I had the misfortune of being on the IB MAD-LGW rotation last night which had a rejected takeoff due to a burst tyre. Obviously this caused a significant delay as we needed to wait over an hour on the apron for brakes to cool, Fire Brigade to inspect etc. No complaints there- these things happen and inevitably they cause big delays. I thought the crew handled it well. The passengers also seemed to take it in their stride. So far so good.

A replacement aircraft was found and we got back to LGW with a delay of around 3 hours 20 minutes., which in the circumstances is not bad going at all.

However, at this point IBE's performance becomes less than stellar. Those passengers with checked bags (including me- yes I know you should avoid checking bags if possible- but in this case it was a lengthy round trip and unavoidable) waited at the indicated carousel for at least 30-40 minutes. Nothing. No announcements. Eventually some people began to pro-actively fill in missing luggage forms. Only then did it transpire, via the handling agents reps that were in the terminal, that the bags were never loaded onto the replacement aircraft. In a sense that is not hugely surprising, but surely the crew would have known this on departure? That being the case they should have pro-actively told passengers of this. And then why on arrival at LGW was nothing said and were the passengers left to find out for themselves what had actually happened? This caused a very significant additional delay, which in the circumstances was completely unnecessary.

I have heard of similar things on BA in the BA forum. Is this some sort of crappy OW SOP?

Anyway, hopefully I will be reunited with my bag before the end of the summer, but am preparing never to see it again. I am assuming that if it ever leaves MAD it will be loaded onto the next IBE LGW flight, rather than loaded onto an IB LHR rotation, but if anyone has any advice for how I might expedite things (don't worry- no expectations) then this will be gratefully received