acquiescefc

Thanks for this. was originally on a one hour T5->T5 conx but now they cancelled the BA flights and put me on EI ive a Terminal change and was worried it will be busier now.
Last time, during peacetime, i remember it took me an hour to transfer by bus was just horrible and EI always seem to be late.

Yeah it was moreso for the seat assignment but as you say its short enough trip.

Dave_C

So T5 arrivals on Sunday evening (last night) was a total shambles.

I was on the BA793 from Gothenburg which was scheduled to arrive at 22.45 - we got in five minutes early which was great. Unfortunately it was a B gate, and for once most of T5A did indeed appear to be occupied. Rather than wait for the transit I got my steps in and walked over to T5A arrivals, taking the lift up to the immigration hall. Very lucky that I did as there was a massive immigration queue snaking down the hallway. Having come up in the lift, I simply merged in. eGates were working which meant no checking of locator forms at all. All in all from plane to baggage hall wasn't too bad at around twenty minutes.

However this is where things got disappointing. I noticed quite a lot of BA staff milling around our baggage belt - apparently there were no staff available to unload the aircraft. They hadn't even started to take the containers off and didn't know when they would. Apparently the manager (who was in a suit) walked up and was about as useful as a chocolate tea-pot. I pointed out that the terminal was running at roughly 1/4 of normal capacity, it shouldn't have been a surprise that flights were landing, and all seemed terribly poor. I enquired if staff had taken sickies given the restructuring results due, or if they simply hadn't bothered to bring enough people back from furlough. I got some "can't comment" rubbish back.

So I simply filed a lost bag report and it got delivered back to me this afternoon at home. If BA can't adequately resource their operation at 25% capacity, then as far as I'm concerned they can bear the costs of that. Needlessly poor.

theox

If it’s a helpful data / reference point for anyone; my journey so far today (Tue 11th):

1. 52 mins by taxi from Canary Wharf to T5 at 0545.

2. Y check in busy. Queues all the way back To the departure info screens

3. J check in probably 10-15 people in line

4. F wing 50% full. A few cheeky people trying to squeeze extra benefits for Covid ... saw a family of 5 trying to come through on a gold card.

5. security on F wing smooth.

6. Both lounges quite busy (by social distancing regs) but service fast

7. similar to others reporting - about a 50/50 mix of face masks / not

apologies mods this post probably spans this and the experiences of BA during COVID.

binman

its desperate and I don’t understand how this is not a news story and be plastered over the tabloids! Massive queues like this, mixing people who should and should not quarantine, is unsafe. BA not having any staff on duty is just incompetent

A P Yu

Even a flight from a quarantine destination will have lots of people who don't have to quarantine - there are about 50 exemptions.
Passengers will be mixing on the bus / tube / train too.
The quarantine requirement only starts when you get home, (or to your place of quarantine) which is the place you must head straight to.
And even the quarantiners can go Food Shopping - so beware of the queues in Tesco too

corporate-wage-slave

Because mostly it doesn't happen. If the OP was HBO I doubt it would have been a much of an issue, and if his theory about the redundancies is correct, it wouldn't necessarily be repeated again. Most recent reports about baggage reclaim have been positive.

Dave_C

I suspect I’ll be coming back again from somewhere else next Sunday evening, albeit not quite as late and HBO as well, so will be able to report on how busy it was.

However there really is no excuse. Both for the UKBF queues and for the general state of the BA operation. There was no disruptions, No delays, no weather events and no longhaul aircraft. Passenger volumes should be completely manageable given the capacity of the terminal yet they were not.

cameramaker

Sunday evening at around 22:30-23:00 was an utter shambles at the border in T5, the queue was snaking round towards the gates in the A20s. There were about 7 e-gates open and a big queue of mostly families waiting for a manual check.

I guess Border Force can’t be bothered to resource their operation adequately either?

Dave_C

That was exactly when I was there and concur. The only reason I got through so quickly was that I came up from T5B via the lifts (rather than escalators), so merged into the front of the queue. Coupled with the BA failures I mentioned as well it was shambolic.

Sailbot3310

Similar experience on T5 border last week. e-gates were open, but most (including me) seemed to be getting rejected and having to seek assistance. There was no agent at the assistance desk, so you had to alternate between the main line for EU passports (families etc) where there were 2 agents working; Took around 45 minutes in line due to border being severely understaffed at 17:30. Can't comment on why e-gates had such a high rejection rate. That didn't help.

The BA experience was actually ok on return, better than outbound where there was little social distancing when boarding

bluemoon68

That isn't true.

From the government guidelines here: https://www.gov.uk/government/public...avel-to-the-uk

"You should not go shopping. If you require help buying groceries, other shopping or picking up medication, you should ask friends or relatives or order a delivery."......."NHS Volunteer Responders are also available if you need help collecting shopping, medication or would like a telephone ‘check-in and chat’."

KARFA

I would agree that a number of people are suggesting incorrectly on FT that you can just pop out to do food shopping at will. It is a little bit more restrictive that that and it is one of the examples of exceptional circumstances, and it is supposed to be when you can't obtain them in another way.

The Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) (England) Regulations 2020 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/568/contents

corporate-wage-slave

This is sensible, but as it says further down, you are allowed outside to obtain basis necessities where it is not possible to obtain them in any other manner. So the advice is to get food delivered by supermarkets, but it is as good as impossible to arrange a short term access to food delivery in about two thirds of England unless you were already a longstanding customer of the relevant supermarket. Some local authorities have offered to help by wriiting a letter to confirm priority status but this is something that is taking 10 plus days to arrange. This is a good example of where guidance says one thing (and it's sensible stuff) but the law says something else. The law talks about "reasonable excuse", and puts the onus on the authorities to prove otherwise.

A P Yu

In England, you can only leave your accommodation in limited circumstances. These include where:
you need access to basic necessities like food and medicines, but only in exceptional circumstances such as where you cannot arrange for these to be delivered

Dave_C

Looks like people are starting to notice...

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