Scott McCartney, a Wall Street Journal travel columnist and editor, wrote a very helpful article this week on getting back a piece of personal electronics left on an airplane.

When I saw the headline "Oops! I forgot my new iPad on the plane. Now what?" I felt as if he were writing about me. I had just gotten back from a trip to Florida where my I left, not my iPad, but my iPhone charger in the hotel.

I'd been home three days before I discovered it was missing, but I immediately called the hotel and asked for lost and found. I spoke to a person in housekeeping who asked the day of checkout and the room number. I could only remember the floor number, but after rummaging around she found a white charger and mailed it to me at no charge.

Quite amazing, but in my experience, not unusual. I have left behind personal calendars and items of clothing, called to inquire if they were recovered, and rarely have gotten bad news. At the risk of sounding too Pollyanna-ish, I have never had the hotel or airline call me before I had a chance to discover I had left it behind but that's going above and beyond.

If you're as likely to leave an item behind as I am, McCartney makes many helpful recommendations for retrieval. Check the end of the article linked above for those tips.