Whenever I travel with BA, usually in CW, sometimes WTP or Y, but always with a priority tag (as a Gold level exec card holder) my bag never (and I truly mean never) comes onto the baggage carousel at T5 first with other priority-tagged bags. Usually it's with the World Traveller luggage, a good ten minutes plus after the first bags have started to come through.
I've got used to it now but it's sometimes not so funny any more if I'm in a rush.
I frequently fly SQ to Singapore and there my bag is always one of the first off if I'm flying Business and it's tagged.
I have a theory - which could be complete rubbish - that because I travel with an old, trusty - but squishy sided - duffel style bag this might be loaded differently. Would it really make a difference if I used a "regular" harder-backed suitcase?
Sorry to sound whiny, I just have time to think about these things between Christmas and New Year.
Does any other regular traveller feel "victimised" by the randomness of baggage delivery at T5 or am I just truly paranoid?!
If BA offer priority baggage delivery to Gold level customers such as me, but it never works at T5, what's going wrong? In most other ways I find BA great, and they are definitely my carrier of choice, but in this aspect they just seem to have got it wrong.
But I suspect I'm going to get many answers saying "I'm BA Gold, and my bag is always off first at T5, so it's just you".
Location: London, UK (Lord Mucci des Contes de Voyages, Diamond Hairbrush)
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I think it very much depends on how the aircraft is loaded at the outstation. There should be separate containers for premium bags (ie. all status and F/J) and non-premium bags, and the premium container should be offloaded from the aircraft first - but this is only possible if it's been loaded onto the aircraft last at the outstation, and separated correctly in the first place.
Hi
I have a theory - which could be complete rubbish - that because I travel with an old, trusty - but squishy sided - duffel style bag this might be loaded differently. Would it really make a difference if I used a "regular" harder-backed suitcase?
I suspect there may be an element of truth in what you say, particularly if you transfer flights. On *A priority bags get the red label which makes them stick out and when travelling on *A, my bags are always out early. the OW system seems much inferior.
I don't see any attempt by BA to consistently ensure priority baggage delivery.
BA clearly can get this right if they want to because crew bags are ALWAYS off first. The fact that no real prioritisation takes place is by design not accident.
When completing my journey at T5, I try to carry my luggage on board wherever possible as the delay and then lack of priority luggage recognition is just crazy at times. The signs in the shuttle from B and C gates telling me that any luggage is travelling at 30 mph towards the belts just makes me smile in a "who are you trying to kid" kind of way.
I think it is a matter of process, or lack of it. There are many things that have to go to plan for priority luggage to work; loaded in it's own containers, last in (so first out of) a pre-determined cargo hold where the ground staff know to offload first and then having baggage handlers that care enough to load those bags onto the belt first.
The problem at T5 is that if BA asked the ground staff to care, they would probably go on strike. Personally, I wish that they would challenge this and sort it out. When you get to an outstation, as the plane arrives at the gate there seem a multitude of staff waiting to park the air-bridge, place the cones and offload the luggage - which is often off the plane before the passengers.
Contrast this with LHR, and it is a semi-regular occurance for the plane to get to the gate and have to wait for someone to turn on the VDGS (once they have finished their tea and biscuit), then a further wait for the air bridge to dock, and nobody seems to be around the plane offloading luggage. Even worse is on a remote stand, waiting for someone to drive the stairs to the aircraft.
I do get the impression that while the customers facing ground staff at T5 are a pleasure to deal with, the non-customer facing could not give too hoots about whether they do a good or bad job as long as they get paid. That is just my impression not a statement of fact by the way.
There are a great many things that BA do that are excellent. Ground procedures on arrival at T5 are not one of them.
I do think it's quite a random exercise which containers get loaded first, On on a recent flight a passenger's bag had to be offloaded, the CC called his name out in WT, so I am making the assumption that his bags weren't priority, we only had to wait a few minutes before they/it were/was found and we pushed back.
Personally, when travelling with priority luggage I have always had to wait
I miss my old ugly,cheap suitcase ( diarrhoea brown and vomit yellow stripes ) it must have been sooooo offensive that it was dispatched post haste and nearly always arrived in the first three cases on the belt .
Unfortunately AA managed to destroy it on a trip earlier this year
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'not the ears, not the ears!' Mick McManus RIP
While we are on this subject, is it the case that BA Silver bags should be given a "priority" baggage tag regardless of cabin flown? None of the check-in agents have attached this in my last six flights so I wonder if they are not supposed to.
