that he realized he had left his iPad behind.
I have to give him props for being so calm about the whole thing–I would likely not have handled it so well. Though he immediately filed a report online with Southwest, he had already given up all hopes of seeing the ipad again.
I happened to be in Southern California last weekend and suggested–knowing that Southwest tends to clean their aircraft after each flight–that he head down to LAX Saturday afternoon and stop by the Southwest baggage claim to inquire about his lost device. Southwest does not offer any lost and found telephone numbers and I was not even sure they had would speak to my brother, but the shot in the dark paid off.
Saturday afternoon he presented himself in the baggage claim office and mentioned that he had left his iPad onboard a Southwest flight the day before. After verifying flight details, the agent went into a back office and emerged a few minutes later empty-handed.
AGENT: Sorry sir, no ipod was found on your flight
BROTHER: Actually, it was an ipad
AGENT: Oh, in that case you may be in luck. Can you describe it?
BROTHER: Black, ipad mini, in a moleskine brown leather case.
AGENT: Be right back.
And she emerged with the ipad. My brother was elated!
I share this story to show that even if it is against protocol, it does not hurt to pay the baggage claim office a visit if you lose something of value. Don’t wait for telphone calls or e-mails back.
And I must say I am pleasantly surprised an honest passenger or crewmember turned in this nifty little electronic device, that would have so easily fit inside a bag, purse, or pocket…
Honesty: play it forward.
Good story.
20 years ago when I was a Gate AAgent at DFW, I think AA had a good “middle of the road” policy to prevent employees from invoking the “finders keeper, losers weepers” rule. The “lost-n-found” tag we filled out to report time/date/place found also had a check box if the “finder” wanted to claim the item after 30 days. It kept the honest folks honest, kept the storage room relatively cleaned out and kept me supplied with the latest WalkMan’s, GameBoys etc.
And yes, baggage claim is the place to go. I guess now-a-days, items left in the gate area result in the bomb squad being called out, but in my days, it meant a trip down to baggage claim on my way home. At hubs, you’ll most likely be re-directed to a specific bag claim office.
I’ve read a lot of stories about people leaving passports and valuables in seat backs or between seats. That’s just asking for trouble. I have a general rule about valuables: Either they go into my personal bag or my pockets. No exceptions. Even if it’s just for a second, I have a bag closeby to put them in.
This goes for home as well. I put certain things in the same place everyday. This gives me muscle memory.
One time the rule was broken though: At customs, I handed my passport to an officer and her put it down to talk to me and after the long conversation (pleasurable, we gossiped about taxi prices) he forgot to hand it back to me. An alert officer nearby observed the passport on the side desk and flagged me down and handed it to me. In the future, I’ll ask officials for my documents back as soon as they’re done with them even if the conversation continues.
Also remember the have a find my iPad/iPhone/Macbook feature allowing you to pinpoint the location of said device; if it gets turned on and connects to the network. Not handy if the device is turned into lost and found and stowed there, but definitely handy if someone picks it up and brings it home….
FDW
Get a job just flying around the world wasting gas on Airline Flights increasing our C02 footprint. That’s Al Gore and Obongo’s job. Just kidding great blog!!!!
I was on a Southwest flight several weeks ago where, mid-flight, a gentleman started frantically looking in several rows for his lost iPad. He was a continuing passenger who changed seats during the previous stop. But he left his iPad at his previous seat when he switched spots! We told him about the announcement we heard in the Milwaukee gate area before boarding–asking if an inbound passenger had left an electronic item on board. He checked with the flight attendant who confirmed they left the seemingly abandoned iPad (it was in the seat pocket at an empty seat) with the gate personnel at Milwaukee. The gentlemen was a bit tiffed–he would have to do without his iPad for a few days. But I thought how lucky he was–it was safe & would likely be back in his hands shortly!
I once forgot a pocketpc on a SAS flight from Copenhagen to Seattle, only to realize it the evening. Called SAS office in Seattle the next day and told them about my loss, and to my surprise they got it. Went to the airport a couple of days later and picked it up with no problems! That was back in ’05!
