Kindle left on plane Great PR for United!

Here is a blog story that i thought fellow FTer might enjoy. Having read the story I should add that a few weeks ago I had the exact opposite experience. I Thought I had dropped my wallet at my seat. I was allowed to go back and look for it. Almost all the crew still on board including the flight crew, were down on hands and knees helping me find it.

http://blogs.plos.org/neurotribes/20...-dignity-back/

Brevity is the soul of wit. This blog post is certainly not a stellar example of that. In a nutshell, the writer flew SFO-JFK, left their kindle in the seat pocket, and now doesn't hear it from lost and found. What's ironic is that within all the verbosity, the account of the dialogue regarding going back into the airplane took all but one sentence ("That would be impossible, I was told.").

For all the extraneous ramblings but so few details about the actual point of the story, I think there might have been some omissions of the happenings. Otherwise, it's just a very poor piece of self-conciliatory diatribe.

It was kind of hard to tell how far he had gotten when he realized that the Kindle was missing. If he was outside security, I might understand why they wouldn't let him go back, but if it was on the jet-bridge, I'd be surprised. Seems like something is missing here.

I stupidly allowed myself to be recruited to teach freshmen writing discussion sections when I was in college. I wish you had taught english in every high school in america.

So his "Kindle had become (his) constant companion on reporting trips", and yet at no point during his "five-hour journey" did he feel the need to use it - at which point he would have realized it was in the original seat-back?

I call shenanigans on this story. It's possible _something_ happened, but...

+1 - I knew there was something huge bugging me about this tale of woe, and you hit the nail right on the head. I don't take anything out of my carryon unless I intend to use it, and for someone to claim the pricelessness of their Kindle in flight not to notice its absence at any point on a TCON...yeah, I'm with you. Shenanigans seconded!

Was he on a super tight connection?

I've had many a brain farts and left my NC headphones on a plane, in fact I just did it about 30 minutes ago. Each time I've just waited for scrub to clean the plane or had an agent call the gate once I realize it was left and have had no issues...

He said he was still at the gate. To me that doesn't mean outside of security. To others it may though.

If he was at MCI he certainly could be "At the gate" and outside security at the same time

Considering he came into JFK, that's out of the question.

But yes, I do get your point.

"left their kindle in the seat pocket" - it was only one person. I don't.

You do understand that in the context of being gender neutral (even though we know the writer is a "he," the use of "they" is permissible. Well, now you should.

Once the minimum number of flight attendants (1 for the 1st seat installed on the airframe, and and additional attendant for every 50th seat beyond that) is off the plane, no customers are allowed on any commercial aircraft in the US.

Most flight attendants don't hang around empty aircraft after they can get off, flipping over the exit signs and revealing the hidden disco balls, breaking open the 1st class liquor cart and changing into their best clubbing clothes, to party on an empty narrowbody aircraft with the same people they have just worked the smae trips with, over and over for a month.

Under the FAA minimum, "I'm sorry, it is unlawful for us to allow you on the aircraft...perhaps if you give be your BP, I can look and see if no other person has taken your merchandise (it must be the crew, as they are by far the majority of people on the plane, monitoring every move of you from boarding to deboarding-not!) for you" -from the CS agent. Or perhaps a bit more sarcastic, but a bit more realistic "I'm sorry, you (personally, not us) lost an article of yours. I'd be happy to look for it, but if I can't find it, are you going to write a blog that somehow, your own personal carry on item's loss by yourself is the airlines fault, and try to link it to the fact that we no longer serve the same ammentities in Y that you got 30 years ago in F for a fraction of the COLA price, with much more frequency/reliability and shorter journey times?"

I sympathize at anyone who loses something...heck, I lose crap all the time, had a co-worker (unknown to me who it was) steal a signed and personalized book (from the author) to me that was given to me as a gift....but you know what? I left it unattended in a public place, I can't point a finger at anyone in particualr. While there are thieves in the world, when an individual leaves items unattended in public, externalizing the blame is pathetic. Heck, I even thought that it was no longer permissable to leave items unattended in airports at all, but I guess, as long as they have value, it is OK, and if they are gone, one should try to waive a "poor me, the big bad corporation wronged me" flag and muster up sympathy. Sorry you left your kindle behind, wish they could have found it and returned it to you, but one cannot blame the airline for this, unless one has evidense that the airline, or it's agent have it in their posession and refuse to return it to you. Absent this, the blame cannot be placed on anyone except one's self, with a partial disdain for any of the 100+ other people that had access to it.

+1^^

What's really lacking is more personal responsibility on the behalf of the individuals.

My dreams of becoming a UA FA are completely shattered!