AlbaGuBrath

Apologies if this has been mentioned elsewhere. It seems that for a few hours today LHR had reduced landing slots due to the weather.

In addition there seems to be huge baggage issues, I got off the very late 1497 at 23:45 to find passengers from a 19:00 service from ABZ still waiting for their bags! BA didn't know when the GLA bags would arrive so I've went home with a tracking reference (a first for me!).

One relevant thing really stood out - the baggage assistance people were fantastic! They had clearly had a long day but they were providing great comms.

Unfortunately the BA CS people were not great. I was told that because BA had got me to LHR (2+ hours late) they were not going to reimburse any onward taxi expenses. I had intended to take the train but they had all finished by the time I arrived. I was advised to take a refreshment voucher and wait for the first train... Surely this is nonsense?

Secondly, when we left the aircraft Gate 8 hadn't been set up properly. Most of the passengers, including myself ended up at UK Border in the 'International' end of T5. I was able to turn around and walk back to the correct Domestic exit, but surely that should not be allowed to happen? If I was arriving from an international flight I could have walked straight out via the domestic exit without speaking to any border people.

Sorry for the rant, I should add the CSD on my flight down was phenomenal.

layz

You may get somewhere sending in your taxi receipt to BA. I had a taxi at NCL refunded when a long delay meant no Metro was running.

If you have travel insurance that may cover it.

ernestojones

The baggage situation seems poor, but I do not understand why you think the airline should pay for a taxi, when it was an air traffic control decision to reduce the flow rate and this delayed your flight.

My rule of thumb, when booking a flight, is to add 2 hours onto the ETA and see if it stills works, for 2 hour delays are pretty common place for frequent flyers. If it results in a difficult situation, then I would re-plan.

IRROPS at Heathrow, on a Sunday night, in the middle of winter, is not exactly a surprise, is it?

corporate-wage-slave

Welcome to Flyertalk ernestojones, welcome to the British Airways forum. Thank you for joining us here and it's always good to see new members. So welcome on board.

I kind of agree that a 2 hour delay is in the noise, annoying though they are. For those late inbounds, though there could be some people connecting on to the late HKG or ABV, most people would be point to point.

Normally BA pay for reasonable taxi fares if public transport has stopped. Not sure how that will play out when the tube goes 24 hours a day mind! So I would claim, but they typically don't do anything at T5 unless it is shockingly late (3 in the morning stuff), so it's best not to waste any more time, get on a taxi and write in later. Probably fastest and easiest for all concerned.

sts603

It rained last night. And a little wind. No reason for ops to break down

Polomarc

On BA675, just been told there are delays today at LHR due to weather. Hope its not too bad.

2nd update. Looks like it's fine, wil arrive on time

aksai oiler

I had a not too dissimilar experience from GLA yesterday morning, trying to get my 6 year old daughter to XRY.

Rude and indifferent checkin staff at GLA. Would rather talk to her colleague about painting her nails that do her job. Only when I asked her if she was vision impaired did she actually acknowledge she had my passport and Gold card.

Late flights throughout

No Child Meal in CE from LHR-MAD, despite being requested when ticket was booked and I did recieve on the out leg to LHR

NO BAGGAGE on arrival in XRY!!

And now I am sat waiting to fly back to MAD, luckily my Wife came last night with a back up travel bag for my trip to DXB

aardvarkdave

I flew in last night and was delayed a couple of ours - our pilot told us that the main problem was not UK weather, it was East coast US weather which led to lots of delayed TATL flights bunching up at Heathrow and taking all the slots slightly earlier in the day.

We were held at GVA for 90mins, then flew racetracks for another 20 above LHR.

Reminded me of why LHR isn't a good shorthaul airport; you're always back of the queue when something goes wrong. TATL flights have never caused knock-on impact for me at SEN!

bealine

Understatement! Given the size of the operation at LHR, we should be talking five or six runways by now, not pleading with the government for a piddly third runway. For the airlines to be expected to continually pay compensation, when the fault lies clearly with the lack of available runway capacity is clearly unfair. It's time we all went to HM Government and demanded compensation from them for keeping Heathrow stuck in the Dark Ages! Their idiotic procrastination and fudging of the issue is stifling the expansion of British business.

It seems as if all the political parties are dead against Heathrow expansion, which is why we need your continued help and support!

http://www.backheathrow.org/

Kgmm77

Did the weather break the baggage system?

Raldal

If popular sentiment does not allow Heathrow to try to alleviate the problem slightly by using mixed mode landing/take-offs there seems little chance of the situation changing in the foreseeable future.

Even if the Government does allow Heathrow expansion doubt if most of those travelling today will see any benefit in their lifetime!.

paulwuk

Between the baggage and the open border it seems heathrow and their main customer can't be trusted with what they have now, let alone more runways.

As a taxpayer it's not my concern if a foreign company makes more money or not. It's business, not corporate welfare.

Perhaps a windfall tax on heathrow and its operators would fund enough public works to offset the problems of a third runway. How about a simple £500 tax onpassengers arriving and departing heathrow, and reducing demand would mean fewer problems. Might impact on IAG profits, but that's of no concern to the average person.

bealine

Interesting concept. Whilst it might not be of concern to the average person, I suggest many of the global corporates with offices throughout West London and across the Thames Valley might have something to say about a £500 per person tax and just decide to relocate their offices. With mass redundancies across West London and around the Thames Valley, and the possible relocation of offices elsewhere in Europe where they won't get taxed to death, I fear the average person might start to get a little concerned!

The tragic events of 09/11 showed many businesses throughout Surrey, West Sussex, Middlesex, Berkshire, Bucks and Oxon how much they rely on the aviation industry for their revenue. Even little sole traders suffered as jobs and overtime at the airports were cut and people could no longer afford to have unnecessary jobs done. The fallout from 09/11 didn't last long for us, because British Airways was the first "legacy" carrier to bounce back, but many little businesses and one-man-bands folded along the way and even larger retailers suffered a drop in profits.

Imagine what would happen if the airport cutbacks were permanent.

paulwuk

Global corporates seem to cope with the current situation. In the meantime half the plane's landing and taking off are due to connecting flights, bringing no benefit to the UK.

Perhaps if BA were to stop undercutting direct flights by offering cheap flights from AMS to NYC then there'd be less need for so many flights.

I'm sure if a large company were to buy 200 square miles of land in a 40X5 area somewhere convienient and build an airport in the middle, planning permission wouldn't be too hard - no one would be directly impacted (assuming they avoid bird nesting areas or golden newts).

A £500 tax would simply be absorbed by BA and Heathrow (and the other airlines), otherwise they'd see their customers disappear off to flights from Gatwick, Luton, Stansted, Birmingham, LCY etc. Doesn't take a lot longer to get to Birmingham than it does to get to Heathrow.

msm2000uk

According to 'Nige', people travelling on the M4 probably broke it