As I wrote a few weeks ago, Bonnie and I were in New Orleans when Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida. We didn’t feel it at all in the Crescent City, which was 300 miles west of where the eye of the storm hit the mainland.
The following Sunday we flew to Atlanta, so as to continue our “play-cation” at Harrah’s Cherokee in North Carolina. When we fly from Vegas, we fly into Asheville — which is about one hour away from Cherokee. Although there are direct flights from Las Vegas to Atlanta, it’s a three-hour drive from Atlanta to Cherokee.
From New Orleans, however, flights to Asheville require plane changes and many hours. The flight into Atlanta took about an hour and a half, so that’s what we signed up for. Less flight time, and more drive time. We flew Spirit Airlines.
This turned out to be a fortunate play. Helene wreaked havoc on Asheville, to the surprise of essentially everybody. Had we planned to fly into Asheville, our flight would have been cancelled because the airport was closed for a few days while repairs were being made. Several weeks later, repairs are still being made to parts of Asheville.
On the flight, Bonnie somehow left her iPhone on the seat next to her when she left the plane. We didn’t discover this until we were in Cherokee — three hours away. The “Find My Phone” app said her phone was in the Atlanta airport (ATL), Concourse D. This, of course, was good news. It was likely in Spirit Airlines lost and found.
We called Spirit, hoping to make arrangements for them to ship the phone to our home. I was prepared to pay whatever the shipping charge would be. This has to be a fairly common occurrence.
But I couldn’t get through on the phone. The message said my wait was expected to be in excess of 90 minutes. I set it to speaker phone and put it next to me while I played video poker. Two hours later they still said the wait was expected to be in excess of 90 minutes. I finally left my number. They said they would call me back when they could. Since we were still in the aftermath of the hurricane, with airports still closed and Hurricane Milton approaching, it was understandable that the airline’s phone system was swamped. But they never returned my call.
On their app, they had a place where you could file a lost and found report. I did this. I also filed a lost and found report online for the Atlanta airport just in case Bonnie, perhaps, left her phone in a bathroom or somewhere after she departed the plane.
Our scheduled flight home left ATL on a Sunday at about 8 a.m. The lost and found office is open 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. My “plan” was to talk to somebody and agree to pay them $200 to be at the office on Sunday morning about 6 a.m. That is much cheaper than buying a new phone and, for the right person, a $200 bonus was something worth changing their schedule for.
But talking to somebody in lost and found proved impossible. Spirit has a chat feature in their app, but every person I chatted with, including at the supervisor level, followed the company line. Wait for the lost and found to respond to your request. They would not give me a direct number to the Spirit lost and found at ATL or the Spirit executive offices at ATL.
The lost and found sent me an email saying they hadn’t located Bonnie’s phone yet but were still looking.
I was considering renting a car. It’s a long drive, and I didn’t want to spend my vacation that way, but, again, it would be cheaper than buying a new phone.
Out of the blue, another possible solution arose. A gambling friend who happened to be in Cherokee at the same time mentioned that girlfriend was flying into ATL from Tampa Thursday night and then driving to Cherokee. I asked if she was the helpful sort who might be willing to check the Spirit lost and found while she was there.
“Probably,” I was told, and he gave me her phone number. Through talking and texting, I gave “Mary” a description of the phone, my lost and found claim number, and the code that would unlock the phone.
I asked her if she had a phone charging cord that would work on an iPhone 13. She did, but it was at home. She now had a newer iPhone which requires a different charge cord. By the time I called she was already at the Tampa airport. “Okay,” I told Mary. “Give it your best shot.”
A few hours later, Mary sent me a text with a picture of Bonnie’s phone on it. There was a distinctive mark on her case that I recognized. “Yes,” I told her. “That’s Bonnie’s phone.” Turned out she didn’t need to show ID or have the claim number or see if she could open it. They just gave it to her. That strikes me as irresponsible, but Bonnie and I benefited from it this time.
“Disasters” don’t always work out okay. And after listening to all the horror stories of people’s houses being washed away in nearby Asheville, the possible loss of Bonnie’s phone clearly wasn’t a disaster at all. But it felt like one at the time.
I was not at all pleased with Spirit’s system for dealing with customer complaints.
