Advice on finding cell phone lost in upper class?

I just flew JFK-LHR in upper class--am in London until Saturday (10/7). Had a brand new cell phone on the plane--ended a call before take-off (so I know I had it on me!), and found I didn't have the phone anymore when I got to the hotel.

I suspect I dropped it somewhere in the seat after I turned it off, and when the FA made up the bed it got ensconsed in the bedding/whatever.

Has anyone had this experience and actually gotten their item? I just spent 60 minutes on the phone (called Virgin USA--called Virgin in the UK as well--LHR lost and found, etc.). They told me no one has turned anything in, but I suspect it may be a situation where they'll have to actually search the seat on that plane to find it.

Also, Virgin has been less than helpful (lots of "call this number at Heathrow and have them sort it out"). Has anyone flown in upper class and had a good experience with a special department that can help focus on this for me? They basically tell me I need to deal with people at LHR but I hoped that having paid a full upper class fare, someone there might have taken this on on my behalf...hasn't happened.

Thanks,
Katherine

When my phone went missing on my flight the FSM pulled out parts of the seats so it could be in one of those so they would probibally have to search the seat for you.

[Decker]

I left my iPaq in my armrest and realised as soon as I got to baggage collection. Despite informing VS immediately - it was nowhere to be seen. Their lost and found (outsourced to India) was worse than useless - no reference codes could be given to stuff lost in the cabin as it was not checked baggage. So every time I called I had to repeat the same old details as they couldn't retrieve them (as they couldn't store them).

I do not feel at all hopeful for you sorry.

Welcome to the board BTW

Once left a book on a flight in PE to JNB and never got it back despite telling the groundcrew only about 30-60mins after leaving the aircraft.

VS.

holy crap! pretty demoralizing responses but i guess not surprising...i'll keep trying with them and with LHR lost & found though (hope springs eternal)....

We flew to Orlando last christmas in UC and realised upon disembarkment that my wife had left her glasses onboard. We contacted Virgin straight away but they said there was no trace of them, we contacted them several times upon returning to the UK with no success. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news [:#]

Ironically on the same flight our young son was playing with an old set of keys (he was obsessed with keys so thought this would entertain him for a little while) he dropped the keys down the unit which holds the table we could not reach in to get them so never thought much more about it. About 6 months later we received a phone call from Tesco advising Virgin had found a set of keys and needed us to ring them, we totally forgot there was a tesco clubcard fob attached to the keys [:w]

Regards
Nevil

Not all bad service,

I left my digital camera on board in UC following last years SFO trip. I was SOOOOO hungover[:$]

Got home realised it was still on my seat, phoned premier team who put me through to VS at LHR. Camera was handed in and they arranged to courier it out to me( I paid the cost of that).

Arrived the next day[y]

So it mat still turn up.

Iain

Speaking as a member of staff closly involved in the day to day operations of the airline, it sadens me to hear how poorly the customer service teams deal with these requests. It is not uncommon to have passengers drop an itme between the seats, especially on the UCS (so beware!!) If the Engineering section is informed they will go straight to the aircraft and take the seat apart if necessary to retrieve it. Unfortunately I believe that in most cases a passengers request via customer service never reaches the Engineering department, probably just gets to passenger services, who look in the lost property and if the item is not there then tough. As is mentioned, items could be down in the inards of the seat, and will only be found by the Engineers at a later date.

[Decker]

I disembarked forgetting to bring my armrest up. Got to baggage collection and realised and reported straight to the VS handlers. They called back to the plane but it "wasn't there". I was told to follow this up over the phone.

What was REALLY disappointing Golfman was that the call centre refused to record details of my loss - so even if a £400 iPaq turned up the week following they'd have nobody to trace it back to. This is just lunacy. I truly hope they have sorted this. They just told me to keep calling back. I did this a couple of times but frankly as they wouldn't give me a loss reference the insurers weren't prepared to pay out.

So if anyone offers you a cheap iPaq with GPS, GPRS and GSM with a ring tone of a lounge version of "Don't Fear the Reaper" you know where they got it .

[mitchja]

I once flew to MCO in J and forgot to take my pre-ordered duty free with me when I got off. I didn't realise this until I heard a call for me in the baggage reclaim hall. I guess the only reason VS knew it was mine was the fact they write your name and seat number on the outside of the pre-order plastic bag.

Regards

More doom and gloom from me BettyKat- I left my make-up bag in the UC toilets when returning into LGW.Realised atimmigration and informed VS ground services as soon as I could to avail (they contacted aircraft who said cleaners had already been on board and found nothing).Like Decker I made lots of calls over the following week but never saw the bag (a nice black leather Jo Malone mini- vanity case)or the contents again.Hope you have better luck.