Left Items on CO Flight
 

I was flying back to IAH from GDL on CO-Express last monday 10/3. I left my IPOD and a headset in the seat pocket. I realized as I got home and immediately called Continental and was given this number to file a report 1-800-523-3273. I was told that they would contact the appropriate personnel at the airport and see if my items had been recovered, but that since it was an international flight there might be complications with TSA.

I was just curious what you guys think that my chances of getting my stuff bar are. My Gym pass and and a Work ID are in my IPOD sleeve, so unless someone decides to have christmas early they should be able to track me down...

Its Gone
 

Sorry Andre, its gone, if the cabin cleaners didn't take it, an FA might have, and if it made it to the CSR it might make it to Lost and Found, but man that would be really lucky. TSA is the least of you concerns. I hope that you get if back, I never stole anything from a pax. There are a lot of good people out there but I wouldn't hold your breath.

In other news I hope that Guadalajara was nice. Are the women as beautiful as I was told? I will be back for Thanksgiving at the latest, hope to see you if you are in town.

John

Couple of threads that may help:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=711707
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=713541

The airlines hold on to lost articles for 5 days. They catalog those items in the system with a number. That number remains in the system for 5 days. After the 5 day period items are sent to their centralized warehouse in Iah. The expensive items are shipped via FedEx. The phone number for Co is 1-800-335-2247. Listen to the prompts that refer to lost item. Hopefully this helps.

Only if the item ever makes it to Lost & Found. Quite often items never are "found" to begin with, so they aren't tagged/processed. All the more common with small consumer electronics devices.

i lost my eyeglasses when left on the seat last week coming back from Costa Rica... I called first thing in the morning (flight arrived at 1am) and no luck. Plus, no one answered at that number. When I finally spoke with a someone, they told me they run the department themselves! So very slim chance of retrieving your items.

I learned long ago, it's finders keepers. And whats worse, they won't let you re-board to go back to get it. But feel free to buy it back on Ebay

This is an area that Continental really needs to work on. See this previous thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=713541

Stuff is stolen along the way starting with the ground crews and stuff is not itemized in any way where it can be identified easily by Lost and Found even if it gets there.

Some suggestions:

(1)Have someone from the flight crew (or gate crew) walk the plane immediately after passengers deboard and pick up anything of obvious value that they can see on the seats, in the luggage compartment, etc. and have them tag with flight # and date. I'm not suggesting that they are required to look under seats or go through seat back compartments, etc. but I would bet that there are a lot of ipods, phones, etc. left on seats when people put them down when they are pulling out there luggage.

(2) Require the cleaning crews also to tag all items found with flight # and date. And perhaps have security occasionally test the ground crews for honesty by planting some items to see if they're turned in or stolen.

(3) Institute a computer matching system where a passenger can request by flight # and date if an item was found. The minute I asked Lost and FOund if they had my old blue sweater that I left on a flight, and they were not interested in even knowing the flight, I knew that there was no way it would be found even if they had it.

My Wheels were found and returned to me so..Good Luck
 

I had a good experience and hope you do as well.I left my rolling cart aka wheels in an overhead bin on a flight last month .I called the missing item folks gave them a description of the wheels and row and was amazed that I had a call back from the EWR luggage people who had my wheels and offered to deliver them .The only glitch was that they sent the wheels to my office not my home.. but I was delighted with the service nad thank you all for returning these to me .Cheers Jane Lee

the only items that are returned are ones with no intrinsic value - rolling carts, bulky clothing.

anything that is small and expensive and easily hidden- iPod, expensive scarves - gone forever

Ladies and Gentleman how about YOU taking responsiblity for your things. No one should steal any items but the reality is that things are stolen all the time. Passengers have been known to take items while inflight. Yes, lost items should be turned in but let's be real here.....so the next time you travel please take a few moments and check that you haven't forgotten anything.

Settle down. No one said that the OP isn't at fault for leaving it in the first place. But to argue that "the reality is that things is stolen all the time" is a terrible attitude to take. I am being real in suggesting that when trusted with a job that involves cleaning up a plane/rental car/hotel room/etc. it is not reasonable to assume that those people are also expected to keep the things that they want and only turn in the ones they don't want.

I lost a (very nice) cell phone on a plane. I realized it before I left the airport property and was on the phone with the baggage services office and had the agent back on the plane very quickly. I'm not saying that another passenger didn't clean it up, but odds are the cleaning crew or a FA did. Sure, I'm at fault for leaving it, but why is the person who stole it not equally culpable?

I actually walked off a flight from HPN-PHL in March and as I'm headed down the tarmac to the terminal, about 25 yards from the plane, the FA runs down the stairs and onto the tarmac after me yelling "hey, hey !". I turn around and she comes up to me and hands me my $400 IPOD. Granted this was on US, but there are plenty of good souls out there ! ^

I am afraid your chances are very slim to none.

Lost headphones
 

I left a pair of non-Bose headphones on an aircraft at CLE some months back. This was on a Thursday night and I didn't realize it until Saturday, so I waited until I was back there on Sunday to see if they had been turned in to someone. Upon arriving in CLE, I checked in with a very helpful CSR who put me in contact with their lost and found department. I described them to the person in lost and found and he disappeared from the other end of the line for awhile then came back.

"They aren't Bose, right?" he asked.
"No, sir," I replied.
"Well, I can't find yours, but I have quite a few Bose in here. You can have one of them it you want."

I declined.