PHX,
I think you are being a little harsh on this passenger. Ok, lets accept that the responsibility for leaving the phone in the first place was the passenger. These things happen, but lets not say that because someone makes a mistake, then they are totally responsible for all subsequent problems. The key phrase in the original posting is this..
Quote:
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The gate agent Loletha Bush confirmed with the aircraft that they had the phone.
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The daughter was ill advised not to accept the offer to take a later flight and wait for the phone to be returned.
However, AA had acknowledged they had the phone. At this point, the phone was in AA's care. They now have a moral (and
legal) responsibility to take due care of their customer's property. They are failing in their responsibility. They can post as many rules as they like saying they are not responsible for items left on planes, and they are not. However, once they have acknowledged that they have the item in their care and stated that they will return it, they have a legal responsibility to take due care of the item and return it to the owner. The repeated email "stonewalling" is sadly becoming very common in the airlines and it is disgraceful.