You may not think that a tattered old blue and white blanket is much. But to a four and a half year old child it is everything. But not just any toddler- ours.
This blanket has traveled with him over 185,000 miles and three continents. It has been with him for most of the last three years. Now, it is gone.
Here is how we lost it: on a redeye flight leaving Honolulu (US Airways 675 – now American Airlines) on Saturday (March 7th) arriving Sunday morning. JJ was snuggled up in seat 2F and fell asleep among his favorite blanket and the one supplied by US Airways. He woke up before the plane landed, played a bit with his action figures then we landed.
In our hurry to get off the plane we made sure we had the electronics – all ipads, cords, and Kindle accounted for- but we never thought about the blanket. Until two days ago.
We tweeted US Airways (@USAirways) and surprising they didn’t tweet back to us – they are usually pretty good about that. Then we discovered – the account has been inactivated. We emailed Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, and they were kind enough to email back and give us the lost and found for US Airways. Try to call that lost and found- the message is stark and simple: leave a voicemail, if we find it we will call you back, if we don’t then don’t bother us. No person, no human.
Thankfully @AmericanAir tweeted back with the lost and found number. I talked to a very nice lady there, who gave me the lost and found for US Airways (still a voicemail which says leave your information and if they find it they will call you) and Sky Harbor Airport, where a person answered and said “sorry, no baby blankets.”
So I drove to Sky Harbor – went to the baggage area. They were nice there- but said they had looked through everything. Nothing.
@AmericanAir then tweeted me the lost and found for Honolulu – since the flight left Phoenix and returned. Called, and left a message.
Here are the travel lessons:
- Make a list of the things you take out when you get on a plane, and make sure you account for those when you get up to leave. Typically you have a few minutes to make that.
- If you lose something, chances are it is lost.
- @USAirways – don’t tweet them – they have transitioned
- If you are an airline- and you want to do great customer service- at least reach out to those who contact you.
- By the way – our son was one of the youngest people to achieve elite status on US Airways. What JJ looks forward to is the new American Airlines status.
- I can’t thank enough the caring ones @AmericanAir