Have you been checking eBay and Craigslist? Although if this was back on the 11th it's most likely already been sold and you'll probably never see this laptop again. Might as well call up your insurance company and get it replaced. Next time consider installing LoJack/Computrace before handing over another laptop or tablet. Also, just to be clear, we do not represent and are not associated with Amtrak in any way, shape, or form.
A Southwest plane is going from one point to the next, it arrives, they go thru and clean up, the next passengers are waiting to board. So that makes good odds of recovering something in a seat pocket. On the train peeps are getting on and off, the next person occupying the seat may or may not notice the left item. If they notice it they might or might not turn it in. If the left item makes it to the end of the line not found it is not predictable how long the car will sit before the cleaners go thru it. It might even go to the yard and sit there for a long time. Before the cleaners go thru it no telling who might walk thru the car and walk off with the left item.
I called Amtrak shortly after my train left the station. Instead of contacting someone Amtrak insisted that it was impossible to reach anyone on the train before it arrived at the terminus. Knowing the exact car and the precise location of the item didn't seem to mean anything to them. The reason my laptop & camera charger were outside my room was because the only functioning electrical socket in the entire car was in the coffee cubby. They didn't even want to write down any details like brand, model, shape, or color. They just wanted me to sit and wait up to a week on the off chance that someone saw something and turned it in.
Don't know what station or the end point, maybe that has something to do with your particular request, but on the NEC the crews get requests to look for left items. Perhaps dispatchers on off corridor railroads won't call the train to look for left items. That I don't know. Also sometimes customer service at an intermediate station stop enroute boards at a station stop and looks for a lost item. I don't know who the passengers have contacted at Amtrak but somehow the enroute crews and enroute stations on the NEC do get requests to look for lost items. Maybe not possible off corridor. The crews if contacted do attempt to find the left item. On the NEC if the item is found most would like to get it off their hands and hand it to a station enroute that can send it back, not take it to the end. Who knows what happens after an item gets turned in. Many crew would be paranoid that the recovered item would disappear after turned in and it used to be they would personally contact the passenger if there was contact info found and ask them what they wanted to do, have it turned in to lost and found or get it back some other way. That was before onboard cell phone use by crews was prohibited. As I said please check for your personal items before debarking. Looking for them on a train is problematic, can be like a needle in a haystack, and returning them can be problematic since at some stations at some times of day, there is none to turn the items into. So the item can't be turned in until the crew returns for their next duty. Off corridor I guess that could be a while.
I remember you posting that iPad's adventure on Facebook.. Which I'll admit was pretty cool.
One time I left a smart phone on a shuttle at BWI. This was before consumer level remote tracking was a common service. I had left a local GPS tracking application running and it showed the flight to BWI followed by an endless series of circles between the parking area and the terminal. Made me feel bad for the driver. That has to be one of the most mind numbing and soul crushing jobs in the industrialized world.
