Stolen money and unconcerned attitude

[twolittlemonkeys]

Just looking for advice...

I'm just back from holiday in USA. On the way over I left my bag on the plane (combination of me being a bit ditzy and having 2 preschoolers to deal with) and realised when we were waiting in the immigration hall at Orlando, so quickly went to find a member of Virgin staff to help me.

They were helpful in locating my bag, however the attitude of the cabin crew was pretty much that if the cleaners got there first, my money would probably be gone, which I found rather alarming. As it turned out, whoever found my bag had indeed taken $200 from it, which got my holiday off to a bad start and meant we had to tighten our belts a bit on the holiday (which we already had a fairly tight budget for) and will have to continue to do so this month now we're back.

I'm considering writing a letter to Virgin about how shocking I find it that it is just accepted that you won't get your money back if the cleaners get there first. Surely in the UK they'd be fired without question if it turned out they had taken money from a passenger's bag?

I suppose it could have been a lot worse, luckily I still got my cards etc back, but what should I say in my letter to them?

[twolittlemonkeys]

Just bumping... anyone?

[Buzzybb]

I worked in the airline industry and yes that is the attitude across the world, we used to do a sweep of the aircraft before cleaners came on board but tbh it was not always the cleaners to blame. Plse do write a letter who knows what might come of it, personnally I would not let it go without a written complaint just give flt details,seat no and where the bag was stored if poss, cash amount and what staff said to you also if you have names give that as well . I hope you had a good hols despite this. Even when not travelling with small people I always carry paperwork, monies etc in a small travel bag around my next as am very ditzy when stressed

[DorotheaPlenticlew]

Have you considered that the cabin crew might have just said that to you, but in fact split the money between themselves?

For some reason that is what springs to my mind, no real experience of this though. It just seems too easy: "blame the cleaners".

Slightly different, but I have worked as a chambermaid and we knew that if anything ever went missing from hotel rooms we'd be the obvious scapegoats, so nobody ever nicked anything, always handed it straight in, and I'd bet that it's similar for cleaners in many industries -- just not worth the risk as you know everyone will blame you if they can.

[GypsyMoth]

if there is that attitude about dishonesty on planes then i worry about the lax attitude to other things!!

[Buzzybb]

Last line should have read 'around my neck' . Also forgot to say write to a person if possible, Can you ring the airport you travelled from and ask for the name of Virgins complaints manager and his postal address, if you booked throygh a travel agents copy them in, All this will help [I got an apology from Ryanair and they returned my fare cost when I wrote to a person and not the complaints msg box online] Be pleasant but shocked at your treatment explain you expected better then 'don't expect your cash to be in the bag as cleaners will have taken it' to be said to you esp when it was within minutes of disembarking from a/c

[twolittlemonkeys]

Thanks for your replies. I am definitely going to write a polite but strongly worded complaint letter. Good idea about getting the name of someone though Buzzybb thanks. The cabin crew I spoke to who got my bag back had actually just got off a different Virgin flight as ours had already left as far as I could tell. Thanks all!