In 2012 I left a very large bag of my meds and some dress shirts on board an AF flight into CDG. AF refused to take a bag report, even thought I was AF gld. I was directed to an email address. I send a msg, no response for a week. After a week I sent a msg every day for 2 weeks. They never even bothered to tell me they did not “find” it. Not only are they administratively poorly organized, its very likely the staff or outsourced staff are crooks!
Typical Air France.
Interesting Air France story: we had a user leave their MacBook Air in an AF setback pocket on a CDG -> SFO flight a few months back. The user called AF, filed a report, etc. but nothing ever came of it. We wrote the MacBook off as lost & replaced it.
A week ago I got an e-mail from another employee: they said that they were in a 1st floor conf room around 7pm the night before, when they heard tapping on the window. They went outside, and there was an AF baggage manager who had grown tired of waiting for someone to claim this MacBook Air and decided to track us down based on the asset tag on the bottom of the computer. We’re close by SFO, so he stopped by on his way home. The laptop is in great shape & the user is thrilled. Kudos to unnamed Air France SFO baggage manager, going above & beyond the call of duty! And jeers to the AF baggage system that apparently never matched the lost item report or forwarded it to the SFO office…
The same thing happened to me tonight, May 16, 2013. Returning to HOU from BWI.
Thank you SWA for having honest flight attendants and employees.
The lady in the baggage office was super helpful and went above and beyond.
Worked out well for me.
Like the original poster said:
Honesty, play it forward.
I left my ipad on a flight in the seat pocket in front of me on Southwest Airlines and didnt realize it until I arrived home. I filed a claim, but couldn’t stand to wait. I went up to the baggage claim the next morning and my ipad was there! Thank you SW Airlines for your honesty and thorough cleaning on the plane between flights! Only goods feelings about SW Airlines!
So good to be reading this blogs and also get to find out that it is possible to find items left on board in seat pockets. I left my Iphone4 on board SAS air from IAD to Copenhagen terminal 3. I realized I didn’t have my Iphone on my 15 minutes after leaving the plane, I run back to ask the crew or staff at Gate to help, but no luck it was hard to locate any SAS staff member to help and only to go get it from my seat. I knew it 100% where it was. But all I was given was a lost and found number I spent 4 hours trying to get it back and no luck yet. Only if air SAS were serious about their customers SAS could have helped me have my phone back that was full of my personal contacts and memorable family pics. I am still inquiring if anyone can help please advice its been 2 weeks. I have the imei number ready called almost everyday for 10 days the lost and found did not have it. I think the thief and dishonest cleaners stole it instead of turning it in to lost and found. Please anyone with help let or any ideas let me know!!
I’m angry that when I called the day I left my iPad in the Southwest flight into LAX I spoke with an agent and was not referred to the baggage claim area. I spoke with another agent and was told that’s where all items left on the flights are sent. So I called the number she gave me and I was told all iPads are sent to Alabama and unfortunately they do not have that number. Looking further into this I discovered that place in Alabama is a second party auction house ! WTF ! So the intensely detailed description with the seat number and description of my iPad mini was a waste of time . The checking of my email was a sham and Southwest Airlines is based on telling their clients lies. I’ve flown this airline from the time they started and there were 4-5 people on each flight . My sister in law flew with them for almost twenty years and didn’t know this. I’m just saying this could have been handled way better by the representatives of SW and now I’m very angry and will take this as far as I can vs just accepting that I messed up and left my iPad on this flight. I’ve flown SW many times and this year I’ve used them several times already. Now I will fly AA because I’m willing to possibly spend a bit more to know at least I’m not putting money into the hands of those who could have helped me, and didn’t do that for whatever reason. If they don’t know what happens to your lost items they should say that rather than tell you to file a lost and found report on line. Why do that if it’s sent the next day to a second party auction house in Alabama? Really this is Bull S….!!!!! KMA !!!