fruitcage

A few days ago I arrived at LHR T5 on a 90 min delayed flight at almost exactly midnight (BA691 on 12 Aug). As we were taxiing, there was an announcement to the effect that as there weren't many baggage handlers around so late it would probably take a very long time for any baggage to arrive, so passengers may prefer to just abandon their baggage and file a missing bag report online. Of course there was then a lot of grumbling from most of the passengers.

In the baggage hall, there were no staff visible except at the First/Club desk, which already had a long queue, so it was impossible to ask whether there would indeed be a delay for the bags from our flight (even if anybody would have known). There were also lots of grumpy people waiting around for baggage from previous flights, and one chap said he'd waited 2 hours for his bag already, but couldn't abandon it as he had a flight out the next day.

(As it happened we got very lucky - We had almost decided to leave without our bags when the carousel started and the bags for our flight popped out - probably quicker than they usually do.)

So the question is - is it normal that late-night arrivals should expect crazy-long delays to receive bags, and so pax are warned to just abandon their luggage (good job we ignored the advice as it turned out). Or was there something special going on that evening which made it a truly exceptional situation?

Often1

Not exactly normal, but it sounded as though it was well-handled by giving passengers the option to have the bags delivered the next day.

If staying on in London, I can't imagine having waited as one presumably has the first 3-4 days clothes in carry on.

corporate-wage-slave

This isn't unusual, and the usual victims are the late domestics if they get a bad run of creeping delays thanks to weather. If T5 gets several aircraft after 23:00 hrs the message you get is fairly standard, and what you did was sensible: wait the usual time, maybe add 5 minutes, then leave for home. I think there may be as few as 4 handlers on call, which would be need 20 minutes per shorthaul aircraft and twice that for longhauls. BA's handling of overtime for ground staff is, I have been led to believe, open to improvement. Then as the message indicated use the online baggage tools to register an entry in WorldTracer. If you are London based you would normally get the bag about 2 days later via a courier company. BA no longer requires people to submit claims at the airport.

ba.com/baggage

LGW also does this too, but they are staffed better for the late AGP service (etc) so it takes a lot for this to happen there, it sometimes happens if there are labour shortages, many of the baggage handlers are from Eastern Europe. I'm not aware of it happening at LCY or STN.

bse118

What a massive and bizarre assumption....

fruitcage

wcel

I'm guessing it a sly dig at the size of carry ons people generally carry

KeaneJohn

pacenotes

Also had this on Monday, But there was a queue at passport control and by the time we were through our bags were on the carousel. In fact, it felt quicker than normal.

So always have at least a quick look before leaving as we were just going to leave and let them deliver our bags.

giporlos

Wow... didn't realize this was "not unusual"... so London can't figure out how many flights are coming in and have the appropriate # of people lined up to work if needed? Or is it they can't just can't find people who want to work late?? Skip London... check.

Blueboys999

Although many travel insurance policies do as my daughter found out to her cost recently.

Dambus

Tafflyer

corporate-wage-slave

I think it depends on how we qualify "unusual". I should perhaps clarify this is just T5, where the last arriving aircraft is usually the 22:45 arrival from ARN. In winter only 4 aircraft arrive after 22:00 hrs and T5 is closed overnight. And yes if several aircraft then arrives after (say) midnight, which I would guess is a 1 in a 100 nights event, they will struggle. At T3 and T4 they aren't exactly round-the-clock terminals either but they are better able to handle out of hours arrivals.

MarkFlies

I wonder has someone done the sums: is it cheaper to courier luggage to people who don't wait or is it cheaper to pay a few hours overtime and taxis home?

Takiteasy