​Back on November 24, 2022, I flew from Dallas-Fort Worth to Doha on Flight QR732 to attend the FIFA World Cup. I was flying in Qatar Airways’ Qsuite business class—which is an incredible product, except for the fact that I managed to leave my trusty Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones tucked away inside the suite when I deplaned. I submitted a lost and found report online, heard nothing but silence, and eventually had to fly back home to the US empty-handed.

years of nothing doing

Fast forward nearly four years. I had completely forgotten about the headphones and had since permanently relocated to Los Angeles.

​Then came March 2026. Following the outbreak of war, Qatar’s airspace was completely closed, and the airline’s flights were entirely grounded. With no planes flying and presumably a lot of operational downtime, it seems the airline staff decided to tackle the ultimate boss: auditing the years-old lost and found warehouse backlog.

​Out of nowhere on March 23, 2026, I received a brand new email from Doha. They confirmed my Sony headphones were still sitting safely in their storage facility after 3.5 years. I gave them my new LA address, but they informed me that because the DOH-LAX route was temporarily suspended due to the airspace closure, they would have to hold them until flights resumed. They promised to put them on the earliest flight possible.