Alleged theft EK suite, €2674

[Hvr]

https://au.be.yahoo.com/travel/a/36...e-4000-stolen-on-first-class-emirates-flight/

After spending three weeks travelling Europe, Steve Hay and his partner Andy spent a whopping $27,000 to enjoy a first class trip with Emirates for their flight home.


Before leaving Europe the pair had treated themselves to some expensive purchases in France, and were able to receive their tourist tax back.


But because the airport insisted on paying cash they ended up with €2674 (almost $4k) in their carry-on baggage.


According to Steve, the money was securely stowed in their first class suite, on their Paris-Dubai Emirates flight on June 30.

It wasn’t until he was woken up for his time in the shower that he went into the bad (sic) and realised all the money was gone – down to 4 euro.

I guess the lesson is to always secure valuable items when flying. My passport is always around my neck and my carry on bag securely locked.

Oh, and learn how to earn and use points. To actually pay for the suite is just wrong.

 

[boomy]

Not sure I believe them. While it can happen it's also highly unlikely, unless more pax onboard got robbed as well. It's not a large enough amount for an experienced robber to target, unlike the BKK-HKG incident.

 

[Daver6]

More likely someone opportunistic at the airport saw him get all the cash and somehow (going through security perhaps?) decided to help themselves. Sounds much more plausible to me.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

More likely someone opportunistic at the airport saw him get all the cash and somehow (going through security perhaps?) decided to help themselves. Sounds much more plausible to me.

Unless he actually sighted the cash on the plane I agree.

I think an airport pickpocket is far more likely. They could keep and eye out for those getting larger larger refunds at the tax counter and target those pax. Be pretty easy to have a spotter who just calls his budddy who does the picking. That way if the spotter is identified as being around the counter too much they cannot be directly linked to any picking.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Police report would have been important if they intend on putting in an insurance claim... although there'd possibly be exclusions on the policy for leaving money 'unattended' (although this isn't a public place).

If stolen by a connecting passenger you'd think the cash would show in x-ray security, and certainly on a body scanner. Although the thieves could have split it up to smaller amounts if more than one of them. And if arriving pax or crew, difficult to trace.

At least, perhaps, the only consolation is that it was a tax refund. So they've ended up paying the non-tax price for their goods.

Someone must have known it was there. Hard to go searching through bags on the odd chance the money would be there. What's EK's security like for the F cabin?

 

[boomy]

Someone must have known it was there. Hard to go searching through bags on the odd chance the money would be there. What's EK's security like for the F cabin?

Didn't notice anything different from other A380s apart from two dedicated bathroom attendants who could notice if anyone comes up from Y. If it really happened and that's a big IF, it looks like either professional targeting or an inside job. The amount stolen is too small for professionals so I'll bet the latter.
Another option is that one of the pax in the F cabin overheard the couple talking about the cash and found an opportunity to take it while they were at the bar.

 

[Happy Trails]

I didn't know EU paid such sums, in cash, on the spot.
We had to wait about six weeks for a refund last year.

 

[moa999]

More likely someone opportunistic at the airport saw him get all the cash and somehow (going through security perhaps?) decided to help themselves. Sounds much more plausible to me.

Agreed more likely.
Can't imagine the likelihood of anyone having cash of substantial value on an aircraft would be worth the risk of randomly rummaging through multiple bags

 

[TheRealTMA]

Very suss. So where did they "securely" stow the money? If in a locked carry on suitcase under the front table and tv then they didn't notice when they returned?

Can't see us leaving $4K unattended in a seat pocket. It's very difficult to rummage through bags in F on EK since there's no overhead bins and bags are stored right at the very front of the suite.

 

[Princess Fiona]

I didn't know EU paid such sums, in cash, on the spot.
We had to wait about six weeks for a refund last year.

Yep they definitely do. I nearly always take the cash option to use for the next trip.

 

[Princess Fiona]

I guess the lesson is to always secure valuable items when flying. My passport is always around my neck and my carry on bag securely locked.

Oh, and learn how to earn and use points. To actually pay for the suite is just wrong.

ROFL "Valued Gold Skywards member"
EK got the claws out there

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Saw an episode of Ultimate Airport Dubai where a thief was detained for stealing money from pax in whY on a flight HKG/DXB. EK staff noted that the accused had flown HKG/DXB vv several times that month so you'd assume that it wasn't the first time it happened.

The pax with child who had money stolen decided not to press charges otherwise filing thge police report would've meant they missed their connecting flight.

Not sure if they got their money back or not.

A Google search turns up a few stories including the one below involving a significant amount.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/04/travel/hong-kong-mid-air-theft/index.html

 

[dajop]

Can't imagine the likelihood of anyone having cash of substantial value on an aircraft would be worth the risk of randomly rummaging through multiple bags

Depends on the route. People carry surprisingly large quantities of cash on them. Especially on money-laundering routes (eg China/Indonesia-SIN), although not sure if this is one of them.

When I flew out of LAX to SIN in May on SQ, we were delayed whilst a passenger was offloaded. In his welcome greeting (for high tiers) the CSM told me that we were delayed as the offloaded passenger had been caught carryign in excess of 10,000 USD worth of Indonesian Rupiah and a bigger sum of USD that they hadn't even started counting ....