Lost Property
 

The article talks about lost property across several travel modes in the UK but does mention airports. Has anyone had this problem?

Lost property rip-off: Passengers charged to retrieve own items - Telegraph

I guess one has to realise just how much is lost on a daily basis every day at say just one airport/railway station etc. Lost property has to be administratively processed and then stored. I once misplaced an item at Brussels airport. To my surprise it was found and handed over to lost property. When I went to collect it I was amazed at just how much lost property there was and how much space it took. So all in all I suppose it's not that unreasonable to charge an administration fee for the service.

I can never quite get my head around how newspaper reporters never quite grasp the principle of market forces. If you leave something on a train someone has to look for it and either put it into a lost property office to await your collection or make arrangements to send it back to you. This takes time and time is money. Truth is, if someone steps off a train and realises immediately that they've left something behind and can actually remember where they were sitting (probably 75% in my estimation can't) it'll be taken off at the next manned station and returned - unless some thieving lowlife nicks it first - for gratis.


It's another non-story.

Having left an iPad on a U2 flight, and receiving nothing but deathly silence from the airline and ground handling company, I would have been glad to pay £20 to get my stuff back.

On the other hand, here in Switzerland, there is an understanding that the finder should be compensated. Losers are suggested that they offer a reward to the finder. Not mandatory but ...

I agree that paying to get your property back when it was your fault is fair. I had no dispute with the article, I was just interested to see if folks had encountered this.

Last year, a companion left a good jacket on a Wizz flight arriving in Vilnius. We phone the airport the next day and eventually tracked it down. The cost was using our phone on roaming! When we returned to the airport for departure, the lost property office had it safe and the process to get it back was as they had said it would be.

Does anyone ever stop - just for a moment - to consider the costs, in terms of logistics and facilities, that lost property creates?

It is usually found during the safety checks following arrival, and the only contact between the cabin crew and the terminal is the despatcher, who, in these days of rapid turnarounds, invariably has enough on their plate as it is. At some airports, a member of the lost property office will come and collect the item. At other airports, the despatcher has the sole responsibility for the item until it can be delivered to the Lost Property Office, since they have signed for it on board the aircraft, even though in most cases they have no means to carry or store it if it is large or bulky.

Assuming the despatcher is able to safely deliver the item to the Lost Property Office, there is more paperwork to be dealt with and clearly there are costs involved in having a Lost Property Dept in the first place. Rent, heat, light, and salary as a minimum are the overheads for such an facility.

As an aside, I understand that in 70% of cases, the lost property is not claimed and most of it is auctioned. Whether this covers the cost of having the facility in the first place, I have no idea. I know of at least one airport which donates much of the money raised to charity.