You have depicted 2 reasons why Spirit is terrible. (1) No way to actually contact lost and found – even after following their guidelines , and (2) Spirit not requiring any proof of ownership when returning your phone. The whole airline is in complete disarray.
I agree. And they are the cheapest. Sometimes you get what you pay for — and usually the specific shortcomings aren’t relevant for you.
Spirit is the worst. After I broke my arm in Las Vegas and couldn’t drive home, I had to book Spirit back to Atlantic City for a friend to pick me up there. A fistfight nearly broke out on the plane before we left Vegas as people argued about seating and other unrelated subjects. We flew to Fort Lauderdale and had a long wait for the connecting plane. I got to AC about 2 hours late.
Congratulations on some people being honest enough to get the phone to you! I’ve left one in a buggy at H Depot, and one in a rental car, and within the two minutes I realized my loss, they were both GONE. No help from the rental car company nor H Depot. My fault, both times, for sure. I wish whoever found mine would have been as helpful as in your situation. … You know, you are a LUCKY GUY, Bob. Continued good luck to you and Bonnie.
Some years back my husband lost his phone. We called and called the number multiple times hoping to hear it ring somewhere in house or car, but no. Then he remembered being at Edwards, a large grocery store around the time it could have gone missing. Drove to Edwards, looked around on the parking lot where he thought he’d parked, no phone. Went inside and asked at the Customer Service desk. Imagine our surprise, they had it! The lady said somebody had picked it up from the parking lot and turned it in! She said she was hearing a phone ring in the drawer but didn’t have the key to that particular drawer. At least SOMEBODY picked it up from the parking lot and turned it in.
I’ve twice lost my phone in Wynn casino, stupidly both times set it down on a machine and walked off. Both times somebody had turned it in by the time I realized it was missing, it was already in the Security department.
Once on a charter trip (Sun Country Airlines) to Beau Rivage my husband’s black binder containing his “life” was ‘missing’ when we got to the hotel. Names/addresses, calling cards, passwords, etc. We realized what had likely happened, it had slid out from my purse under the seat which we/I didn’t notice when we deplaned. I went to Host office, she called a number, described the binder, which flight, seat number. They put her on hold while I waited, and in no time at all they said “yes we have it” and that they would deliver it to the hotel by 7:30 PM, which they did. Yay! Husband almost didn’t recover from it until the next day…LOL.
People seem to be skipping right over the pivotal element in this topic as if it were something that we can’t do anything about, when in fact it IS something we can do something about: the practice of placing your smartphone on some place that is not on you and not in your purse or tote bag or other carry-around container. Possibly leaving your phone sitting on an airplane seat? That’s so dangerous with respect to losing your phone that it’s the last thing you should do. The ridiculous ordeal that Bob & Bonnie had to go through to retrieve Bonnie’s phone is entirely foreseeable; we all know that such event is possible, and we should operate in a way to minimize the chances of that happening, not maximize them. I have always used a “neck pouch” to hold my phone as I walk around or stand in public; the pouch comes with a cord or strap that goes around your neck, and the pouch rests on your chest. This is better than putting the phone in your back pocket (which can result in “butt calls” being made, or in your getting tissue or nerve damage in the area where the phone-in-pocket is next to your behind). If I will be sitting down somewhere that has a table, such as a restaurant, I will take off the neck pouch, lay it on the table, and lay the phone on top of it; I never forget to take the phone & the pouch with me when I’m ready to leave. (OK, maybe some people have a problem with remembering to take all their stuff when they leave, while others don’t, and I’m lucky enough to be part of the latter; I’ve never lost my phone in 21 years that I’ve had one.) This neck-pouch practice also has an advantage in restaurants, over just laying your phone on the table: The phone will be elevated, so if someone spills a drink, the liquid won’t get on or in your phone. Having your phone in a neck pouch while walking makes it impossible to drop it and then it possibly hitting the ground or floor and getting damaged or totaled. This is so superior to walking around while carrying the phone in your hand, which enables the possibility of you tripping or taking a bad step or someone bumping into you, and then disaster occurring; if the phone is in a neck pouch, you can’t drop it and then see it get damaged. You can find a lot of choices for these neck pouches online, both on Amazon and on the open Web. With a cost between $5 & $20, it will be one of the best purchases you could ever make.
And the neck pouch also makes you a complete dork but to each their own.