Leave something behind while travelling? All is not lost

When I left a jacket on a domestic flight a couple of months ago, I called and emailed the airline but got no response. I might've just given up except I was back at the airport a few days later anyway, so I went to the airline office to see if it had been handed in.

I gave the staff my flight number - and even my seat number - and they typed the details into their computer. It said no. But then they suggested I just come into the back room to see if I could find it there.

Perhaps I was going to a lot of effort for a jacket that was neither expensive nor sentimental. But just that very day I lost it, someone had complimented me on how well I wore it - and that was enough motivation for someone like me who buys new clothes about as often as the average person buys a new car.

In the back room of the airline office, the staff member pointed to a series of large cupboards. "That one's the clothes from this week, that one's from last week, and so on." I opened the door for this week's cupboard and out tumbled dozens and dozens of jackets.

Rifling through them, I soon came to the realisation that mine wasn't there. I also realised there were quite a few that were much nicer than mine. I must confess it crossed my mind to just claim a jacket regardless and hope it would elicit the same compliments as the previous one. But I didn't, even though the likelihood is that most of the items here in the back of the airline office will never be returned to their owners.

Seeing the piles of clothes just from the previous few weeks demonstrated how many things are lost by travellers every day. If you want even more of an idea of the scale of the problem, then just have a look at the auction of property from Brisbane Airport that is taking place online today. Billed as "Australia's largest airport property auction", there are more than 500 lots on offer, with all proceeds to be donated to charity.

Want to buy a hoverboard? There are two up for auction. A highlight is an IWC Schaffhausen Top Gun Pilot watch, which normally retails for up to $30,000. There are guitars, skateboards, cricket bats, even a massage table. Plus all the things you would expect to be lost at airports, like laptops, sunglasses, headphones, and jewellery. (You can even bid on a collection of nine styluses, although I'm unsure why you would need more than one.)

The auction runs online for 10 hours today so there may still be time for you to grab a bargain. But what if you want to find your own lost property, not buy somebody else's (however cool a hoverboard would be)?

If you lose something while travelling, the first thing is to decide whether it's actually worth pursuing. I've lost count of the times I've left a phone charger in a hotel room, but unfortunately the easiest thing to do is usually just let it go and buy a new one. On the other hand, important items like passports and credit cards always need attention because, if you can't get them back, you'll need to cancel them and arrange replacements immediately.

If you've left something on a plane, you should contact both the airline and the destination airport, because it may have been handed in at either. It's even sensible to contact the airline offices at both your arrival airport and the destination for the plane's next trip, in case it wasn't discovered immediately (I suspect that's what happened to my poor jacket). The same goes for trains and buses.

If you think you've left something at a hotel, get in touch straight away - especially if there's a chance the cleaners haven't even been in yet. One time I left a toiletries bag with some important items in the bathroom and the hotel was kind enough to post it to me free of charge.

Items that you lose while out and about can be harder to recover, particularly if they're valuable. If you know where you left it, it may be worth asking at the nearby businesses to see if anyone has handed it in. I'm embarrassed to admit that I once stupidly left my very expensive camera sitting on a park bench in Austria.