"Sorry, they've offloaded the wrong bag"
Oct 10, 2015, 5:47 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Near Edinburgh
Programs: BA Silver
Posts: 9,034
"Sorry, they've offloaded the wrong bag"
I've not long reached the lounge at LHR after a rather embarrassing (in the words of the First Officer) flight from EDI.
We were due to depart at 9am and I was comfortably sat in 1D. We'd been told it was a full flight, but 1F had not turned up yet. Shortly before 9am, we were told he was no longer joining us but had checked in a bag, so it was being identified and offloaded. It'd delay us around 30 minutes. A few groans, but all good since EDI-LHR flights typically have a 30 minute buffer in their schedule. We'd previously been told almost everyone on the flight was connecting.
35 minutes later we were told the bag had been found and offloaded and we were on our way again.
But, just before reaching the runway, the First Officer came on again to tell us they'd offloaded the wrong bag.
So, back to the terminal we went. The next hour can only be described as one of confusion as the crew attempted to get information as to what was happening. Eventually (and around an hour after returning to the terminal) they got it all sorted and we were allowed to leave.
The crew (both flight and cabin) were very good in keeping people up to date with happenings and letting people know about later flights, go to flight connections etc, and a couple of flights had people waiting for them when they disembarked. The flight eventually landed around 90 minutes late - 30 minutes for the first offload and 60 for the second.
I suspect there will be a post-mortem on exactly what went wrong.
The captain made himself available at the front of the aircraft and I had a quick chat with him. He repeated that it was embarrassing for BA (he repeated it a third time over the PA after we'd landed) and replied in the negative when I asked if he'd every experienced that before.
Thankfully, I'd left plenty of time for my connection so didn't have the stress of others, and ended up having a great chat with a cabin crew member who was on her way to work on the Riyadh flight. At one point she was getting a bit nervous about getting there on time (12:30), but the chat gave some brilliant insight into how (at least one) cabin crew vary the level of risk they are willing to take in order to be on time for a flight, depending on where the eventual destination is...
We were due to depart at 9am and I was comfortably sat in 1D. We'd been told it was a full flight, but 1F had not turned up yet. Shortly before 9am, we were told he was no longer joining us but had checked in a bag, so it was being identified and offloaded. It'd delay us around 30 minutes. A few groans, but all good since EDI-LHR flights typically have a 30 minute buffer in their schedule. We'd previously been told almost everyone on the flight was connecting.
35 minutes later we were told the bag had been found and offloaded and we were on our way again.
But, just before reaching the runway, the First Officer came on again to tell us they'd offloaded the wrong bag.
So, back to the terminal we went. The next hour can only be described as one of confusion as the crew attempted to get information as to what was happening. Eventually (and around an hour after returning to the terminal) they got it all sorted and we were allowed to leave.
The crew (both flight and cabin) were very good in keeping people up to date with happenings and letting people know about later flights, go to flight connections etc, and a couple of flights had people waiting for them when they disembarked. The flight eventually landed around 90 minutes late - 30 minutes for the first offload and 60 for the second.
I suspect there will be a post-mortem on exactly what went wrong.
The captain made himself available at the front of the aircraft and I had a quick chat with him. He repeated that it was embarrassing for BA (he repeated it a third time over the PA after we'd landed) and replied in the negative when I asked if he'd every experienced that before.
Thankfully, I'd left plenty of time for my connection so didn't have the stress of others, and ended up having a great chat with a cabin crew member who was on her way to work on the Riyadh flight. At one point she was getting a bit nervous about getting there on time (12:30), but the chat gave some brilliant insight into how (at least one) cabin crew vary the level of risk they are willing to take in order to be on time for a flight, depending on where the eventual destination is...
Last edited by Paralytic; Oct 10, 2015 at 5:59 am
Oct 11, 2015, 9:59 am
#3
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Wedged somewhere between BTS and VIE ✈
Programs: Star Alliance Gold (A3 Gold), Oneworld Emerald (BA Gold), Hilton Diamond
Posts: 6,338
That must have been quite an annoying experience.
I remember one of my flights being delayed when one of the passengers had a panic attack. The crew could see that she was distressed even before the doors closed and sure enough, just before boarding had finished the young woman ran off the plane! What followed was a very long search for her bags. The had to go through the entire cabin asking passengers if the bags that they were showing from the overhead lockers belonged to anyone. So that process lasted a good 40 minutes if I remember correctly. Although I think most people felt sorry for the young woman who had gotten off.
Never a dull moment with air travel.
I remember one of my flights being delayed when one of the passengers had a panic attack. The crew could see that she was distressed even before the doors closed and sure enough, just before boarding had finished the young woman ran off the plane! What followed was a very long search for her bags. The had to go through the entire cabin asking passengers if the bags that they were showing from the overhead lockers belonged to anyone. So that process lasted a good 40 minutes if I remember correctly. Although I think most people felt sorry for the young woman who had gotten off.
Never a dull moment with air travel.