Lost Plane Ticket! What to do . . .

If your airline ticket is lost or stolen ...

If your airline ticket is lost or stolen before you leave on your trip or while you are in route to your destination ...

• Proceed immediately to the airline ticket counter of the airline that is validated on your ticket. (The “validated airline” is usually governed by the first airline that takes you on an international flight.)
• If you realize your ticket is lost/stolen before the day of your flight, go straight to the validating airlines’ office or to their counter at the airport and work on replacing the ticket ASAP.
• This can be very messy and very expensive, so keeping your tickets in a safe, secure, dry environment is the best bet for hassle-free international travel.

Each airline has its own rules about replacing a lost or stolen ticket.

• Some of them charge a lost ticket application cost of about $200 and simply replace the ticket.
• Some may ask you to file the lost ticket application but make you buy a one-way coach ticket to your destination. At a later date, you would get a refund for the replacement ticket value minus an administrative service charge (usually about $100).

If you have an e-ticket and that information is stolen, go immediately to the airline ticket counter of the airline that is validated on your ticket and they can replace the boarding pass. The rest of your ticket is still “in your possession” as it is still in the airline’s computer system under your name.

E-tickets are wonderful! The only thing you actually lose is a passenger receipt since a paper ticket is never issued. Not all airlines are using E-tickets yet, however, especially for international travel. Eventually, all paper tickets will be obsolete.