I am not posting this without much hesitation and thoughts. I flew back from Europe to the US, in business in a 1-2-1 configuration.
It was a 10AM flight, so after the long drawn out first meal service, I drank enough wine and liquor and passed out. I was in the window K seat.
I put my phone there at the odd triangle tray space, next to the wall. To my horror, after I woke up, my phone was nowhere to be found. I tried to look and found nothing. Asked the FAs for help, 3 of them came to help look. Still nada. At the landing, one of the pilot came and talked to me. He even went back to put this in their log book.
I don't even know if there is a lesson to be learned here. Sure I read about people stealing stuffs from the carry-ons etc. Anyone ever heard of their phones being stolen in flight ?

If you drank enough to pass out you may want to check your pocket.

It's actually a growing problem, particularly where there's a large Asian market involved. What typically happens is scammers observe... usually
westerners... in the terminal. See who looks unaware or they had a few drinks... put their bag in the overhead lockers next to the victim and well,
if mid flight, particularly if the cabin is dark... they just look like any other pax getting their own luggage. Nobody even notices. Passports, cash, the usual valuables you wouldn't check. If you have a new world passport they can be sold for thousands as you can have blonde hair and blue eyes and your surname is Wong... makes it very popular on black markets. Disclaimer: Nothing against Asia here or saying it only happens there but it is a popular type of crime there... and I know all societies have issues. Westerners are terrible with drug running and Africans often are into the arms game or poached animals... so nobody is perfect. It is however growing as an issue... I think a few years back somebody even got off with a suitcase full of cash on EK.

If this happened to me I would probably want the crew, when becoming aware of theft not let anyone out of the plane until either belongings stolen have been returned or search everyone for the missing belongings, especially if it's something of high value or a passport, or call airport police on arrival to search bags of disembarking pax. However the airline would then get sued for holding people against their will or invasions of privacy...

The phone may not have been stolen, many fall between the seat monuments and the aircraft structure and need removal of parts to be retrieved.

First step to finding a lost or stolen iphone on the plane, before anyone disembarks, is for someone with phone to call your number and see if it starts ringing in the thief's pocket. The second step if it's a smart phone, or specifically an iphone, is for someone with another iphone to use the "find my iphone" app to locate your phone.

But as posted above, if you drank enough to pass out it could be in your pocket or you might have flushed it down the toilet.

IPFreely wrote:

First step to finding a lost or stolen iphone on the plane, before anyone disembarks, is for someone with phone to call your number and see if it starts ringing in the thief's pocket. The second step if it's a smart phone, or specifically an iphone, is for someone with another iphone to use the "find my iphone" app to locate your phone.

But as posted above, if you drank enough to pass out it could be in your pocket or you might have flushed it down the toilet.

Sure... If the OP "forgot" to turn his phone to airplane mode AND the theif didn't know what they were doing.

Note the logbook entry. If found during maintenance, they have an idea where it came from.

Maybe a stupid idea BUT... Why not have iPhone 8 Plus, Galaxy Note 8? sized little mini safes for each pax,,, quite similar to one of those little draw safes in most hotels. I realize on say a 350pax plane that would probably actually be a substantial amount of "unnecessary" weight But again its just an idea... and like any idea it can be fine tuned, compromises can be made. Like maybe have enough for half of the pax, or even 1/4th of the pax, because chances of every single person wanting to use one of these things all at the same time is i would assume quite low. They could maybe be built / constructed into the seat in-front of you, in your armrest, underneath the seat or they could be more like the P.O. Box section of the Post Office and have them all in one place, area or corner of the aircraft.m Also due to space, cost and weight, they could maybe be constructed to slightly less stringent tolerances and thickness's as a hotel room, or bank safety box,,, but still be perfectly strong enough to be able to keep "wandering" eyes and hands from being able to actually open them without using enough strength, and tools that the 350pax around (even pax asleep ) + the flight crew + even with the engine/aircraft surrounding noise..... WOULDN'T notice and alert one of the many flight crew or even just wake up and "scare" them away. Just a thought. In-fact to "combat" the added weight to the aircraft, and give pax who wanted it 100% peace of mind while they drink, work or just plain tire themselves into a 14hr coma,,, Airlines could charge to use them, Maybe ONE (the same) price for each box,,,or if the idea worked maybe just a tad bit more /or less depending on the...( 2 to 3 slightly different sizes). ???

