On December 8, a passenger parked their car at Buffalo airport short-term parking. she was only expecting it to be there overnight, for her quick trip to New York and back.
The next day she boarded her JetBlue flight home from New York JFK, stowed his backpack in the overhead bin, kept Her purse as her underseat personal item, and then fell asleep before takeoff.
A flight attendant removed the backpack from the overhead bin while trying to manage bin space, asks the cabin whom it belonged to, and — getting no response — assumeed it was left-behind item from the previous flight on that aircraft. So the flight attendant had the backpack taken off the aircraft.
It seems odd to me that a flight attendant would think a backpack in the overhead bin was left from a previous flight – especially long enough after boarding for a passenger on the new flight to fall asleep. However,
- A backpack is a “personal item.” My best guess here is that the flight attendant didn’t actually start off thinking it was from a previous flight, but rather they saw a backpack in the overhead bin and wanted the owner to claim it and put it under the seat in front of them to make room for carry-ons.
- Then, when nobody claimed it, they assumed it was left behind.
It was only when the plane arrived in Buffalo that the woman discovered her backpack was missing. Other passengers told her the crew removed it. She confronted the flight attendant, who told her that her only recourse was the JetBlue baggage office for lost and found.
That evening she filed a lost item report at the Buffalo airport. She received a call saying the bag was reportedly located at JFK and was given a report number. The passenger also spoke to someone at JFK baggage who says they’re pushing for expedited shipping.
The day she heard nothing – just assuming that shipping is in process. The night after that she received an email indicating the bag had not actually been located.
That’s when she started escalating with multiple calls to several locations. She submitted another customer service request. She filed a police report with the Port Authority hoping for review of security footage to determine where the bag went. On the fifth day she still had no whereabouts for the bag.
The backpack contained her car key fob. So the car remained stuck in airport parking, with parking fees mounting. (The bag also contained her Apple Watch and prescription glasses.)
On day six she met a locksmith at the airport to create a replacement fob, but the car battery was dead and wouldn’t jump. She wants JetBlue to cover her costs for this, including extended parking charges she was stuck with.
How To Get The Key Replaced
I don’t think I would have waited four days without my car before getting a new key fob made. It’s not cheap, per se, but I wouldn’t have wanted to be without my car. Here the passenger says they work from home and their partner has a car so they were fine without it.
Here’s how a new electronic key fob gets made:
- Generally you first porove ownership (with registration or title and ID). Then provide the vehicle’s VIN.
- Get the correct fob (manufacturer or compatible aftermarket).
- Program the fob to the car’s immobilizer. A dealer or locksmith can do this.
- If all keys for a vehicle are lost, many vehicles require an immobilizer reset procedure (erasing old keys and registering new ones).
Physical keys that stick into the steering column are easier. It was just mechanical cutting until the 90s when keys added transponder chips (so there’s an immobilizer and programming needed to start the car).
A tradiitonal mechanical key might be $25 – $100. A transponder key should be about $100 – $250. While an electronic fob runs about $250 – $500. Then you’ve got labor, which is at least $100 for a call like this, but getting someone to come to the airport may be more. And an ‘all keys lost’ scenario that requires a reset could also require a tow to a dealer or similar shop.
Is JetBlue Responsible For Costs?
Domestic baggage liability is up to $4,700.
The JetBlue contract of carriage says your carry-on is “your responsibility” and they won’t accept claims. That’s likely their starting point: “claims for lost, forgotten, or stolen carry-on baggage will not be accepted” except where law requires otherwise.
This isn’t a normal carry-on situatuion, but “you placed a carry-on in the bin and it went missing” is how they’d initially deny the claim.
- The airline took custody by physically removing it and offloading it.
- Once a crewmember takes possession and removes it from the aircraft, it’s much less like “lost carry-on” and much more like mishandled baggage.
JetBlue’s Contract of Carriage also says there’s no special, incidental, or consequential damages for checked baggage loss, delay or damage.
However, DOT’s domestic baggage liability rule covers “provable direct or consequential damages” up to the applicable floor/limit. JetBlue appears to be out of conformance, and was even subject to a regulatory enforcement consent order over this.
Next, JetBlue’s contract of carriage says they “will not accept for carriage” certain items, including keys, and that if a passenger checks them “passenger will not be entitled to any reimbursement or compensation” however – again – the passenger checking the keys is not what happened here.
