ON AIRLINES LOST ON LOST & FOUND

CUSTOMER DIS-SERVICE

As readers may know from my posts the last couple of days, I've been down to the Caribbean for the 2007 World Cup Cricket matches. 

Upon finally reaching home after a long travel day this Sunday, I realized that my camera bag was not in my backpack. 

It quickly hit me where I'd left it.   

It was on the American Eagle flight 5087 Sunday, from Nevis to San Juan.  The flight was over half hour late coming in from Nevis, and we had only 30 minutes or so to clear immigration and customs in San Juan, and transfer our checked bags onto a flight into Newark airport. 

I remember taking the camera bag out of the backpack boarding the Nevis flight, so that the backpack would fit the smaller overhead compartments on the American Eagle plane.  And of course, I forgot to grab the camera in the rush to connect with the next flight.

I relay all these details, because most reasonable people would assume there would be two ways to quickly connect with an airline on a piece of luggage left on one of their planes.

The first would be a centralized, national "Lost & Found" toll-free number.  If that weren't available, one would expect to find "Lost & Found" in the phone menu when calling any of the toll-free numbers.

The other would be to be able to the airline's website and quickly find a "Lost & Found" tab where one could dash off an email with the specific details, so that the airline could quickly follow up.

Well, as I write this, I've been on hold for over 40 minutes trying to reach the LOCAL Baggage claim cum Lost & Found department in San Juan.

The American Airlines rep on the national toll-free number said that I would need to contact EACH of the baggage claim AND Lost & Found phone numbers at EACH of the locations where I thought I might have left the item.  I'm looking at a list of over 4 telephone numbers.  And have just managed to dial one so far.

While I was waiting, I thought I'd go online and check out the American Airlines website and see if there was an option to connect online on this issue.  After scrounging around for over 20 minutes, I found no area on the web-site that relates to Lost & Found.

I next typed in that phrase in the search box at AA.com, and got the following results.  Essentially a listing of those three words in every published document on the site.  Take a look at it and see if it's at all helpful.

Most likely, I'll be writing off the Nikon D40, the super zoom lens, along with a handful of high-performance memory cards.  About a $2500 write-off. 

More importantly, I'll of course lose all the pictures taken on this trip, which of course are not easily replaceable.

This is the second time this year, I've had this kind of an experience with items left on an American Airlines flight.  A few weeks ago, my wife left a winter coat on an American Airlines Business Class flight, where the attendant forgot to return the coat upon landing that they normally offer to hang up.  In that case as well, she was rushing to catch a tight connection, due to a delay on the originating flight.

There too, we spent the better part of a week calling AND visiting the Baggage Claim and Lost & Found phone numbers in four cities (it was a complicated itinerary).  In each case, the person on the phone, or at the Baggage Claim office in person, seemed generally eager to pass the hot potato of a customer request for help onto the next link in the travel chain.

That coat too was a write-off.

In both cases, I knew exactly on WHICH flight the item had been left behind. 

In both cases, there was a high likelihood that the items would be recovered in the normal cleaning and preparation for the next flight. 

In both cases, one would expect those items to be forwarded to a lost and found area. 

In both cases, one would expect a easy way for passengers who discover the loss, to quickly and easily connect with the said item without having to call half a dozen representatives of the airline all over the country.

I'm a long-time Platinum flyer on American Airlines.  And this post is not to single out this carrier.  I would expect to have a similarly frustrating experience getting centralized help on Lost and Found on most of the other carriers.

I guess the reason for this post is to publicly reflect on how the blindingly obvious customer service solutions (in hindsight of course), are never, ever implemented by the companies that otherwise fight tooth and nail for your business.

Comments

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[K. A Oldsonol]

I agree with all of the above - I find it very hard to understand how the airport or airlines cannot coordinate some type of lost and found to help recover expensive items left behind. I returned to Dallas from Ontario, CA last week on a flight with AA and know exactly where my Oakley prescription sunglasses and case are on that flight. When getting to deplane I felt the case between the seat legs and wall and didn't have it register that it was my sunglasses. Since the flight came in at night I didn't realize till morning that I did not have them in my purse. I called the airport lost and found and got a lovely voicemail message to leave you description of the lost item, phone number, email address and they would notify you if found. If you do not hear back from them they have not found you item. Someone somewhere found my $550. pair of sunglasses. Granted they could have new lenses placed in the frames but I in the mean time am running blind. It wouldn't grip me quite as much but several times in the past years I have seen reports on the local news about the pound and pound of unclaimed items in lost and found at the airport. So I know my glasses are sitting in DFW or the next destination airport for that plane. You would think someone could come up with a plan to coordinate and help the passengers.