Boeing757rb211 wrote:

Maybe a stupid idea BUT... Why not have iPhone 8 Plus, Galaxy Note 8? sized little mini safes for each pax,,, quite similar to one of those little draw safes in most hotels. I realize on say a 350pax plane that would probably actually be a substantial amount of "unnecessary" weight But again its just an idea... and like any idea it can be fine tuned, compromises can be made.

Someone has to say it, but sorry its a dumb idea.

How about each passenger takes responsibility for their own belongings...

doug_or wrote:

IPFreely wrote:

First step to finding a lost or stolen iphone on the plane, before anyone disembarks, is for someone with phone to call your number and see if it starts ringing in the thief's pocket. The second step if it's a smart phone, or specifically an iphone, is for someone with another iphone to use the "find my iphone" app to locate your phone.

But as posted above, if you drank enough to pass out it could be in your pocket or you might have flushed it down the toilet.

Sure... If the OP "forgot" to turn his phone to airplane mode AND the theif didn't know what they were doing.

The OP was so wasted that he passed out at 10am. Anyone in that condition is unlikely to switch his phone to airplane mode; for all we know he might have only imagined that he had a phone.

I always put my wallet, cell phone and passport in my front trouser pockets when travelling.



Anyone tries to take them from there they will have bigger problems!


Seriously, you can’t trust anyone around you, as a previous poster mentioned anyone rummaging through a bag will be assumed to be the owner unless the actual owner notices


Keep your valuables close and travel with a
paper copy of the ID page in your passport
in case you ever lose it that will make replacement much easier

a320fan wrote:

If this happened to me I would probably want the crew, when becoming aware of theft not let anyone out of the plane until either belongings stolen have been returned or search everyone for the missing belongings, especially if it's something of high value or a passport, or call airport police on arrival to search bags of disembarking pax. However the airline would then get sued for holding people against their will or invasions of privacy...

No, the airline would not get sued, because no airline is going to do something so bizarrely extreme for one pax who "lost their phone" (or even their passport).
Maybe if someone is mysteriously murdered aboard a flight, that may merit the kind of treatment you speak of, but that's about it.

First of all, people need to realize your possessions are your responsibility. When flying, I always keep my stuff safe on a long-haul and frequently check my belongings. Why anyone becomes complacent in a confined place with hundreds of strangers is beyond my understanding.

Secondly, there are a lot of nooks and crannies in an aircraft. Things can simply fall and will have a long time until they’re found. Or found at all!

In a situation like this, you dial your number. Report to the crew have them make an announcement asking whether anyone found the missing article. Whether as a pax or a crew memenber, I would ideally halt disembarking and have law enforcement come onboard. But, that wouldn’t be a viable option sadly.

Hope the airline gets back to you (which one was it?) maybe they’ll have their maintainance people look around.

And to the person who said that Asians are targeting Westerners. I would like to say that as someone who has walked around East Asia with a backpack with a broken zipper and where the one section was wide opened as a result, many Asian locals kept telling me that my bag was opened. Of course, theft can happen anywhere though.

On a long haul flight I lock my bag while it's in overhead bins. Stops anyone nosing about and pretending to be looking in their bag. But also stops anyone putting something in your bag that they perhaps no longer want to carry.

"What's this in your bag sir?" "I've no idea I've never seen it before" ....Can't see that going down too well somehow and not being a line of defense. Trust no one and keep your belongings safe at all times.

OP: Traveling is usually not our best day, we multitask so much that our memory could lapse in the worst way possible. Stress, fatigue, and yes being under the influence can compound the issue. Not saying it is impossible but giving the odds of traveling in a smaller cabin with less traffic, in all likelihood your phone stayed behind in the aircraft in a comfortable crack or worst the phone never made it onboard.

Years ago on a SFO to TPE night flight I fell asleep in an aisle seat, and, no, I had not been drinking. When I woke up my cellphone was missing from the case on my belt. The case had one of those snap button fasteners. First, I looked around and under the seats, but the phone wasn't to be seen. I reported it to a flight attendant and we look again and this time the phone "magically" appeared on the floor in the same area I had looked the first time. From then on I kept the phone a front trouser pocket.

