Lost Property on a plane - will I get it back?

[v15ben]

Being a fool (a very tired, travel weary fool I admit) I managed to leave my Ipod on the plane when getting off a flight this morning. It is/was an old thing, but still worked fine. Unfortunately for me I realised I'd left it when I got home from Gatwick to Nottingham and went to put it on charge!

I have the lost property number for the airport and the airline, but is there any chance I'll ever see my Ipod again? My reckoning is chances are between incredibly unlikely and zero, but you never know!

What are PHers' experiences in this area? If it makes any difference, the airline of choice was Easyjet!

[GMX09]

If the crew are honest, friendly people and you have a contact number to recover stolen property then it's all in your favour.

I think the chances are slightly higher than you're predicting.

Edited by GMX09 on Friday 16th October 20:03

[touching cloth]

Look into a lot of this sort of stuff for clients of ours and tbh there is a pretty good rate, lots of high value items like slim laptops etc do turn up. Certainly worth speaking to the LP office but give it a day or so to filter through the system and get logged etc. Only thing I would say is the smaller the item the more "pocketable" it is for the aircraft cleaners, get an unscrupulous one and onto ebay it goes. Laptops maybe have a more reasonable success rate as they are that bit harder for them to swipe and they therefore get processed through as they should. Got to be worth a few phone calls, best of luck.

Edited by touching cloth on Friday 16th October 20:08

[pushthebutton]

Crew do, more often that not, return lost property. It's part of the end-of-flight security search and I've lost count of the number of items I've seen returned, Ipods included. Lost property is handed to the employee of the ground handling agency at the end of the flight. My best advice is to contact the handling agents for Easyjet at the airport you flew from. Find out which agent, by name, was handling your flight and try and contact them personally with your seat and flight number.

It depends on the airport, but I'm fairly sure that Menzies handle Easyjet flights, so contact them and you'll bypass the bureaucratic processes of Easyjet and get straight to the horses mouth.

Good luck!

[v15ben]

Thanks for the positive replies folks. Seems I may be underestimating the number of genuine folk out there. Does anyone know if it is Menzies who run ground ops for Easyjet out of Gatwick? I have the phone numbers of Easyjet customer service, Easyjet ground ops at Gatwick and also Gatwick airport lost property so will try them all in the morning.

The irony of the cheap beach break Easyjet flight adverts in the corner of the page isn't lost either

[pushthebutton]

Just asked Gatwick crew. I'm 100% sure it's Menzies.

[v15ben]

Thanks so much for that. I have Menzies Aviation Gatwick number on my phone now ready for the morning

[sneijder]

It'll be at the lost and found at the airport in question. I work for Menzies somewhere else, on a Saturday morning you'll get fobbed of pretty sharpish.

Try the lost and found on the airports website first, have your flight number and seat number ready.

[v15ben]

I expected it to be pretty busy for them on a Saturday morning. As I was on Easyjet I don't have the seat number to hand, would row number be sufficient with painstaking detail of said Ipod?

[ellroy]

Left a phone on a plane into NY once. Never seen again. I'm sure the majority of cabin crew/cleaners are honest, but you're probably right to expect the worse case scenario.

[Deva Link]

Our MD left his laptop on a BA transatlantic flight and it was considered hilarious that anybody thought he might get it back, and he didn't.

It was slightly ironic as employees losing laptops had reached epidemic proportions (especially office based people who took them home and then left them overnight in their cars ) and then he goes and loses his.

[EINSIGN]

My daughter left her PSP in the seat pocket with Virgin to USA once. We realised as soon as we went into the bag collection area. Absolutely no help from anyone. It was gone.

[Bob Fossil]

A mate of mine left his PSP on a flight to Geneva a couple of years ago (Easyjet) - went to lost property on the return leg and it was waiting for him... so all is not lost.

Good luck

[Mojocvh]

EINSIGN said:

My daughter left her PSP in the seat pocket with Virgin to USA once. We realised as soon as we went into the bag collection area. Absolutely no help from anyone. It was gone.

Yeg, left a pair of glasses (in case) on a BA flight to Toulouse, just cleared customs and realised, went straight to agents but NO chance. Nice case too.

[Nevin]

ellroy said:

Left a phone on a plane into NY once. Never seen again. I'm sure the majority of cabin crew/cleaners are honest, but you're probably right to expect the worse case scenario.

Left my iPod on a plane into Newark earlier this year. Ten minutes off the flight and it had vanished for all eternity into someone's pocket. Could just as easily have been another passenger as a crew member or cleaner though. Very annoying.

[v15ben]

Positive end to this one. Called the Easyjet Lost Property team at Gatwick and my Ipod was sat on their desk waiting for me to collect

[Puggit]

v15ben said:

Positive end to this one. Called the Easyjet Lost Property team at Gatwick and my Ipod was sat on their desk waiting for me to collect

Did you really go all the way back to LGW for a tatty ipod?

[v15ben]

Not when they are posting it back to me

[C Barrett]

Can somebody give me the number of easyjet gatwick lost property number.. I lost my viewing/reading glasses on flight from Nice to Gatwick yesterday 24th Oct EJ5068 dep 14.20 arr about 16.00.. I'm lost without them. In a plain back glasses case.
Thank you

[Engineer1]

v15ben said:

Not when they are posting it back to me

Now it has to brave the mail system don't celebrate till it's sat in your hand , not that posties nick stuff or Royal Mail lose stuff.