BestPAever

My boss took a redeye from HKG to LHR and then got caught up in the fog delays this morning (Sunday 18 December). He managed to get the last seat on the 1125 LHR-GLA (1482) but also managed to leave his laptop (a MacBook Air) on board - he says he was in an exit row seat so put it in the gap beside his seat.

Guess who's now in charge of tracking down the laptop, if that's at all possible...any help would be greatly appreciated.

I've got the number for GLA that BA puts on their Global Lost Property Contact Details form (0141 848 4740). He phoned about ten minutes ago and it isn't there. If it were found on the plane and handed over, what sort of time scale is likely? Do I need to log a claim anywhere?

What he's concerned about is that the cleaners might have missed it, tucked where it was, and that it might have gone on to wherever the plane flew next. Is that likely? (Seems like there are a lot of threads here about how the cleaning is not very thorough...) If so, does anyone know where the plane went after GLA?

Thanks for any help. I'm hoping to keep my username truthful.

Swiss Tony

The plane returned to Heathrow before heading to Berlin and back, assuming Flightradar 24 is accurate. https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/g-euxc

It's now on the ground at Heathrow.

You may want to lodge a claim (free) with http://www.missingx.com/ too, who look after property turned in at Heathrow.

I also know my Mac has a "find my mac" function that will trigger if it's then turned on (and I assume connects to wifi).

And from the details here - http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/.../lost-property - you might want to reach out to the team at Berlin Tegal http://www.berlin-airport.de/en/trav...ound/index.php

Good luck!

BestPAever

Thanks, Swiss Tony.

TyneTraveller

Well, I'm no expert in lost property or cleaning but is it possible that it has gone to the lost property at GLA? That would be the procedure at some outstations if found by the handling agent whilst cleaning.

Also, the plane would have returned straight back to LHR as the BA1483. Someone else will no doubt know the lost property procedures there far better than myself, but knowing the exact seat number would be a good help. Good luck with finding it; these things happen quite frequently with a reasonable return rate I believe.

BestPAever

Cheers, TyneTraveller. We're hopeful it was turned in at GLA but I'm trying to plan for other scenarios, including an insurance claim. Also, I look good when I have information at my fingertips, just in case I'm asked.

Mwenenzi

Doing an advanced search on "lost" there are many threads

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...t-details.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...er-6-days.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...y-luggage.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...eft-board.html Last post Sept 2016

Swiss Tony

Fair enough, but as a first time poster I think we should be willing to cut BestPAEver some slack at what will doubtless be a testing time.

And on that note, welcome to the BA forum. Do let us know how you get on as only by everyone sharing the knowledge can this place be such a great resource.

Calchas

Welcome to FlyerTalk BestPAever. ^ Good luck with your search.

BestPAever

Thanks. I did look at a few other threads but since I had a very specific situation, and as most of the "here's what happened to me" examples weren't relevant, I thought a new thread would be okay.

I'll do my best to post the results.

bwaflyer

It should be picked up by the cleaners or ground staff at Glasgow and taken to the lost property office there. However, they're not going to make a trip each time something is found, so I would assume that they'll do a job lot run, so it may take a while to get over there, and this late in the evening, there may not be any staff on duty to book stuff in, so it might not show up until tomorrow morning. I would hope that the cabin checks would be thorough enough that it wouldn't go back down to Heathrow. Good luck!

Prospero

Try https://www.airport-lostproperty.com tomorrow. I tried it out a moment ago and the database does include personal items found onboard BA flights.

RGS5526

You could hope, but that hope may not be realised. Earlier this year I found a laptop in the seat pocket on flight from LHR to OSL (CW exit row on a mid-haul A321). I handed to a member of cabin crew, but have no idea what happened after that.

BestPAever

Indeed, this hope was not realised. The laptop did go back to Heathrow, judging from the Bagport email which arrived about 10 minutes ago. I am very grateful for that email.

The people who handle lost luggage at Glasgow couldn't have been nicer. The link Prospero provided does indeed list relevant items and it appears to be updated regularly. They even would have provided a letter for the insurance claim. They felt it was very possible that the cleaners would have missed the laptop.

MissingX is not a pleasant website to use, and badly needs to be upgraded (both front and back), but it does seem to have done the trick.

The email for TXL in the October 2016 British Airways lost property contact pdf is dead. I emailed somewhere else for aeroground and didn't get a response.

Advice for anyone else in this situation in future:

1-if you lose an Apple laptop, do separate database searches for both Apple and laptop, since they're logged as one or the other.

2-put stickers on your laptop and keep a current photograph of what they look like. There are eighty million MacBook Pros out there, but if Ninja Octocat is squaring off with the Android robot on either side of your trackpad, and you can prove it, that is going to help someone identify it or rule out one that isn't yours. If you have to keep your tech looking professional, put stickers on the bottom where no one will see it.

Thanks very much to everyone who helped.

corporate-wage-slave

Some excellent advice in that post, for example about perhaps adding stickers or a contact email, BestPAever, thanks for reporting back with the good news too.

G-BUSI

So a device was left on a BA aircraft at GLA and not discovered by staff or cleaners during cleaning or security checks prior to the return flight to LHR. Mmmm.