SYDSpotter wrote:

Boeing757rb211 wrote:

Maybe a stupid idea BUT... Why not have iPhone 8 Plus, Galaxy Note 8? sized little mini safes for each pax,,, quite similar to one of those little draw safes in most hotels. I realize on say a 350pax plane that would probably actually be a substantial amount of "unnecessary" weight But again its just an idea... and like any idea it can be fine tuned, compromises can be made.

Someone has to say it, but sorry its a dumb idea.

How about each passenger takes responsibility for their own belongings...

Tell me that again when your $1,400 phone goes missing due to no fault of your own, you think you can plan to keep every single device or piece of paperwork/I.D. glued to your body whilst transiting across the globe? Zero chance you might pass out for a moment, or have to use the restroom or whatever ? You know damn well there are people who's sole purpose seem to be to purposefully look for "opportunities" in others innocent mistakes to take advantage of

Boeing757rb211 wrote:

SYDSpotter wrote:

Boeing757rb211 wrote:

Maybe a stupid idea BUT... Why not have iPhone 8 Plus, Galaxy Note 8? sized little mini safes for each pax,,, quite similar to one of those little draw safes in most hotels. I realize on say a 350pax plane that would probably actually be a substantial amount of "unnecessary" weight But again its just an idea... and like any idea it can be fine tuned, compromises can be made.

Someone has to say it, but sorry its a dumb idea.

How about each passenger takes responsibility for their own belongings...

Tell me that again when your $1,400 phone goes missing due to no fault of your own, you think you can plan to keep every single device or piece of paperwork/I.D. glued to your body whilst transiting across the globe? Zero chance you might pass out for a moment, or have to use the restroom or whatever ? You know damn well there are people who's sole purpose seem to be to purposefully look for "opportunities" in others innocent mistakes to take advantage of

you are proposing a massive solution for a problem which barely exists on any real scale. Adding hundreds of mini safes to every long haul aircraft creates far more new problems than it solves. I don't think anyone was trying to insult you, but the word "dumb" is a short, even if unartful way of saying just that. Its simply not practical.
Space.
Weight.
maintenance.
crew burden.

there's all kinds of things a traveler has to account for when traveling, its hard to see why smartphones merit any new consideration. your passport has always, far and away been a more important item, and we've managed to get by this long without aircraft safes.

I will add to the voices that believe the phone remained on the plane, under the seat, etc. It's one nice thing about wired (as opposed to wireless charging). The chord can act as a tether.

Boeing757rb211 wrote:

Tell me that again when your $1,400 phone goes missing due to no fault of your own, you think you can plan to keep every single device or piece of paperwork/I.D. glued to your body whilst transiting across the globe? Zero chance you might pass out for a moment, or have to use the restroom or whatever ? You know damn well there are people who's sole purpose seem to be to purposefully look for "opportunities" in others innocent mistakes to take advantage of

My phone will be kept firmly in my pocket of my pants, if someone wants to steal it, they will need to reach into the deep abyss of my pants to reach it

But rest assured, if my phone goes missing, you will be the first to know...

There was an incident a year or so ago where quite a substantial amount of cash was stolen from an overhead locker in Business class on an EK flight. It turned out the victim had purchased a diamond (I think it was in the UAE) and were reimbursed the VAT component of the transaction at the airport as they departed the UAE. The Tax Authorities were unable to process the refund to a credit card, so cash was their only option.

My view was that they were silly to put that amount of cash in an overhead locker. Being in Business Class there might be a reasonable expectation it is safer (there are fewer people moving about the cabin), but I think they should have kept the cash on them in the seat - along with their passport, wallet and phone and anything else of high value. But equally, it seems to me that the victim in that case was watched, and followed. Someone knew there was a large amount of cash in that bag in that overhead locker, I do not buy that it was purely an optimistic theft.

Edit: it was an EK flight from CDG to DXB, and they were in First class, not business, and it was stolen from the suite, not the overhead locker (there are no overhead lockers in First in EK). https://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com ... ass-theft/

However - the OP's post about the phone being stolen from the seat is pretty disturbing. Let us hope this is not a harbinger of a new trend in air travel.

PS to the other posters making judgemental comments about the OP's consumption of alcohol - really? For all you know the OP may be a nervous flyer, or perhaps they had already taken a long haul flight and it was evening for them. If a couple of glasses of whatever helps the OP sleep on an aircraft, I am certainly not going to rush judgement on them.