The next argument JetBlue might make is a contractual “duty to mitigate” and limit costs resulting from the loss. JetBlue’s baggage liability language expects passengers to minimize loss. Letting parking charges run for a week is exactly the kind of thing they’ll object to.
The passenger, in turn, should respond that they reasonably expected leaving the car in the lot to be cheaper than having the key fob replaced because JetBlue told them their backpack with keys was found. It’s the bad information from JetBlue that led to higher costs, not the passenger’s failure to mitigate costs.
How To Get JetBlue To Pay
There are too many hooks in their rules to deny a claim even if they’re inapposite to the actual situation that occurred. This isn’t the sort of request that’s routine or properly dealt with by front line customer service agents at an airline.
I’d start with a Department of Transportation online complaint. This isn’t likely to lead to forcing reimbursement by JetBlue, but it will certainly escalate things to get more attention and an empowered response – someone that can walk through the actual facts of the situation and respond accordingly, rather than using the closest template response they can find.
And if that response isn’t satisfactory, I’d file in small claims court.
basically, stay alert all the time, be meek and humble (else flight attendants may call the police on you) and dont trust airlines
Post the story all over social media. Embarrass the crap out of them. If you can, send it to JetBlue. Suddenly, its a PR nightmare.
You’d think the F/A would notice a sleeping passenger and wake them to ask about it
Yes, of course JetBlue is liable for all reasonable costs. Those should include all key-replacement costs, and I would have added a rented car in the interim.
And we’ve been through it before, but once again, a backpack is not necessarily “a personal item.” Everyone gets to put one item in the overhead bin unless the ticket rules say otherwise.
Seth
there is no doubt that B6 FAs need to be more careful about pulling bags of any kind off of planes – but putting your name on the outside of everything you carry on might have provided some connection to the passenger.
and, there are lots of good reasons why it might be a good idea to stay awake until at least boarding is complete but also through takeoff.
I stay awake during the boarding process because too many times I’ve seen a passenger, not a flight attendant take someone’s bag and move it down the line so that they can make room for their oversized carry on at their seat. Not gonna fly with me.
Years ago, I had an AA Flight Attendant move my briefcase and the screen on my mobile phone got cracked in the process. It was in a pocket on the end of the brief case. I filed a claim with AA luggage in Kansas City and was told “not our problem.” I ended up talking to the Executive Office and they said, “We can’t be responsible for what people put in the overhead.” My position was, when the FA took my bag and moved it so that another passenger could put their carryon in the overhead, AA took possession of the briefcase, and they are lucky she didn’t break the laptop. They agreed and paid me for my phone. Moral to the story is, once the FA takes possession of the carry on, the airline then becomes liable for any damages, lost, etc.
I personally don’t think Jet Blue should be responsible for any costs. In my opinion, she is the one that (a) put a smaller item in the overhead storage knowing it should have been stored under the seat in front of her and (b) the FA called out to identify the owner but this woman had gone to sleep and didn’t respond. That is on her – you can’t expect the FA to do any more than they did.
Hopefully Jet Blue denies this and fights any charges. She needs to learn to keep personal items with her and stay awake until the plane is fully loaded and pushes back.
Go to Small Claims Court and ask the MAXIMUM amount allowed!! Make JetBlue have to pony up attorneys’ fees, which will be substantial for something like this, a lot more than would have been if they had just reimbursed her initially.
Not having car key in purse is dumb.
Gambler,
I am sorry but the notion that someone should not be able to put a backpack in the overhead bin because it COULD fit under the seat is fatally flawed.
First, this person said they put an even smaller item under the seat in front of them.
Second, someone that chooses NOT to carry on a rollerboard on a plane should be rewarded, not punished for either traveling lightly or checking their bag.
OneXMarine’s take is right. If an airline’s employees start messing w/ your personal items in the cabin, they take responsibility just as if it was a checked bag.
stay awake and alert to challenge anyone that messes w/ your stuff either during boarding or on arrival.
As a flight attendant (for a different airline) myself, I see that there are two things happening here. The first one is that there would not be any leftover items since the cleaners do a security check during their cleaning process and when the crew gets on they would notice that something is left and that’s just part of standard operating procedures. The second problem is the backpack was there and the crew member thought that it was left, because nobody claimed it, but the other person could have been somewhere else (in the bathroom, a few rows away, etc) and not necessarily sleeping as in this case. I personally do not move anybody’s luggage out of the bin, although I may help rearrange the contents of the bin to accommodate luggage. If there’s stuff in there I’m not going to take it out to make room. As someone else commented she had two items and they were both small, and she definitely is able to put one up. Also, when the bins are full, the bins are full (I however will make sure that they actually are full before telling the ground staff that there is no more room). I feel really badly that this customer went through such a situation for no reason at all. Hopefully she gets compensated for the incident and big inconvenience.
