They were probably desperate to make sure it was still the first flight out despite the baggage problems, so maybe decided not to wait any longer for the bags.
Nah, it was just full of FT'ers on a jolly for the day, so there was probably no luggage anyway
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Delays
(for which of course BAA is to take the rap)
A minute or so ago I looked down the live departures board on baa.com for T5. Not a single plane showing on that board either was scheduled to, or had, left on time.
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Well, I am on BA992 to TXL.. Was supposed to depart at 11am and currently still sitting at the gate and getting close to 1pm... Captain has come on the intercom a few times and basically said that the baggage system has completely broken down, and that they are sorting and loading the bags manually. To make things worse, apparently there is only 1 single baggage loading vehichle (the one that loads the loose baggage) in the entire T5, so everyone is waiting for that to unload and load bags... Hope it won't be too much longer before we can be on our way...
A minute or so ago I looked down the live departures board on baa.com for T5. Not a single plane showing on that board either was scheduled to, or had, left on time.
Oh dear, it looks as though there a now an increasing number of cancellations. I hope that this does not get siezed by the press too much etc etc etc.
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Here are the opening paragraphs from a Times headline article (obviously the website contains more for those who are interested).
Quote:
Passengers flying into Heathrow's new £4.3 billion terminal faced hours of chaos today as they tried to collect their luggage, after a sophisticated new baggage handling system broke down.
The system at Terminal 5 had been hailed as being capable of handling 12,000 bags an hour but, within hours of it starting, some passengers reported having to wait for up to two and a half hours for their luggage.
Travellers waiting for luggage complained of having been given no information other than being told that there were technical difficulties.
Jenny Uhl, 22, travelling with her friend, Verena Keller, said that she had waited for two hours after her flight landed from Germany at 8.30am. "The terminal looks nice, but the bag situation is not good. We are very tired," she said.
On the same flight was Klaus Hausler, who said: "I waited an hour and a half for my bags but could get no information from anyone. It was not good." Another German woman, who did not wish to be named, also had a two-hour wait for bags. Asked what she thought of the terminal, she replied: "Awful."
Henrik Moeller, a Danish businessman, said that his flight from Hamburg landed at 7.45am but he had not got his bags until 9am. He said: "I have read about this new bag system and how it was supposed to be so much better. It’s obvious there have been teething problems."
By 12.15pm, passengers who had arrived from Miami at 9.49am had still not received their bags.
If I were a BA shareholder I would be absolutely hopping mad. Even if this is fixed quickly, it is monumentally awful publicitly for BA. I appreciate it may be BAA's fault more than theirs, but the excuse that all new starts have "teething problems" really isn't good enough. It is likely to lose them hundreds of thousands of passengers, at least.
I'm not a BA shareholder and I dbout things will be as bad for the T5 flights I have booked in May and June. But in the meantime I do have some flights to book and will be avoiding T5, which probably means using another airline.
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Poor old BA, they must be having a fun morning...
Arrived in MAN on BA1386 just after 11.15am - nearly an hour and a half late - team at gate were having problems and brushing away customer queries, gate staff didn't appear to know how to use the systems and certainly didn't know how to use the PA... more BA staff arrive with a blue folder with '19' on it (we were at Gate 19) which I guess was theire training manual... eventually put out an announcement that we were delayed as they waited for two more staff and would be 10mins... 20mins later two very unconcerned staff arrived at a very leisurely pace and then more delays...
When passing over BP for scanning at gate asked what had caused the delay for the young man to reply that "it's first day, innit mate"... hmnnn... they can't haven't known that was coming for sometime...
Onboard Captain apologised for the delay which was due to "teething problems" and that we'd be on our way in about 30mins... then updated to say we were waiting for a tug for the push-back...
On arrival the poor CSD was told by ground crew to make an announcement before letting anyone off and came on to say "we really apologies but it seems no bags were loaded at Heathrow so please go to ground staff for further assistance".
Plane load of unhappy customers. CSD looked really really hacked off, but has to be said was professional throughout.
Straight in to MAN to repeated announcement "not to leave bags in the baggage reclaim area as re-addmittance is not permitted after leaving the hall". Those without bags must have found that very helpful
Got to the office to find a colleague on the 07.40 who arrived well gone 9am to find his bag hadn't made it either (apparently he saw his bag being driven around the flight on a trailer with one other case before departure, flagged it to the crew and was told it couldn't possibly be his as they were all loaded). On arrival at MAN the ground staff were apparently waiting for him and said he was one of four pax whose bags were mistakenly left behind.
Here's hoping those "teething problems" don't turn into a problem child.
Well, I am on BA992 to TXL.. Was supposed to depart at 11am and currently still sitting at the gate and getting close to 1pm...
Wasn't it almost 24 hours ago that you picked up your blankety-blank chequebook and pen in HKG? You must be wiped out! Good luck getting on your way...
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Quote:
Originally Posted by awm
Wasn't it almost 24 hours ago that you picked up your blankety-blank chequebook and pen in HKG? You must be wiped out! Good luck getting on your way...
Yeah, its close to that long... But the HKG-LHR flight was good, and the arrivals lounge very comfortable.. So not too tired... The door just closed and the captain came on the PA saying that he bags were being loaded right now.. so hopefully we're departing soon... Crossing my fingers...
I'm more dreading my flight back to LHR tomorrow now! I hope these delays wouldn't have a domino effect on flights the next few days...
Passengers flying into Heathrow's new £4.3 billion terminal faced hours of chaos today as they tried to collect their luggage, after a sophisticated new baggage handling system broke down.
Gee, and many years ago, didn't the same thing happen to UA in Denver....
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Yeah, its close to that long... But the HKG-LHR flight was good, and the arrivals lounge very comfortable.. So not too tired... The door just closed and the captain came on the PA saying that he bags were being loaded right now.. so hopefully we're departing soon... Crossing my fingers...
I'm more dreading my flight back to LHR tomorrow now! I hope these delays wouldn't have a domino effect on flights the next few days...
Looking at the increasing cancellations on BAA for T5 I think that there may already now be some knock on for tomorrow.
. BBC World are reporting that pax are having to wait 1hr+ for bags.
