Originally Posted by
Land-of-Miles
SRG,
This was always my understanding.
Recently one of your colleagues at LGW told me quite categorically that they "could not check if my bag was onboard" (given my recent history you might understand why this was especially important to me). This was not nuanced by timing or needing to complete the loading it was a point blank "can't be done".
I pressed the point as it was very important to me and tried to explain the context. Again all I got repeatedly was "can't be done" I was told that the only level to which things could be reconciled was the container level and a bag should be in a container if it was shown in the system but there could be "no guarantees".
I won't go into the onward spiralling of service issues . All I wanted was a "computer says yes" answer to whether my bag was onboard, which you seem to imply is very simple.
Fortunately one of the things which went right with that flight was that my bag did turn up (inevitably practically the last 2 bags off, with no type of priority labels and handled with the Y luggage).
It can be done but if the gate team are busy with other issues it may not be possible at the immediate time you ask. Are you sure there were no other issues when you asked? Perhaps they were dealing with another more pressing matter, and although your bag is naturally important, the other issue was more so at that time.
Please don't take this the wrong way, but you've been very down on BA recently - are you sure that negativity wasn't put across in your query, particularly as you say you pressed the point? Rightly or wrongly when people ask in a certain way it doesn't always get the best response!
As I say, please don't take the wrong way but it's just a thought. In all the years I've been at BA I've
never heard of a gate team or TRM refusing to answer whether a bag is on board - it's a fairly common question.
Frequently people ask us when we're in the middle of boarding nearly 300 people. It takes time to check, and when loading is still taking place quite honestly it's not worth doing until that has been completed as the information we give you may not be correct. I've done it numerous times myself, but always asked the passenger to wait until everybody is on board so it doesn't hold up the boarding process.
I think from what you've said is the gate team or TRM were able to confirm whether or not your bag was in a container but not prepared to physically check further than that.
We don't have priority tags at LGW but the bags are supposed to be loaded according to the cabin you're travelling in. Quite honestly they mean little or nothing, particularly when half the passengers arrive with them still on their bag from their last trip. Most times bags come out in the right order, but I've also had an occasion where every other bag came out before the CW bags. Yes it's annoying but far from the end of the world.