[ELAYNE O'LOUGHLIN]

I too had a similar experience I left my tiny digital Nikon Coolpix in the little case with 10 G memory of pictures taken on my London, Paris and Rome vacation 7/10-7/21/09. I was sitting in seat 9A on FL4755 JFKa to DCA on 7/20/09. Plane was cleaned and became AA4783 to LOGAN Airport. I know it was left aat my seat on the floor because I took camera out to take a picture of take off from JFK and picture did not look good so put camera back in case and forgot to return it to by bag. Realized missing when I reached home, No assistance from AA Lost and Found at 703-419-7800. Was told to leave message at Logan 617-632-5205 the place plane went after it left DCA and would get a call if camera found. I would pay a nice reward just to get the memory chips back. They are irreplaceable memories of my trip with my sister and neice. Keep the camera and two batteries. Just return the chips to E. O'Loughlin at PO Box 4822 Falls Church VA 22044.or call me at work 202-526-2400 ext 238. Dont throw them away. They are worth money if you send them to me. Thank you.

[Sylvana Labib]

I lost a 21 carat gold bracelet while passing thru securitly. Was worth $200.

[Jody]

Last night (7/24) I had a similar experience, although this one took a concerning additional step. My baggage did not arrive on AA into O'Hare. I promptly filed a claim and the bag was delivered this morning. Unfortunately, some one ransacked the bag and took my invaluable digital camera. It wasn't a very bright thief, however, since they neglected to take the battery and the charger. What was more concerning is that they went into my shaving kit bag and took a bottle's worth of Tylenol pills, but left the opened bottle. They also opened up (and apparently sampled)a bottle of cough medicine. It all doesn't make sense, but it is frightening (especially since we can't lock our luggage) that someone can take their time, go through our luggage at their leisure, take what they want without fear of reprisal, and there's not a thing that we can do about it...and don't expect any help at all from Customer Service...

[Raphaelle]

Sharing the same frustration. Lost a PSP player with several games on flight AA 88 arriving 7/26 in Brussels from O'Hare. I got a live person at the lost & found in Brussels. Nice enough to check inventory. Ony had a Nintendo DS. I am pretty sure cleaning crew or other passenger got dib. Where else would it be now?

AA should create a system, even if you had to pay a retrieval fee to get your item back. I am sure we would be ready to pay $25 or even $50 to get some very valuable items back. It might sound outrageous to have paying customer service but let's face it, such a system where they would tag item with seat and flight number found, has a cost. And only people loosing stuff would use it > I don't want them to burry extra cost in price of airfare. But AA, just do it. It would make customers so much happier and then they would be repeat customers instead of switching airlines.
Thanks for this blog. It helps a bit to share experience. Thank you to the AA employee for sharing too. I wish all attendants would be this attentive to lost items.

If PSP is found, please call (312) 925 24 65.

[Bevan Colless]

I can't beleive AA. What a nightmare. After sitting through a four and a half hour flight with no TV or food provided I left my wallet in the seat pocket. My wallet was down there as they were charging me two dollars to open the sutter on the window or some other similar charge. It is impossible to speak to anyone or find out where the plane has gone. They ask you to leave a message and then nothing. I would imagine no-one even listens to it. Unfortunately I bought a One World round the world ticket and I am locked into them. I would never fly them again if it was my choice.

[tg]

Continental Airlines Cleaning Crew in Newark are now my suspects since it was under the seat in front of me. Although to be fair, I suppose a passenger could have grabbed mine.

[Honni]

Ugh, I feel all your pain and hope your items are returned to you. But what is worse then the airlines themselves is TSA security! I left my passport and greencard in the bin going through security at JFK the other day. Didn't realize I had left the items until I was off on my next flight. I've been calling and trying to get a hold of someone live. Yeah right, I've left "messages" that I know nobody is ever going to listen to. I'm sure someone at TSA security has my priceless items and is probably selling them on the black market as we speak. Ugh. As if traveling post 9-11 wasn't bad enough...there has to be a better system for these common problems.

[Sammie]

I can't believe how many reports there are of lost items with no sign of return. It makes me sick to my stomach. I just lost my nikon d 40 on a flight back from honolulu and I cried for 3 days straight. It fell out of our carryon and I have called for a week everyday talking to rude people and not getting a response. I feel the pain that all of you feel as I had pictures of mine and my husband's 1st anniversary trip on the memory card, I would pay more for the chip than I paid for the camera for the memories I lost. If the Airline employees really do keep the cameras they need to at least anomymouly send back the chip that would be worth it and they can keep the camera. Everyone needs to keep calling and filling reports until someone does something this is horrible, and its not just aa we flew Delta and they are just as bad if not worse.