miniboot

So on a flight in CW upper deck from LAX-LHR a couple of weeks ago, I left my Kindle in the laptop drawer. Called the helpline a few hours after realising and they could only suggest to call 'Bagport', the lost property group in LHR. Of course, it hasn't shown up there.

Firstly, I fully accept that my personal items are my responsibility and BA gives you a reminder to take all your personal belongings with you before disembarking.

That said, if you do happen to have a moment of forgetfulness after a long flight, they are next to useless in helping to recover things. Their policy is for you to call the airport's lost & found department. If it's not there, they aren't helpful in any way at all. I don't expect them to go on a manhunt for my stuff, but a simple call to the contractor that cleaned the plane would have been helpful.

I really think that, especially in the premium cabins, they should go a bit 'above and beyond' for their passengers. I would also think they'd be concerned that either their lost property procedures aren't working as intended (or the item would be at bagport), or there's a thief in the chain somewhere. Mine doesn't seem to be an isolated incident either looking back on flyertalk. BA didn't even log the details of my case (which insurers require). Luckily in this instance it's just a Kindle, although the files on there that I don't have stored anywhere else are the main reason I want it back.

Paralytic

As you've noted, there's been a few instance of this, with people having mixed results in getting their items back when left on a flight.

Whilst some may not want to even consider it a possibility, I'm afraid I'm strongly of the opinion that somewhere in the chain there are people keeping things they find for themselves. Perhaps this is my prejudices showing, but I suspect it'd be more likely to be cleaning staff than cabin crew.

sammyh25

If the crew find any items left behind in the cabin they are handed to our customer services staff in T5 baggage reclaim and within 24 hours I believe the items go to lost property. I would assume the cleaning staff would follow a similar procedure, although they will find a lot more items than we will with our final checks.

It's not always easy for us as crew to reunite passengers with their left behind goods... The cabins are checked when everyone has left the aircraft, by which time you are well on your way to flight connections or baggage reclaim. Only last week one of the crew ran through T5 with a First customer's handbag that she had left in the bottom of her personal wardrobe. We never found her and had to hand it in to customer services where the whole "lost property" cycle would no doubt begin.

BAHumbug

Firstly, I'm sorry to hear you lost your Kindle. I'm very attached to mine as well.

But, realistically, I'm not really sure BA could have done much more in your case.

Firstly, you only let them know about the missing device 'a few hours' after you realised. When exactly did you realise ? If it was at the airport then a quick trip to Customer Services would have helped.

A few hours later the plane may well have been turned around and flown back home/out again.

I think as well there has been a mix up in communications; CS (who you phoned) suggested you phoned Bagport at the airport because this was probably the best course of action at the time. In your shoes I'd have telephoned BA back and explained Bagport were less than forthcoming and you'd like them to log the case so you could claim on your insurance. I'm sure they would have done this for you.

Files stored in only 1 location is never a good idea; all sorts of things can happen to electronic devices and I back up my data religiously because, like you, I cannot afford to lose my files.

Perhaps I am coming across as unsympathetic, which I don't mean to be, but it's unclear what, realistically, the airline can do if you only notify them of your loss 'a few hours' after you disembark.

For the record there are plenty of cases here of people who have been reunited with items where BA have gone the extra mile, so your implication that they don't do this is not really the case. There was a thread a few days ago where someone left their iPad in the lounge and a BA staff member brought it to them on the plane before the aircraft took off.

I hope your insurers cough up with no hassle at least.

BAH

berlinflyer83

BA really isn't any help. You're lucky if they give you the right contact info for bagport. Same exact thing happened to me.

Bagport is one of the most ridiculous orginizations I've ever dealt with.

If you call and they feel like answering the phone (unlikely), they probably have used all their motivation to pick up the phone, so don't expect them to actually be helpful. If you e-mail, don't expect a reply any sooner than 2 weeks.

And then, finally, If they do recover your item, they will extort 15 quid as an "administrative fee" plus inflated shipping fees that in total, are just a little cheaper than your kindle.

I obviously didn't expect them to jump through hoops. Ideally, BA might have looked at who was sitting in that seat and discovered I had a 5 hour layover in LHR and could have easily dropped it off at the GA only a few gates down. It would have even been OK if BagPort was responsive and provided good service. I'd have no problem paying them for good service. But you will not get that.

