Lots of short-haul cancellations out of LHR tonight [19 Dec]
Dec 20, 2021, 1:05 pm
#76
Join Date: Nov 2012
Programs: BA Silver, VS Silver
Posts: 780
Swissport at BHD were not at all surprised by the missing bags and proactively let us know when all the bags were out. Apparently Saturday night had a flight with 80 missing bags and there were already 60ish bags reported missing before the 1422 last night. It’s been going on all week and apparently BHD is running out of places to store them as they trickle in and need sorted for couriering!
Dec 20, 2021, 2:33 pm
#77
Join Date: Dec 2019
Programs: BA Silver
Posts: 572
You may be correct and the Pilot to be fair did come out to "face the music" but why tell a porky saying he didn't know the bags were not loaded on leaving LHR - possibly to avoid a mutiny 
Seriously as someone else said glad to get home - at least they loaded the catering trolley in Club !!
On arrival in Edinburgh they had pre-printed letters apologising for the situation ( bit of a giveaway ?) .
I have not yet been contacted and I can't get into the report baggage missing portal - it won't go beyond the first stage -ie I cant enter Booking Ref and Baggage No - could it be in meltdown ?
I tried to ring the BA Gold Helpline but didn't get past first post ?
What should I do - any advice gratefully accepted.
Seriously as someone else said glad to get home - at least they loaded the catering trolley in Club !!
On arrival in Edinburgh they had pre-printed letters apologising for the situation ( bit of a giveaway ?) .
I have not yet been contacted and I can't get into the report baggage missing portal - it won't go beyond the first stage -ie I cant enter Booking Ref and Baggage No - could it be in meltdown ?
I tried to ring the BA Gold Helpline but didn't get past first post ?
What should I do - any advice gratefully accepted.
Can anyone help me with this please ?
I have received no notification from BA about my bag and it is now 24 Hours since I got back.
The Baggage Portal does not seem to be working as it does not let me get to the stage of inserting my booking reference and baggage ticket number.
Has it possibly been complicated by the fact I was flying from IST to EDI via LHR ?
Dec 20, 2021, 2:59 pm
#79
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 368
Some of those BHD Swissport staff are super-heros but they their pleas for help to mission control (i.e. BA at Waterside) appear to be routinely disregarded. On more than one occasion, I've had bags delivered to my home (around 12 miles from BHD) by Swissport staff themselves, in their own cars on their way to/from work, when a real person realised that the combination of the BA baggage tracking system and the contracted courier firm would take another 24 hours to get a bag from BHD to a nearby address. But for anyone who's a regular at BHD, take a look at staffing levels, particularly from mid evening onwards, and you'll see that staff are currently stretched to the absolute limit. One small mishap is all it will take to push the operation over the edge as the entire show has been paired back to the absolute minimum that it needs to tick over. If you're waiting for one of those 70+ delayed BHD bags, I wouldn't hold your breath right now.
Dec 20, 2021, 3:09 pm
#80
Join Date: Jul 2018
Programs: Aadvantage platinum; IHG Spire
Posts: 546
OK, so what I'm reading into this situation is that there is a structural issue with Sundays, they have barely enough staff to run the show at weekends and zero goodwill from unrostered staff when even a small thing goes wrong. The flights most at risk are domestic and Dublin, since realistically this limits the damage to BA and to some extent their customers. Long haul faces delays, but it essentially runs. Boxing Day? Usually a quiet day.
Dec 20, 2021, 3:25 pm
#81
Join Date: Nov 2012
Programs: BA Silver, VS Silver
Posts: 780
Some of those BHD Swissport staff are super-heros but they their pleas for help to mission control (i.e. BA at Waterside) appear to be routinely disregarded. On more than one occasion, I've had bags delivered to my home (around 12 miles from BHD) by Swissport staff themselves, in their own cars on their way to/from work, when a real person realised that the combination of the BA baggage tracking system and the contracted courier firm would take another 24 hours to get a bag from BHD to a nearby address. But for anyone who's a regular at BHD, take a look at staffing levels, particularly from mid evening onwards, and you'll see that staff are currently stretched to the absolute limit. One small mishap is all it will take to push the operation over the edge as the entire show has been paired back to the absolute minimum that it needs to tick over. If you're waiting for one of those 70+ delayed BHD bags, I wouldn't hold your breath right now.
