The @mamasphor laptop saga

Hi everyone,

I am Heather Spohr, the woman who left the laptop on the plane. I would like to clear a few things up:

- I claim full responsibility for leaving my laptop. I am the only one responsible for my own belongings.
- I do NOT need nor want a new laptop - the one I lost is only 16 months old, which is basically brand-new in Mac terms.
- I have been in touch with Alaska Airlines and they have proof that I used my computer on the flight in the form of my Gogo In-Flight wireless receipt.
- I was sitting in row 29 seat A, the last row of the plane. So no one behind me could have stolen the laptop as there WAS no one behind me.
- The reason I was stupid enough to leave it behind was I was dealing with my six month old daughter, who was quite ready to get off the plane and was making it known to everyone. I was frazzled.
- The crew can vouch for my story as I spent a lot of time talking to the flight attendants. I was in their part of the plane with my daughter a lot, and the cooed over her.

I absolutely have made no accusations toward the Alaska Airlines crew or anyone at DCA. I simply want my laptop back. I know exactly where it was (on the floor leaning against the wall of the plane), and I am 100% certain it was on the plane when I got off the plane.

Should I have backed up my hard drive? Absolutely. But to imply that not backing it up means I got what I deserved is simply ridiculous. Also suggesting that because I am a blogger who is a regular twitter user I am somehow looking for publicity is silly. I do not need publicity.

Thank you to those who have read all sides of the story. The Alaska Staff has been very attentive, and whenever I get new information from them I am sure to tweet it to let everyone know that they are on top of things.

We all make mistakes. I made a big one here. I am simply trying to get my computer back. It's more than just a computer to me. So much more.

I'm sorry if I sounded hostile but in this era of "tweet just to get attention" I tend to get annoyed over people using Twitter to get attention to their plight...to my credit I knew you had nothing bad to say about Alaska Air Group therefore I did not accuse you of your follower's folly
I am of the camp that blogging and Twitter only serve to promote self,however I have nothing to say about what you want to do;whatever floats your boat!
And your children are very very very cute and I hope if I ever have children that they'll be as cute as they are^

I have to admit that when I read the blog I was confused, I thought she may have left it next to the wine spiller seated next to her before she moved to the back of the plane. I even thought it might have been that idiot that took the laptop rather than either the cleaning crew or AS personnel. My own experiences with left behind items has been 100% successful due to the extra mile AS employees routinely go for customers.

CTP

Well based on reading the Alaska Twitter page, it appears they are doing all they can. It doesn't help that people reading @mamasphor's blog are writing in implying that Alaska Airlines should do more. I mean what else can they do now? The whole DCA airport has been alerted. How many man hours are being burned looking for this laptop? Based on reading the blog, she didn't notice the laptop was gone until checking into the hotel. What about the taxi? Could it have been left in the taxi? I'm thinking it will turn up eventually.

Well people sometimes stay longer than the last person in the last row. People also do go back and use the bathroom before leaving. Nobody behind you could have taken the abandoned (it's not really stolen since technically you abandoned the property) laptop.

Great, so you disobeyed the rather clear instructions on where that should go? It goes under the seat in front of you, not on the side of any seat. Quite frankly, every time I put my laptop under the seat in front of me, I'm worried I'll forget it. I usually shut it down early and put it up in the overhead. Of course, I don't have to 'tweet' every time I take a dump to my 'followers', so I guess I'm able to shut down a little early.

Your posts have caused quite a bit of ill will towards a company that has done nothing but bend over backwards to try to make up for your absentmindedness. You didn't even pick up the phone to call them. You chose to make this whole thing private. I guess why not do whatever you can to publicize yourself at the expense of the hard working people at Alaska Airlines.

It's odd you know, most people who don't constantly try to get attention for everything they do would pick up the telephone or head to an Alaska Airlines counter and ask for help. It's odd that this is so important to you, yet you chose to contact the company by....ahhhh...wait for it...Twitter? Perhaps next time, you could take out a banner in SEATAC in the main terminal with your picture that says I lost my laptop.

They've done plenty to help here. My best guess is that someone saw you leave it or the cleaning crew, who likely aren't even AS employees, took it. Either way, everyone at that airline has done a lot for you and all of your little Twitter friends have been saying disparaging things about them. Time to be an adult and get them to remedy that.

It sucks you lost your laptop. It really does. I think your case would have been better served had you chosen not to make it an exercise in self-promotion. You've brought a lot of bad comments towards those who have been trying to help you. Perhaps if you stopped all this tweeting and blogging, you'd be more focused and wouldn't forget things on airplanes.

Passive aggressive much? You have one opinion when the person isn't in the thread and now you have a different one?

Good luck getting your laptop back. You can pretty much guarantee that you will never see it again. You see, whomever picked it up had a choice to either turn it in or keep it. If it was turned in, you would have it back or have knowledge that it was in a safe place by now. Chalk it up to another lesson learned.....

For future knowledge, consider getting LoJack:
http://www.ehow.com/how_4586129_trac...p-address.html

How rude of us - we almost forgot!
Welcome to FlyerTalk and the AS forum.

No, I am annoyed at attention getting via Twitter;I just assumed that this was another "OMG company treated me bad ima tweet about it to milk all the attention I can get out of it", she had nothing bad to say about AAG and it was only her followers that were acting out;this is unlike the majority of attention getting tweeting...I will stand by my opinion that Twitter and blogging only serve as attention getters but Twitter seems to be one of the quickest channels of getting service from a company today...she was only using her resources to get her laptop back as soon as possible and I feel bad that I accused her of severe self promotion. In addition, if she wants to be a blogger and tweet, sure, she can, more power to her but again, I stand by my opinion that they are only channels for self promotion and, as such, if I hear of an event like this event, I will automatically assume the motivation behind the event was just for attention...I am at least willing to believe her words at face value as she hasn't given me reason to not.
And her kids are cute, admit it

I have no idea of what her kids look like and I don't care. Talking to someone at AS is the best way of getting this addressed. Tweeting them about it was just a means of self-promotion. Please read my post and tell me where I said she said something bad about AS. Did you actually read what I said? The 'followers' who follow her ramblings said bad things about them. They were helping her. She should have showed some consideration and had them not do that or take them back.

Indeed!

Let's keep the tone friendly and welcoming in the Alaska spirit that we all enjoy around here and leave out the sarcastic personal attacks.

mamaspohr, welcome to FlyerTalk. We all wish you the best of luck in getting your laptop back.

Law of unintended consequences. And what consequences for everyone.

Disappointing to see how some people reacted at the OP's twitter, though it's
not unexpected. The 'Net can bring out the hidden worst of people that they
prefer not showing offline.

Good luck to the OP.