Can this ring be recovered?
July 21, 2012 10:31 AM   Subscribe

How to reach United Airlines, re: jewelry lost on plane, they said they found it but email returned as undeliverable. Details to follow

Been trying to retrieve a piece of jewelry lost on United/Continetial Airlines 6/19/12, told stewardess. Airlines called before I reached my destination in Illinois, they found the ring. Told me to pre-pay Fedex,
Fedex never heard of this, talked to a lot of people on phone, most spoke very poor english, was told that I could pick up my ring in Oklahoma city, that every passenger should have a Fedex account, a lot of other things that did not make sense. The ring isn't worth much, but has sentimental value. They gave me phone number that now says it is an extension and to call the main numbe. The email they gave me is no longer any good, I cannot find a number to call the airlines.

When I returned from trip a friend entered hospice and I haven't seen to this in a timely manner, is too late should I just let it go? Any ideas?
posted by misspat to Travel & Transportation (7 answers total)
 
Best answer: Here's their contact page. If you look toward the bottom, expand the "Baggage and lost articles" section. They give some telephone numbers -- are these the ones you already have? 281-821-3526 and 1-800-335-2247. They also have a link to the "Report lost items" online form. Although you've already reported it, you might put all the details (lost ring that they found, and you paid the FedEx charge but FedEx did not receive the package) in this form so that they can contact you.
posted by Houstonian at 10:49 AM on July 21, 2012


I've never heard of prepaying FedEx either. Surely the airline wants an account number. Opening a FedEx account is trivial. Usually supplying a credit card number to the sender works as well, but I prefer to give out my FedEx account number rather than my credit card number.

you paid the FedEx charge

It doesn't sound like this happened or even if it is possible.
posted by grouse at 10:59 AM on July 21, 2012


When we lost a device on an airline we got a similar call - they had the device, wanted a shipping address and a FedEx account number to send it. Easy peasy, just sign up for a FedEx account and the airline will mail you your jewelry, charging it to your account.

They also gave us the option of in person pickup FWIW.
posted by arnicae at 12:08 PM on July 21, 2012


Go straight to the top: glenn.tilton@united.com. (http://www.ceoemail.com is your friend)
posted by nickrussell at 12:38 PM on July 21, 2012 [1 favorite]


Go straight to the top

I think it's a little much to go to the CEO when you haven't even tried their advertised customer service number yet.
posted by grouse at 12:42 PM on July 21, 2012 [9 favorites]


Response by poster: Will call the number on Monday, thank you
posted by misspat at 5:18 PM on July 21, 2012


I think it's a little much to go to the CEO when you haven't even tried their advertised customer service number yet.

When the OP tried the two pieces of contact information they'd given her previously, the phone number turned out to be an extension that can't be direct dialed from the outside, and the email bounced as undeliverable. While I know that executive-email-carpet-bombing only works if used sparingly, in this case the United Airlines employee's she's already been in contact with either don't know or don't care that they've given out bad contact information, and I think an email to Mr. Tilton informing him of this customer service failure would not be out of line.

Either that, or looking into their social media presence to see if shaming them on Facebook or Twitter is an option.
posted by radwolf76 at 5:20 PM on July 21, 2012


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