Stupid stupid me....left iPad in setback of 4c

I have never left anything on a plane, today on a flight from Bos to CLT left iPad in seat back. Am pretty certain it is still there, as find me is not locating it and I know plane is now on the eat to SEA. Is my only option filing a claim with baggage claim?

That sucks. Sorry to hear it.

I would do a few things:
1-Call the airline at reservations - they have a non-baggage lost and found. If you are a gold or platinum (or whatever appropriate dykwia credential is appropriate for the carrier, politely let them know that).
2-find a way to call the airline staff at Seattle. it is tough to get a telephone number, but they do exist. If you find someone nice, it would surprise me if they would go greet the plane when it pulls in. This is in no way assured to happen, but if you find someone who will do this - probably in the "station manager's" office - you have a shot.
3-if they don't help, figure out what police force patrols the seatac airport. You might get lucky and find they're old timers and would enjoy to go claim something back. I've seen the palm beach sheriff (minimum age of an officer is seemingly 65) come into the DL club asking if anyone phone a cellphone. If you get lucky and get a friendly person, you got a shot.

What you should have when you call (people in steps 2 and 3) are the number of the flight to Seattle and the gate that it is arriving at in Seattle and what time it arrives. Give them everything they could possibly need.

Each of these involve the luck of finding a friendly person who wants to help you. This isn't in anyone's job description - but someone wanting to do a good deed could help.

Maybe the person in your seat will turn it in too. Though, if they turn it into an FA, there is then the risk as to what the FA does with it.

Final questions - do you have it on auto-lock? Can someone get into you emails etc without a pin if they have access? Do you have your name or other identifying information on the unit?

If you know someone in management at the airline, this might be the time to call in a favor. The reality is the company can get in touch with the aircraft during the flight and could realistically have the cabin crew go to the seat and ask - during the flight. This would likely only happen if a direction came from a senior exec or someone who works in the operations center. There are lots of non-essential communications between aircraft and the ground (sports scores, among other things) - this can be done - but is really limited to personal favors. It would be impractical if every time someone left something on a plane they radioed up. But a well placed friend could make you the exception.

Good luck. Let us know how you go.

WiFi or 3G iPad? If you set up "Find my iPad" as per Apple's instructions, you can password lock it and try to locate it remotely (as soon as it shows up on the network again), and verify that it's on its way out or if someone lifted it off the plane.

http://www.apple.com/ipad/find-my-ipad-setup/

Wow, I'm sorry to hear that. Hopefully you have an honest person in 4C.

Good luck!

Looking at worst case scenarios, is it a relatively new iPad that you purchased with a credit card that (such as Amex Plat/Cent) that will cover you in the event of such a loss?

Good luck on the recovery by the way!

Hope this worked out for you. I've lost several items to the seat back vortex (which is why I never put things there anymore). If the plane was cleaned at CLT at all, one of the cleaners or flight attendants could have come across it. In the best of all worlds, the next occupant of 4A would be decent enough to return it, and whomever they returned it to would be decent enough to track you down.

Sorry to hear that, hopefully the flight attendants or cleaning crews will turn it in.
Good Luck.

While this advice is too late for the OP, I hope that those of you who carry around expensive gadgets will heed it: After multiple incidents of inadvertently leaving my iPod at the gym where I work (thankfully, there are honest people at my gym and workplace), I finally had the good sense to create rudimentary, hand-written labels with my name and cell phone number which I securly taped on both the iPod and the case. I figured that if an honest person found it, the least I could do is make it easy for them to track me down. I did the same for my Blackberry, but put my office and home phone numbers on it. When I ordered my iPad 2, I had my name and cell phone number engraved on it, in addition to setting myself up for Find My iPad.

The hope is also that if somebody steals my devices, seeing my name and phone number might just make them think twice about the bad karma they are generating by knowing whom they have wronged.

I just take return address labels I get for free from random charities and attach those and add my phone number. I also use those on my luggage because my handwriting is horrible.

