United lost and found

I flew into LA (Burbank) on Tuesday afternoon, going from temperatures in the 40s to 70 degrees! With the excitement of the warm air I quickly forgot my coat in he overhead compartment. By the time I notice and returned to the airport 45 minutes later, the united counter was already closed. No more united flights out of the small Burbank airport for the day, and I was asked to use the white telephone which takes you to the same automated answering system as the 800 customer service number. I was told to fill out a form online for the lost article.

My hopes were diminishing as I read stories of others who have lost items on planes. All basically said you can kiss loss items good bye.

I decided to fill our the form and check back on my return flight. Meanwhile I bought a North Face jacket at sports authority that I have been eyeing for a while. In case I didn't find the coat, I didn't want to go back to freezing temperatures unprepared.

I approached United counter on Thursday and told the lady I had forgotten an item on the plane a couple of days ago. She calls someone and asks me what it was. I said it was a trench coat and she finished my sentence "banana republic trench, oh I saw it, it is a cute coat!" Makes me wonder if the employees check out the lost and found bins and have dibs for the items if the owner does not claim them. And somehow I know that the online form would have resulted in no answers and no one in that department even gets notified to look. I'm happy to have my coat back.

I also got other tips to better labeling the items I travel with often, like laptops and iPads, which more contain important information.