Originally Posted by cziwkga

Thanks for that - I'm slightly surprised it hasn't arisen before. In that case I'll put in the claim and report back here on progress. For interest, the specifics in my case are this:

(1) Boarding is late - reason unknown. The process is only halfway through at scheduled
departure time. Not so unusual
(2) We have a further delay which the captain explains is due to a baggage discrepancy. After 20 minutes it emerges that one bag was scanned twice at some point.
(3) Once we are under way the predicted arrival time is hovering either side of the MCT at LHR. But as we approach the Thames estuary the flight deck tell us that they have been slowed down by ATC and we then go into a holding pattern for a while. I now know we won't make MCT, but I only have hand baggage and think I might make conformance at flight connections if we don't...
(4).. arrive at C gates, Which we do. Further delayed by a couple of minutes because of 'debris' in the gate area.

So, C gates is just life - I can't complain about that. There's the baggage issue, ATC and the gate debris. Either of the first two would have caused me to miss MCT alone, I think. One is excluded and one seems to me to be included. The baggage handlers are not BA employees but are acting as their agents.

I'll let people here know how this turns out. Thanks to everyone else who has provided so much useful information in this thread.