BahrainLad

Think of it as travel Darwinism. I lost a palmtop computer on a flight when I was 11 years old (yes, I was a spoilt, precocious brat) and 19 years later I still make d*** sure I have everything with me when I get off, no matter how long/short the journey.

xxxxx

British Airways have their own lost property co-ordinator and if you discover you've left something on board they'll contact the cleaners, the turnaround manager or send someone to check the aircraft if needed. If the crew find anything then it gets handed in at Arrivals Customer Service.

All items are then passed on to bagport the following day, the cleaning companies do the same. You can check if your item has been found on the followin website www.missingx.com

Bagport check a similar log when called to see if your lost item is with them.

Personally, I've left my wallet on board a BA aircraft on one occasion and my iPod on another, both times my items were found by calling the following day. When I left my iPod on a CX flight (as you can tell, I'm pretty forgetful) it was never seen again.

miniboot

Thanks, especially to those who posted about when the system does work. Admittedly I'm probably in a minority that's quite vocal, as you probably hear more when something isn't found than when it is.

As for what they could do if they find it, they have your seat number which in most cases probably reconciles to a frequent flyer # and some contact info. They could put in a call to the contractors that cleaned the plane to notify them of the issue. They could phone, or give me details for, the people that might have found it at LAX (I suggested this as a possibility but the person on the BAEC helpline discounted it entirely as she said the cabin is thoroughly checked & cleaned before turnaround)

I don't begrudge BA or Bagport charging an admin fee as there are costs associated with the process, but the system should be more efficient than it is to justify that fee. Dealing with/getting through to Bagport, as a previous poster has commented, has been a struggle and by the person at Bagport's own admission their item logging isn't as descriptive as it should be.

Land-of-Miles

Mrs LoM left her handbag on a plane in YVR just over a year ago and the actual BA ground staff were great once we established contact with them (she only realised after we reached our hotel in Whistler and she only told me about 12 hours after that).

The biggest issue though was being able to contact the ground staff at YVR to establish if anything had been found. The BA call centre were of no real help in giving contact numbers and Mrs LoM finally made contact after calling the main airport switchboard and then being routed through several other areas before finally managing to speak to a local BA agent.

It would have been easy to conclude that the item was simply lost although I am 99.99% sure that Mrs LoM would have been reunited with her bag upon check in for the return flight anyway, there would have been a lot of stress and domestic arguments about her stupidity

I don't think anyone can blame BA if items which are left behind are not found and they may even be missed during a cleaning cycle but being able to rapidly reassure passengers that their lost items have been located is something which could be done to really strengthen relationships between BA and it's customers. I know I always feel much more warmly disposed to an organisation that has helped me to deal with the consequences of my own stupidity

Littlegirl

I know that a lot of people have an electronic lock on their phone, so no one else can use it, but my personal advice would be not to use this.

I have on average one mobile phone, each week, handed to me, when it has been found in a seat pockets or on the floor of the aircraft. If it has not got an electronic lock, I have been able to phone a family member or someone the customer has recently called and am often able to reunite the phone, sometimes in the baggage hall, especially if the customer is travelling with someone else that can be rung by the family member or me.

If the phone has a lock on it, it is impossible to reunite it or know who it belongs to, so it just gets handed in to Customer Services in the Arrival hall.

Just thought I would share that snippet of info with you.

itsmeitisss

My father once lost his mobile phone and I left a voicemail on the phone asking for whoever found it to take it to a local police station. 24 hrs later a call from local police station - phone handed in.

Paralytic

Many organizations will enforce a pin-lock on the phones they provide to their staff, as part of their security policy. This is enforced at the phone operating system level and typically cannot be turn off by the user.

This is precisely so, in the event that a phone is lost or stolen, possibly sensitive emails and texts are not made public.

Such policies will wipe the data on the phone if the PIN is entered (say) 5 times incorrectly and it is also possible to do a remote wipe of the data on the most popular business handsets (Android, iOS, Blackberry).

Of course, this doesn't help you find the phones owner

berlinflyer83

Some phones let you leave a message on the home screen, "If found, please return to blah blah blah." For iPhones and windows phones, I think through the respective "find my phone" services, you can also have it display a message on the screen.

JMurray

At LGW I once left my phone in the seat pocket coming back from VCE. I only realised once in baggage reclaim and told the guys at the lost luggage counter. One of them grabbed my boarding card and literally sprinted to the aircraft to collect it for me before the next flight departed.

I was really impressed at how much he seemed to want to retrieve it...anyway it gained him a well deserved ba.com/welldone!

Littlegirl

I see, that's interesting, it's the same with the BA IPad, I hadn't thought about the fact that a lot of mobiles are provided by employers.

So I guess a note or a sticker might be a good idea.