I recognised the supervisor in the baggage area and she proactively mentioned that she thought she recognised the particular bag doing circuits on the carousel was the last one and radioed to check and also radioed to the baggage desk landside to expect us.
As an aside, somewhat sad that in the past these staff would have been BA / BD with (optimistically) a but more clout with their colleagues in London. It feels like they have been thrown under a bus.
As a further aside, all of EI’s BHD flights ran to time yesterday. Doesn’t look good when your sister airline puts you to shame, but that’s not news to BHD regulars….
Dec 20, 2021, 4:14 pm
#82
Join Date: Dec 2019
Programs: BA Silver
Posts: 572
Does that mean they don't realise it's missing ?
Perhaps it never left Istanbul with me to Heathrow and onward to Edinburgh.
I have tried to create a report in the baggage portal but it won't let me get to the stage where you enter your Booking Ref and Baggage Ticket Number (from my open EC page)
Dec 20, 2021, 4:51 pm
#83
Join Date: Dec 2019
Programs: BA Silver
Posts: 572
I haven't got a Missing Baggage report number which they should have sent me by text or e-mail according to the website.
Does that mean they don't realise it's missing ?
Perhaps it never left Istanbul with me to Heathrow and onward to Edinburgh.
I have tried to create a report in the baggage portal but it won't let me get to the stage where you enter your Booking Ref and Baggage Ticket Number (from my open EC page)
Does that mean they don't realise it's missing ?
Perhaps it never left Istanbul with me to Heathrow and onward to Edinburgh.
I have tried to create a report in the baggage portal but it won't let me get to the stage where you enter your Booking Ref and Baggage Ticket Number (from my open EC page)
Perversely I managed to create a baggage missing report by pretending not to be an EC Member and then adding the details in later in the process.
Wouldn't let me do it while in BA website signed in as EC Member.
Says it is coming up on BA 1442 Tomorrow (Tuesday) must have quite a backlog there !!
Dec 20, 2021, 4:51 pm
#84
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: UK
Programs: BA Gold / Hilton Diamond / IHG Diamond Ambassador / Marriot Bonvoy Gold
Posts: 2,533
Dec 20, 2021, 9:28 pm
#85
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: US/UK - and elsewhere
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 2,556
T5 baggage hall was (Monday) baggage-carnage at the south end by belts 10/11 with a sea of bags looking to be in no particular order, coupled with many bags lined up close by the other belts - and not to mention some bags doomed to remain on the endless looping of the belts themselves. (we were lucky, about a 20 minute wait with 3/5 of our bags being #1,2&3, and all 5 within 40 mins of landing).
Dec 21, 2021, 1:35 am
#86
Join Date: Jul 2018
Programs: Aadvantage platinum; IHG Spire
Posts: 546
T5 baggage hall was (Monday) baggage-carnage at the south end by belts 10/11 with a sea of bags looking to be in no particular order, coupled with many bags lined up close by the other belts - and not to mention some bags doomed to remain on the endless looping of the belts themselves. (we were lucky, about a 20 minute wait with 3/5 of our bags being #1,2&3, and all 5 within 40 mins of landing).
Dec 21, 2021, 2:26 am
#88
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2014
Programs: Top Tier with all 3 alliances
Posts: 11,668
That's a good point, but BA and everyone else need to urgently hire seasonal workers or something (buy out vacation times, pay extra bonuses, etc) to deal with the problem of labour shortage.
Dec 21, 2021, 2:33 am
#89
Join Date: Jul 2014
Programs: BAEC, VS Flying Club
Posts: 796
As for getting existing staff to work longer - well that relies on the goodwill of your workforce and unions, and industrial relations at BA are apparently not the best right now …
