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Hope for lost items on flights

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Hope for lost items on flights

SmarterTravel

There's a 95 percent chance Senior Editor Christine Sarkis is thinking about travel right now. Follow her on Instagram @postcartography and Twitter @ChristineSarkis.

Christine Sarkis is an SATW-award-winning journalist and executive editor at SmarterTravel. Her stories have also appeared on USA Today, Conde Nast Traveler, Huffington Post, and Business Insider. Her advice has been featured in dozens of print and online publications including The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, and People magazine. She has also shared travel tips on television and radio shows including Good Morning America, Marketplace, and Here & Now. Her work has been published in the anthologies Spain from a Backpack and The Best Women's Travel Writing 2008. She is currently working on a travel memoir.

The Handy Item I Always Pack: The Trtl Pillow. It's easy to pack and comfortable, and makes it so I can actually sleep on flights.

Ultimate Bucket List Experience: Seeing the Aurora Borealis from the comfort of somewhere warm, like a glass igloo or hot spring.

Travel Motto: Curiosity is an amazing compass.

Aisle, Window, or Middle Seat: Aisle all the way.

Email Christine Sarkis at editor@smartertravel.com.

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In the same way dryers seem to eat single socks, I suspect airplane seat-back pockets of an insatiable appetite for the small items we stash as we’re settling in onboard. I’ve left books, magazines, and toiletries behind after forgetting to check the seat-back pockets before exiting.

But from the sound of USA Today’s Gene Sloan article on reclaiming items left behind on flights, I’m a total lightweight with my lost paperbacks and moisturizers. People regularly leave behind big-ticket items such as cell phones, medications, and jewelry. Yikes.

This short and very useful article details the policies of reclaiming these items if you lose them. It also reveals the eventual fate of unclaimed items: the salvage company. The lesson I learned from this story is that if you do leave something behind, call the airline as soon as possible, and be sure to follow up if they suggest it. There are systems in place to route lost items back to passengers, but they only work when we, the seat-back-pocket absent-minded, come looking for our goods.

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We hand-pick everything we recommend and select items through testing and reviews. Some products are sent to us free of charge with no incentive to offer a favorable review. We offer our unbiased opinions and do not accept compensation to review products. All items are in stock and prices are accurate at the time of publication. If you buy something through our links, we may earn a commission.

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