Lost Wallet in Boston? nbd.

A few weeks ago, I lost my wallet somewhere between check-in at Barcelona Airport and landing at Boston Logan. My thoughts:

Yay! I’m back in Boston! … Shit! Where’s my wallet?

I was crashing with my friend Lori in Somerville, but she was at a friend’s Super Bowl party 30 minutes outside of the city. I knew her cats Penny and June were at home. Could they rescue me?

Hmmm, probably not. But I quickly realized that I could still Uber to her house since my credit card was stored in the app. Sweet.

Once I got to her house, I asked the cats: “Do you guys know where my wallet is?”

We waited until Lori got home, and then we had to figure out dinner. We decided to cook, so she and I wandered over to Star Market.

When I crash with friends I always try to pick up groceries, but I realized that without my wallet, I’d be the moocher pal that couldn’t pay for anything. That is, until we got to the cashier and I realized they took Apple Pay. I tapped my phone and was able to cover groceries. Hooray!

At this point, I’d cancelled all of my cards except for the one used for my iPhone / app payments. My phone notifies me for every transaction on that card, so I could keep an eye out for fraudulent charges. I was also pretty sure I’d left it in the seatback pocket, like the pro traveler that I am. (Pro travel tip: never put anything in the seatback pocket. Instead, just hook stuff to it).

With the cats’ search turning up empty-pawed, I went to United’s lost and found system to report my wallet missing. It was a pretty thorough questionnaire, and I was hopeful they’d find it. I’m fortunate that all I had in my wallet at the time were €10, three credit/debit cards, one ID, three subway cards (NYC, Boston, Barcelona), and a PocketMonkey.

On Monday morning, I wanted to work out of a coffee shop (I work best out of the house). I realized that since I was in Boston, I could use LevelUp to pay for tea or food. LevelUp is a QR code-based payment (and loyalty) program, popular among merchants in the Cambridge / Somerville area. I looked up which coffeeshops accepted it, and headed over to 3 Little Figs for their amazing almond butter – banana – honey – cinnamon toastie.

On Tuesday night, I went out for Mardi Gras drinks at Beat Brasserie with some girlfriends. By that point, a new credit card from my bank had already arrived. But, if it hadn’t, I could have easily Venmo’d a friend my portion of the bill.

I ended up doing just fine without my wallet for a few days. By Wednesday, United texted me to say that it was found. Although I’d already replaced all of my cards by then, I got my wallet back before the end of the week (minus the cash). Good thing too, because it was a brand new Bellroy wallet that I was just starting to enjoy.

Yep! Thanks for all the help, June. As it turned out, with Uber, Apple Pay, and LevelUp, a lost wallet was nbd.