Navigating Lost and Found at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport

The Atlanta Airport is known as the worlds busiest airport serving 89 million people a year and 243,000 passengers a day. The airport has 99 gates and The airport has 199 gates, and is a major hub for travel throughout the Southeastern U.S. Needless to say, this is a place where you want to hold on tight to your belongings. Losing anything important could mean that it is lost forever.

This past week, my husband lost his car keys. We finally got them back, but we had to go though quite a process. I am sharing these tips and secrets that we learned to help the next person avoid the stress and uncertainty we went through.

Imagine arriving at the airport in the wee hours of the morning on a well delayed flight. You go to the carousel go get your suitcase (that you checked against your better judgement because someone had given you a gift that could not be put in carry-on luggage). You pick up your bag to find that is literally shredded. It is in tatters and the front pocket hanging from a thread. To your horror, you suddenly remember that your car keys were in that pocket. Yes, your car keys are gone. If that's not bad enough, you have a high security car so it will cost $300 to replace the key, plus several hundred to tow the car to the dealership.

As it was 2am in the morning on Friday when this discovery was made, the baggage people were in no mood to go the extra mile. They asked someone to search the belly of the plane and he was told very quickly that the keys were not there (too quickly to have done a decent search). No one would check the carousel or the area below the carousel to see if perhaps the keys were there. In fact, the clerk shut the office with him still standing there and went home, after giving him an email address to contact.

To make a long story short, the next two days consisted of unanswered phone calls, refusals to work with us because we did not have a claim number (they had refused to write a claim), and locksmiths who refused to work on the car because of the model. To top it off, we found out that the average tow truck could not get through the Atlanta airport parking deck, so they could not pick up our car, for a reasonable amount of money.

On day Three we finally made some progress. We returned to the United Air baggage claim with the ripped up bag in hand and refuse to be shooed away until a manager was called. (You have to act a little crazed get them to call a manager, but not so much crazy that they call security.) We explained the situation to the manager including the costs we were about to incur to get the car home and even shed a tear or two. (Without eliciting sympathy, I doubt we would have gotten anywhere.) At this point our goal was to get the manager to force and escalate the lost-and-found process even though the clerks insisted that lost keys are rarely recovered. As it was now Sunday, the manager promised to go to lost and found Monday morning where she FOUND THE KEYS. At this point, We were finally given the lost and found phone number where I waited on hold for an hour to be able to even describe my keys to the clerk who was 90% sure they were mine. They then told us to come down and told us where the main airport lost and found department was hidden. Finally we were able to get the keys and pay for parking (including the extra 4 days) and take the car home.

With that said, here is some special information you will need should you lose your keys or other important items at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

• There is a website page you can use to make a claim for lost and found items. http://www.aatc.org/lost.html There is also a phone number, but it is hard to get through (404) 530-2100ext. 100.
  
• You have to exhaust Lost and Found for the airline before the main Lost and Found department will even talk to you, especially if you lost the item on or near the plane. (We basically were never given the information for the main lost and found because of where the keys were lost. We didn't fit the criteria to be able to look there. If the airline can't find your information, demand they escalate to the main airport Lost and Found.
• You will have much better luck working to find your lost items in person than trying to get through by phone. If you are out of their sight, you are out of their mind.
• If your full luggage is missing, ask to go into the luggage room and look yourself. This was another experience we had where they insisted our luggage was not there, but it was. It is very likely to end up there if you got to the airport early and check your bag, but refused to pay to leave on an earlier flight.
• Even the manager did not know that the main Lost and Found was open 24/7 (for keys only) so we had to wait another full day to when she thought the Lost and Found was open. We could have picked up the keys a day earlier or sooner if someone had just directed us there.
• If you go into the North wing at Atlanta Airport (the Airtran side), go around past the ticket counters to the back hallway, where the North security checkpoint is, you will find the door to lost and found there to the right just before you get to security. (See number 46 on the terminal map.) Take to elevator to the 3rd floor. This is where we found our keys among at least 60 other pairs that had been lost in the last 3 days. There were surely other people being given the same run-around we were getting. It would be wise to check there and to keep checking back for the next few days if you lose an emergency item like car keys, because they could very well show up there.