James S

My other half was checked in for the JFK flight, had 33C the very front seat in Y with good leg room, and was heading to the lounge for a shower and breakfast before the flight (around 9am, 2 hours prior to departure). The phone rang - you can't come/family crisis/wait two weeks/blah/blah/blah.

So pretty much in tears he asked how he could get his bags back and come back home. To BA's credit, as he tells it, he had several wonderful ladies at the ticket desk expressing concern for him, asking what the problem was. He is adorable when in helpless mode and has a black eye at the moment so that would have all helped. Not sure how he got back through security. But once at the ticket desk they did all they could to help him. For Ł90 they rebooked him for early March, despite the rules saying ticket cannot be changed on day of travel, and explained about the bags which would eventually show up in arrivals. He caught a taxi home Ł84 to Covent Garden compared to Ł37 in they mini cab on the way out to T5. Grrr without bags the Tube to Covert Garden or HEx/cab would have been much better.

Anyway, thank you to BA staff for helping him out, and bending the rules which saved us the Ł450 cost of the ticket, and for not making him feel like he was causing a big problem.

A question - how does he go about retrieving the bags? Can we pay to have them shipped back home, or does he go out to LHR T5 and ask somewhere. Both bag are tagged with his BA Silver cards/number

Many thanx

James

Dirty_Idea

I think by "eventually showing up in arrivals", you should read "shortly arriving on the baggage belt". I can't guess what the crisis was, so can't blame the guy for darting out the airport asap, but those bags are probably in lost luggage or similar by now. Did he arrange for the bags to be handled after delivery?

IAN-UK

Similar situation, but T4 with Lagos as the (abandoned) destination. By the time I'd done the paperwork and got through security, my bag was doing a solitary spin on a carousel in the arrivals place.

I think the idea is you act like an arriving passsenger, pick up your bag and head out of the irport.

TREKSTER1006

They would have come out on the baggage belt, but it does take a while sometimes to be put back into the system and delivered to the belt. It will most Proberbly be in a holding area in the arrivals hall

Best thing to do is to head to T5 and see a BA member of staff who will tell you what you need to do (Bring a passport as he will be taken airside and go thru security)

James S

My understanding is he somehow got back into the landside check-in area and left the airport from there.

Maybe if the bags are located he can simply pick them up when he next heads out to LHR for the delayed flight to JFK.

James S

Just spoke to him and he is doing exactly that. Thanx.

James