On this page (4 sections)
Reporting a lost item
Everything handed in around the terminal goes to Luggage Point, and the fastest first move is their online database rather than a phone call.
If you have lost something in the terminal at Birmingham, the place it will have gone is Luggage Point, the airport's appointed lost property agent, based at a desk on the ground floor. Found items are logged into an online database in real time, so the quickest way to check is to search that database yourself at airport-lostproperty.com, filtering by the airport, the date and a description. If it is listed, you arrange collection or postage from there; if it is not there yet, it is worth checking again over the following day, since handed-in items take a little while to be logged.
You can also reach Luggage Point directly on 0330 223 0893 or by email, which is the better route for anything valuable or urgent, a passport, a phone, a set of keys, where you would rather speak to someone than wait on a search. Have the details ready: what the item is, where and roughly when you lost it, and any distinguishing marks. The same desk runs the airport's left luggage service, so if you are still at the airport it is a single place to ask.
Left on the plane or in a bag
Two things are not Luggage Point's to find: what you left in your seat, and what never came off the belt.
The common mistake is reporting a seat-back loss to the airport. Anything left on the aircraft itself, a book in the seat pocket, a coat in the overhead locker, belongs to the airline, which runs its own lost property separate from the terminal service. Contact the airline you flew, through its website or customer team, and if more than about five days have passed since you landed, go straight to the airline rather than the airport. Cabin crew usually pass genuinely valuable finds on, but the trail is the airline's, not Birmingham's.
A checked bag that simply did not arrive on the carousel is different again, and time-critical: that is a baggage report you make at the reclaim hall before you leave, not a lost property search days later. The baggage guide covers how to report a delayed or damaged hold bag, who is responsible, and the reference number you will need. Keep the three routes straight and you save yourself chasing the wrong desk: terminal to Luggage Point, aircraft to the airline, missing hold bag to the baggage desk on arrival.
Collecting it, and what it costs
Reuniting with a found item means proving it is yours and, for most things, paying a retrieval fee; a quick claim is a cheaper one.
To collect, you bring photographic identification, a passport or a photo driving licence, so Luggage Point can confirm the item is yours. A retrieval fee applies to most items. The airport does not publish a fixed figure for it up front, and it is confirmed when you claim, but two exemptions are worth knowing: there is no fee at all if you collect within 30 minutes of losing something, and prescription medicines and children's toys are always returned free. If you cannot get back to Birmingham, most items can be posted to any address, at home or abroad, for the retrieval fee plus postage, and a friend or relative can collect on your behalf if you arrange it and they bring the right ID.
Time matters to the cost as well as the odds. Luggage Point holds found property for roughly six weeks before it is disposed of or donated, and items left sitting can attract daily storage charges on top of the retrieval fee, so the cheapest outcome is always the prompt one. None of this is unique to Birmingham; outsourced lost property with a reclaim fee is now the norm at UK airports, and the honest advice is to search early, claim fast, and not leave a found phone or passport waiting.
Giving yourself the best chance
A little speed and a couple of habits do more than anything else to get a lost item home.
The single best move is to search the database the moment you realise, then again the next day, because logging lags the hand-in. Report valuables by phone as well, so a name is attached to the item, and describe anything identifying, a case colour, a lock-screen photo, an engraving, which turns a maybe into a match. If you are still airside when you notice, ask at the nearest desk before you fly rather than after; and if you are collecting someone, the live arrivals board and a quick bag check at the carousel catch most losses before they become a search.
For anything you are carrying that you cannot afford to lose, the boring prevention is the best cure: a bag tag with a phone number, tracking tags in cases, and a habit of sweeping the seat and the security trays, where phones and passports most often go astray. The security guide is where trays swallow things in the rush, and the facilities guide maps the rest of the terminal if you need to retrace your steps.