Justin left his jacket behind on a Delta flight during a short connection in Atlanta. He might be prepared to just let it go, but Delta told him that they have the jacket. He was instructed to pick it up at Delta’s lost and found during the Atlanta connection of his return trip. How convenient! The catch is that the lost and found office is outside of the security zone, and he didn’t have a long enough layover to fetch the coat, then be sure he could get through security again in time to make his flight. So Delta still has his jacket. And they’re not answering his calls. Or his tweets.

This is the story of how I left a jacket on a Delta flight, which they found, and it really sounded like I’d get my jacket back…but since they found it, they haven’t returned a single phone call, they haven’t responded to the webform that I submitted multiple times, they haven’t responded to a lost and found ticket I filled out, they stopped responding to me on twitter within 2 hours, nor have they returned the jacket.

A couple months back, I had a short connection in Atlanta (I missed my original flight to ATL…my fault) and once we landed I bolted to get to my connection. Arriving at my gate with 5 minutes to spare, I realized that I had left my jacket under my seat (again…my fault). Gate agents had me call Delta Airlines Paging at ATL, where I found the only helpful person I interacted with over this entire experience: [M.]. She called my original gate…my jacket was found, and would be waiting for me at Delta lost and found on my way back through ATL. Perfect, or so I thought.

My return flight actually had a short connection (1.5 hrs, including getting through immigration and customs — not my fault, Delta gave me this schedule), but I thought I had a chance…until I found out that Delta’s lost and found was *outside* security. I asked the gate agent at my new gate if it was possible for it to get brought through security to me. “No” she said, “that’s not how we do things”. She told me to fill out a paper form that she provided me and she would submit it. There was no copy for me, no paper trail, no way for me to follow up (I asked very specifically). They would contact me was what she told me. I never received a response.

Between the gate agent in ATL when I was outbound, the gate agent in ATL when I was returning, and [M] from paging, I was given 6 phone numbers to call. Only 1 phone number did anybody ever answer and none of the others returned my call. The only ones to answer were the Airport Lost and Found (not run by Delta). They told me in no uncertain terms that they did not have it because if Delta picked it up…Delta still had it. I still filled out their web-form, which sent me a confirmation number, but nothing further came of it.

I’ve called the 5 Delta numbers multiple times per week for at least two weeks with no answer or reply to voice mail messages. I also tried filling out the 2 webforms that their webpage suggest. Neither gives any recognition that it has received your information, no confirmation number, email, or even a note on the page itself saying that they received your request.

After weeks of calling, I thought that I should perhaps try their twitter feed…because I have learned through consumerist that some companies are better at responding to Twitter. True to this, they responded quite promptly, gave me 2 phone numbers: 1) SFO lost and found, which did not have my jacket, since I left the jacket in a plane at ATL and it was since removed (or so I was told) 2) ATL lost and found, the same number I had been calling for weeks.They also directed me to the same webform I have repeatedly filled out, and never even received a confirmation email that my request was submitted. I jumped through all these hoops again and got no response. I have since messaged them in the following 6 weeks telling me of these problems…Since our initial communications within the first 2 hours of me contacting them, Delta has stopped replying to me.

So I’m throwing my hands up and I’m coming to you. I’ve gone through all the proper channels. Delta has told me that they have my jacket, but they don’t seem willing or perhaps capable of getting it back to me. There is clearly no set way to return customer’s lost items, despite the fact I can’t the only person to leave an item on a plane. I was given 5 numbers for Delta and 2 Delta webforms and got *zero* responses from Delta. Please Help.

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