Any advice would be welcome

Hi I am seeking some help and perhaps advice from the forum.

Briefly … My daughter flew UC from Lhr to
Delhi on Monday on VS300.
As she was flipping the bed back into seat mode she realised her phone had gone from the little shelf. On landing cabin crew were very helpful searching everywhere but no luck finding the phone.
My daughter managed to contact Sky mobile and phone was put into restricted mode what ever that means.

This afternoon my son in law got a phone call from someone claiming to be the duty manager at Johannesburg saying her phone was found on the VS flight landing there today.

First question : How do I trace to see if the aircraft which dropped them in Delhi on Monday was in fact the same aircraft which landed in Johannesburg today?

The person sent a screenshot of the phone and yes it showed my daughters Medical ID page. Goodness knows how he got to find that. He contacted them via a WhatsApp message just giving his christian name and a mobile phone number in South Africa. He has suggested my son in law arranges for a DHL courier go to “his office” (no details given) to collect the phone and get it sent to them whilst still on holiday in India.

They didn’t really want to engage in too much messaging going back and forth as understandably they feel a tad sceptical & vulnerable.

Does this sound bona fide to you guys or should they be cautious ?

I tried to call the Virgin Atlantic customer services department in Johannesburg but there was no reply.
I also tried to contact someone at Virgin Atlantic uk for advice this afternoon but went around in circles.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thankyou.

Looking at flight radar 24 app,

G-VYUM operated VS 300 on Monday 6th and landed in Johannesburg as VS 449 on 7th.

Hope helpful,

Regards,

David

[mitchja]

Do you know what handset your daughter has and if she has ‘Find my phone’ enabled on it?

If she has this, you can log onto a website and see the handset’s current (or last known location if the battery has gone flat).

You can access the medical page when the phone is locked so it certainly sounds like this person has access to the phone.

My only confusion/concern is that the phone was lost on the LHR-JNB route and then discovered on the same route a few days later? They were then notified whilst the plane was airborne and flying to JNB? That part seems a bit sketchy, but on the whole, there would be far too many coincidences so I’d personally roll the dice.

Good morning. Thank you so much for your replies to my ‘cry for help’ I am honestly so grateful.

Flightware tracking of the aircraft has confirmed that G-VYUM named Ruby Murray left Heathrow bound for Delhi on Monday 6th as VS 300. It was on this flight my daughter lost her iPhone. The aircraft then returned to Heathrow before its route as VS 449 landing at J’burg yesterday morning. It was on this flight the phone was apparently found.

Mitchja, my daughter has Find my Phone switched off. Words fail me! She doesn’t like people to know where she is. Personally I’d prefer to know the darn location of my £1k iPhone !

It was interesting to learn that the Medical ID page was available even when a phone is switched off or is on airplane mode, like hers was. So yes the person has got her phone but whether he is actually a Virgin employee based in SA is up for debate.

Someone from the uk has messaged him via the WhatsApp number he used to contact my son in law, asking for his office address where DHL can collect it from to return it to the uk. It will be interesting to see his reply.
For interest I will keep you posted

Thank you all once again. Hev

Glad to see you are getting some help

This does raise a concern over the phone possibly trapped in the seat mechanism , I would have expected the crew to get maintenance to have a deeper search, the last thing you want is an unexplained phone to start smoking or causing a fire , which would be quite scary if you were in that particular seat?

I thought I would feedback the outcome of the issue of my daughter’s lost iPhone.

Firstly it turns out that the person who contacted my son in law from Johannesburg was in fact a Duty Manager who had received the found phone from a crew member. Exactly how it was located within the area of her seat on that aircraft 2days later actually not clear!

A few WhatsApp messages went back & forth until my family became unavailable whilst touring around in India so I tried to resolve the arising problems. I was surprised to learn that we was being asked to arrange a courier to pick the phone up from Johannesburg. Via another airline forum I understood the Virgin office in J’burg is rarely open so arranging a suitable time when the very expensive courier would have contact was becoming difficult.

In desperation I reached out to the ‘lost baggage team’ in the uk. It turns out they also assist with items lost on the aircraft. The Agent I have been dealing with has been absolutely exceptional. She has been so supportive and helpful. The original advice on how we would get the phone back was not correct. The outcome of my positive communication with this department has resulted in them organising for my daughter’s phone to be sent from J’burg to London Heathrow and once it has arrived there arrangements will be made to get the phone sent to my daughters home.

I intend to send my positive feedback to the Ex Office. Virgin Atlantic have been exemplary regarding this unfortunate issue. It will make a nice change for them to receive positive comments for a change. Hev

Moral of the story here is to keep a careful watch of your belongings at all times to prevent something like this from happening.

Moral of the story here is to keep a careful watch of your belongings at all times to prevent something like this from happening.

Ummm I am sure don’t mean to sound condescending and judgemental in stating the obvious.

Yes I agree 100% we must be careful with our possessions but unfortunately human beings do make mistakes because not all of us are perfect!

My story was to acknowledgement the helpful comments from v-forum members and the exemplary support we have received from Virgin Atlantic.

[Nottingham Nick]

Glad it all worked out - good news stories like that are always welcome.

Nick