I like JetBlue as an airline and have never had any real trouble with them (yes, they have been late several times), but in this case, after all other attempts fail, they should be taken to small claims court. Make sure that the claim covers every possible loss (I have done this before but not with an airline). Several things about the passenger, always watch for others moving your bags. If you cannot see your bags and you cannot get out to check, hit the light for the flight attendant. I always carry my keys in a zipped shut jacket pocket when traveling and the jacket stays with me at my seat. Things like cellphones, ID, credit cards and money are in a waist bag. The laptop is in my small personal item. A second thing about the passenger is that cars almost always come with two key fobs. It is important to have a backup so it one fails, change the battery or have it repaired or have a new one made. Most of the extra parking charges were unnecessary and if I was a judge, I may be persuaded to throw out that part of the argument. My auto club membership allows for several long tows so I would have used that instead of letting the car accumulate charges and a possible tow for exceeding the maximum number of hours there.
This isn’t just a jetBlue issue; can happen on any airline. I wish we had better consumer protections as passengers; hopefully, DOT can help, but, I doubt it, and if not, yeah, small claims as Gary suggested.
As passengers, we’re all beholden to the discretion of the crews on most things (after all, they can throw us off the plane and ban us from the airline, nearly on a whim, judge, jury, and executioner-style, whether we like it or not, and yes, only after the fact can we appeal, sue, etc.)
That said, I tend to agree with @Tim Dunn and @OneXMarine’s takes here. We gotta try our best to stay alert and prevent these incidents from happening to us while flying.
Think this bag no one claims might just belong to the person nearby that’s sleeping? Nah, no need to check. We’ll just assume because that’ll be much better.
We just flew on delta Atl to NY! Got on the plane put a small back pack & coat in the overhead space I PAID FOR! A few minutes later a flight attendant comes down the aisle saying we’re full up don’t put coats in the overhead bins? I had already put mine up there because I get on the plane at my time…not late. She standing at our bin . She grabs my coat , with my keys and things in it. I say it’s mine , she throws it in my lap and walks off. DIDN’T open any other bins. Nothing else was said about anyone else’s bin.?
Everyone is assuming the size of the backpack. I travel with two backpacks. One is a 3/5 day pack that holds my clothes and toiletries. It’s goes in the overhead. The other is a smaller backpack that holds my electronics – NC headphones, cellphones, battery packs and a tablet. Goes under the seat.
I generally fly first or business. Mostly because I’m 6’3 230 and also not to deal with the overhead bin BS.
Not a big fan of FAs rearranging the overhead bins, regardless.
First, I tend not to want to side with the pax, because I’m envious of her ability to sleep so quickly (or at all in a regular seat). And, you don’t have the second key fob you got with the car at home? Still, as others have pointed out, not noticing a (pressumably) nearby pax was sleeping, not checking if pax were in the lav (if they didn’t) is ridiculous. Plus, might there be a deaf pax who couldn’t here the “who’s is this?” request. The FA was looking to move the bag out to make room, jumped to the conclusion it was left (and if it was, JFK is the better place for it—nobody, even bags, should have to go to Buffalo), and offloaded it, all the time thinking they did a good thing. Label bags you don’t check, too!
I had a similar incident, but with a bag that was at my feet on Delta. I was in first flying ATL-DCA after a red eye from San Diego on which I didn’t sleep. Because I was at the window, I grabbed my laptop sleep and put it against the wall by my feet. Apparently the person in front of me spotted it somehow and the FA asked if it was anyone’s and did not think to wake me even though it was two inches from my feet. I then had a long day of trying to retrieve it after I landed and eventually flew down to Atlanta to retrieve it at my own expense.
If her Apple Watch was in there she should have been able to locate it by her watch. Every piece of my luggage whether carry ob or checked has at least one Air Tag (and now a second card shaped rechargeable one) on it. But the watch should have located it.
Why are you putting a backpack overhead? And who falls asleep prior to take off? Give me a break.
Have the flight attendant charged with theft, with felonious theft. Demand the police charge her and see if Jet Blue will come to the aid of their employee. The contract of carriage be damned,