I set "owner information" and offer a reward on pretty much any gadget. On my iPad I took a picture of my contact info and the "reward if found" line, and set that as my wallpaper. My Blackberry lets me set Owner info on the Setting page. Fortunately I have not lost anything in a long time but when I worked for the Fed's we had a few thousand Blackberries that I supported, and at any given time at least one had gone missing. People who offered a reward when the device screen was locked were WAY more likely to get their lost devices back.

A couple years ago I left an iPod on a UA flight from ORD-DCA; i got a call from one of the cleaners, who admitted after the fact that #1 he had taken it home despite company policy to turn found items into lost and found #2 he took it home because he felt that if he had turned it in, the lost and found people would have pocketed it (so if someone's going to steal it, might as well be him) and #3 the only reason he bothered calling me to return it was because I'd offered a reward. I gave him $50 and have such mixed feelings, even still. Why tell me how dishonest you are?

OP I hope the iPad turns up for you!

When I was a kid, my dad bought me a brand new car racing video game. I played with it the entire flight then put it in the seat back for landing. We deboarded, got to the hotel, and then I realized what had happened. As a child, it sucked, it was unfair, etc. I can only imagine what leaving an iPad must be like. Good luck recovering it!

Sorry to hear this, hope your able to get back your iPad. While traveling, I also put it in the seat pocket, but always make sure to wedge something else in the seat back pocket so that it doesn't fall "in" so-to-speak so I can make sure I'm always seeing it.

Good Luck.

Sorry to hear.... Track It Back is a great program that i put on all my electronics. despite very generous (especially around the holidays) promotions for overpriced stickers with an abundance of miles, it covers shipping to get your electronics back to you.

I apologize to everyone for being so poky in updating.....I have some personal things happening, which is why I was so distracted and left the thing to begin with.....

First of all - THANK YOU to NYBanker for your specific suggestions and ideas...and to everyone else for their good wishes. All was appreciated, and much needed

So - to the update>

Bad News: CLT did not apparently do a great job cleaning the plane, because they did not "find" it. Kind of interesting since there was in excess of an hour layover....

Good News: I HAD set up "find me" - which early on could not locate the ipad. So I knew it was on the plane when it took off, and since the plane was going on from CLT to SEA, had time to get the incident report filed, etc. I set up "find me" to send a message to the ipad, which included my name, phone number and REWARD. Ipad WAS found during or after flight, and the Sea-Tac baggage office saw message on pad and called me.

Now comes the bad news........

It was 3AM when they called, and I did not get to the phone quickly enough. They left a message with a phone number, and the phone number does not work. (Have tried it for 2 days). No problem. Called US, got new number. It is the SEATAC lost and found. They gave me another US number. It has been disconnected. No problem, called CLT baggage office. They gave me a 3rd number - which is once again the SEATAC lost and found. Called the US 800 number again, and gave them the incident report number. They tell me it no longer exists, which means the item has been found and been returned. Since they are an outside agency and the person I spoke with did not speak English as a primary language, I am hoping that answer is incorrect!

So - 2 days later, I still do not have my ipad. Hopefully it IS still in SEATAC, and it will be returned to me at some point in time.....here is the new question:

Does anyone have the CORRECT US SeaTac phone number - or an idea on how to get it????????

TIA -

Could you send your iPad another message with your address?

Time for a mileage run to Seattle to kick some skulls?

Evidently not, I have tried. I guess once it is "found" you cannot send another message...not to mention that it is probably dead now anyway.

Too bad you didn't get in on the Track It Back tag promotion in 2009 - you could have used those instead of giving them to charity!

I don't know how to get the US number - you might try the general airport number and see if they can locate a real person for you:
http://www.portseattle.org/about/contact/

You still remember.

Speaking of which.... anyone need Track It Back tags?

It was heartbreaking as a child.

The USO, that is, if you need a deduction

OP, put a post on the Alaska Airlines forum (either here or FT) asking if any kind soul is going to be in that airport and would do you a favor by going to the Lost and Found office and helping get a human on the phone. DL (if memory serves me) also has a good presence at seatac.

I've got a couple of those memories too. I'll never forget.