Thanks for the advice. I see I forgot to mention in my original post that I had Airportr coming to collect the bag at 13:15. I rang BA but as it was a BA holiday, India transferred me to BAH and after 50 mins I managed to speak to someone. They in turn spoke to their supervisor but the advice came back that it would have to be sorted at the Airport. It was by now around 12:50, Airportr arrived at 13:22 but I had to send them on their way as I had no boarding pass. It wasn’t possible to get a refund of the £38 from Airportr for taking the bag.
i was due to stay at the Premier Inn T5 this evening but I brought that forward and went to the First Wing in case I had to apply for a new ESTA. She swiped my passport and said she couldn’t find a booking for me but she was looking for flights today but I was able to breathe again when she said she’d found the booking for tomorrow. I explained that I was unable to check in online and that I’d received a message that said in effect that I had no ESTA.
She looked at me a bit askance and said she couldn’t understand why, as there were no problems that she could see and then handed me my boarding pass. As it was about 16:15 there was no problem with them taking my bag for the hold.
Well done BA for your great IT….
I took a screenshot of the message and will see if they will refund me the cost of £38 after my holiday.