I took a flight between DXB and HKG recently. I had exchanged around USD2,500 which when I got on board I put into the zip on my wheelie bag and loaded it into the overhead locker.

The flight load was really light. I would guess on 10-15 people in the whole of J on a 333.

Flight was uneventful and I slept for the most part. When we landed I headed of to the Wing and checked for my cash....to my horror it had gone!

I can only assume I was robbed whilst I slept

Has this ever happened to anyone else? Do you think I would have had any recourse?

For Pete's sake, for that amount if money has it not occurred to you to go to the police and file a report with the airline yet? That's liked to yield a more helpful response than anything you'll get here.

Maybe it fell out in the icy toilet in HKG.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...ets-world.html

https://secure1.info.gov.hk/police/e...visitor_en.htm

Of course it occurred to me, but then what. An hour after we landed I realised it had been taken and most passengers and crew would be out of the airport...

My assumption was both the police and airline would be polite and take notes but that little would happen. My main interest is seeing if this had happened to any other PAX before.

On a serious note, it is unfortunately probably a good idea to have a lock on our bags if we plan to store important things like wallet, cash, or passport in them and put them in the overhead.

Sorry to hear of your loss, OP, hopefully you still have your passport and credit cards


Also unfortunately, since you didn't notice till an hour later, it could have been a sneak thief/pickpocket anywhere along your path leaving the airport.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 6_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/536.26 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0 Mobile/10B142 Safari/8536.25)

Has been on news before and they caught a few thievies.

Wouldnt call this an empty thread but it would b better if we are careful of our belingings onboard.

Thanks for this - very much appreciated. ^

Thanks Doc - it was only the cash that went missing. And yes, it did occur to me that a pick pocket could have got me in the security queue

File a police report.

I know it doesn't help in the retrospective case, but for future reference,

- probably not a very good idea to keep cash in the outside zipper pocket of a suitcase (or for that matter, any other place where it can be accessible to people with minimal handling and in a 1-3 seconds). Your own pocket is probably the safest place, or deep inside a locked suitcase where one would need to take out the case, open it, and rummage to find the cash would also be safer,

- probably not a very good idea to show/take out/move cash and show where you are putting it before multiple hours without moving, better do the sorting in an airport toilet cubicle a bit ahead of time to be less conspicuous,

- if you have precious belongings, check out that they are still there before leaving the plane rather than after.

100% agree...now ^

There were in fact a feel reports of people stealing from bags in overhead bins, in the past year or so. What I find it strange is that it seems quite stupid of these thieves. First, there are so many pairs of eyes on an aeroplane. Secondly, on the airside and on a plane everyone's personal particulars have been verified, it will be stupid to commit a crime. Thirdly, there is no way of escaping from a plane or even escaping from the airside of an airport. Summarised, it is difficult to justify stealing in the circumstances.

But if it is just cash, it is not personally identifiable. A he said, she said if someone is caught with cash.

I'm sorry, but I just have to ask. Why on earth are you carrying that much cash? There are ATMs in Hong Kong.

There has been a few reports suggesting Mainland Chinese robbers bought tickets on flights and they do steal money and other valuables during the flight to Hong Kong & Macau.

For your safety and security, before disembarking the aircraft and plane doors open, if you do carry some amount of cash, remember to check if it is still there in your sight.

If not, notify crew immediately. Crew can put the plane in lockdown to find stolen goods for you. Usually it should be found quite easily and at the same time you can catch thieves too.