(In any event priority tags rarely make any difference except at some outstations)
Its been said once here and it will be said again. Priority bag tags serve no purpose other than further inflating the egos of DYKWIA "status" passengers. Just like the act of hanging status tags off your carry-on luggage, serves no useful purpose, but makes them feel like they should be treated like a head of state.
The staff who load and unload bags are not going to slow down their pace of work to sequence the luggage by looking at tags or labels. All bags are going to get on/off the aircraft in the quickest, most efficient manner possible. With todays tight turnarounds, there's no scope for silly little extras like status sequencing.
(For the avoidance of doubt and twisted knickers, I am talking generally here, not suggesting anything about Whenderson specifically )
Last edited by Short Final; Dec 29, 12 at 9:18 am..
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Quote:
Originally Posted by omarr135
While we are on this subject, is it the case that BA Silver bags should be given a "priority" baggage tag regardless of cabin flown? None of the check-in agents have attached this in my last six flights so I wonder if they are not supposed to.
(In any event priority tags rarely make any difference except at some outstations)
Yes, in theory. Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't. And as pointed out in this thread, it rarely makes a difference. I even made a comment about the "vanity tag" last time I checked in at LHR and the agent just smiled knowingly.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Short Final
Just like the act of hanging status tags off your carry-on luggage, serves no useful purpose, but makes them feel like they should be treated like a head of state.
I use mine only as it is a means of identification. Some airports seem to insist on your hand luggage being tagged with some form of ID, and I got fed up of filling in those stupid paper tags. I don't feel any more important because I have a tag on my bag, it's just serving a purpose.
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Mucci des Grands Nounours Masculins
]The staff who load and unload bags are not going to slow down their pace of work to sequence the luggage by looking at tags or labels. All bags are going to get on/off the aircraft in the quickest, most efficient manner possible. With todays tight turnarounds, there's no scope for silly little extras like status sequencing.
That's just silly. There are route/airline combos where my *A priority bags were consistently the first ones out. Actually flying connecting through LHR to DUB was one of them. So there's at least one set of baggage handling staff at LHR were definitely doing their job, consistently loading the priority bags such that they would be the first out.
On the other hand at YYZ I never saw the priority bagage work. It's possible it was loaded correctly at LHR but the staff at YYZ mess it up. But it's also obviously a completely different operation loading AC 777s at T3 than it is loading EI 320s at T1 and it's possible that they don't do it in a way that works for priority bags in that case.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jdbelfast
I suspect there may be an element of truth in what you say, particularly if you transfer flights. On *A priority bags get the red label which makes them stick out and when travelling on *A, my bags are always out early. the OW system seems much inferior.
I am curious about this. What is the OW system? I thought the red priority label in the lugagge tag was a cross-alliance standard. They certainly work for airlines like EI that are non-*A but end up on codeshares with some *A airlines. I would not expect baggage handlers to look at the actual FF name tags to determine if they're expired or not. Those are just name tags, not baggage handling labels.
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Ok here's the thing. Is it a LHR problem?
Yes bags seem to random, but when you travel elsewhere it works. That leads me to believe LHR are doing it correctly. They load the planes properly so when you reach your destination it works.
Inbound flights arent in LHRs control so they can just delivery to the belt how they receive it off the plane, so my conclusion is its the out stations who create the issue that we encounter at LHR.
While we are on this subject, is it the case that BA Silver bags should be given a "priority" baggage tag regardless of cabin flown? None of the check-in agents have attached this in my last six flights so I wonder if they are not supposed to.
(In any event priority tags rarely make any difference except at some outstations)
Well, just came back from Germany (as silver). Priority-tagged on the way out, arrived on the belt in the middle of the pack. No priority tag on the way back and all four bags arrives within the first ten.
I wouldn't think the tags have a negative effect, but I think other factors may be more important (late check-in might mean bags loaded last, so off-loaded first).
But BA really could win some Brownie points by making this work.
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I've given up on having bags come out as priority. I travelled with colleagues to WAW who were statusless and their bags were out well before mine. That was there and back. I don't think the OP is being paranoid, he/she is expecting too much for BA to provide one its main promises to its premium customers. I've only ever had my bags outi n the first batch once in 4 years. The only time it comes out first is when CX or QF handle it.
) it must have been sooooo offensive that it was dispatched post haste and nearly always arrived in the first three cases on the belt .
