orbitmic

I really don't want to rub it in because it serves no purpose and nobody wants to add guilt to what must already be an incredibly stressful and worrying situation for you, but actually, you haven't. I know you don't want us to repeat it, but the BA website has the same instruction in multiple places (here is the example of their page on travelling with medical conditions, but there is the same warning on other pages too) and it matters here because it will determine the reaction you can expect from the airline if/when you contact them about that. They will, flatly tell you that it is not their fault but from their point of you yours because you ignored their instruction on the transportation of medication:

https://www.britishairways.com/jba/b...thmedinfo.html

• Please carry any medication, including liquid medicines, or medical supplies, such as syringes, in your hand baggage (if possible in the original packaging) with a prescription or supporting letter from your doctor that confirms this medication is prescribed to you to avoid delays at security or customs."

Their request is in fact not only about the risk of lost luggage but also about security and customs concerns and it is explicitly that the place for medication in general, and prescription medication or essential medication in particular is absolutely and solely in hand luggage.

Edit: Sorry, CIHY beat me to it whilst I was typing!

LouisW

I understand it might be privacy related, but if OP wants to share details of where they are and what medication is needed, better answers could be provided.

wrldwide1

Pardon me for saying so, but a basic rule of travel is never put medication in checked luggage. Always goes in your carry-on bag. Because of the situation you now find yourself in.

steveholt

If you don't show up on time for your flight and have to buy a new one, would you say "Don't tell me I shouldn't have shown up late for my flight please"? I'm sorry that you're going through this, but if you don't want to take ownership of your mistake, I don't see how or why you could expect someone at BA to make it theirs.

benmo13

It's shocking how unhelpful and flat out rude some of you can be. Yes, seasoned travelers know not to put valuable items (or medication) in checked luggage. But it shouldn't be unreasonable to expect luggage to be delivered on time and service providers to at minimum, try to help when they mess up.

Shaming the OP or stating this is on him/her is extremely unhelpful and unnecessary. This is not the spirit of this forum. I doubt either of you would have the balls to be saying "this is on you" to an individual whose health can be in danger if you weren't hiding behind a computer.

Can I help you

That is not fair, the OP wasn’t getting any flack until they said this.

“With respect, I did my part of the bargain here. I paid for my ticket, turned up at the airport at the time requested and handed my bag to BA. The only party who didn’t do what they were supposed to do here is BA, by failing to put my bag on the plane.

Obviously I’ve learned an important lesson that trusting BA with anything you actually need at the other end is a good way to f up your holiday, but I don’t think it’s too much to ask that they actually make some sort of effort to rectify their mistake”.

Nobody is saying that BA are not at fault for not delivering the bag but to make such a claim the OP needed to be corrected.

Bohinjska Bistrica

The OP has had some crap luck here, granted. Four bags and of course the one that didn't show up was the critical one. However the first post does seem to acknowledge that the choice taken wasn't the wisest, despite the subsequent deflections onto BA. Unfortunately, a risk was taken here and it has proven bothersome.

I don't think this comment is entirely fair either. Responses might be a tad direct, but they are Unfortunately correct even if it seems harsh. Moreover, advice has been given to.the OP on how this can possibly be handled.

Anything you take on holiday that is utterly essential travels on your person or in your hand luggage. It is well documented that airports are in various states of disarray at the moment and the risk of something going wrong is elevated. It really isn't the time to take chances, especially those that carry potentially severe consequences.

cauchy

It's GSL, so can get from Tesco etc - I ordered a stack from Amazon before the hay fever season kicked off.

flatlander

It was reclassified from POM to GSL at the end of 2020: https://www.gov.uk/government/public...sales-list-gsl

danmushman

120mg Fexofenadine was made available 'on the shelves,' not even OTC earlier this year in the UK. You don't need to go near a pharmacy, it's in supermarkets and Amazon too. This dosage is licensed for hay fever. The 180mg dosage has never officially been licensed for hay fever but can be issued at a doc's discretion. What they don't tell you is that most of the one-a-day antihistamines can safely be taken at much higher dosages. (Off-license, this is not medical advice, please consult with your GP before doing so etc).

OP - as others have said, see what's available locally. Google will hopefully let you know how restricted your medicines are in the country you are in. If you're in a resort then they may have a visiting doctor service. If you can provide evidence of what you are prescribed this would help. I would suggest doing this over contacting your UK GP who is unlikely to be able to help get you meds whilst you're abroad. (If you can even get through to them in the meantime).

orbitmic

[Bolding mine] I certainly agree with you that there would be no point in shaming/making the OP feel guilty, but I do not think that this is what people were trying to do here, and if you look at the thread from the start, I think people have tried to think hard to figure out what could precisely help the OP get the best of your situation.

The sentence underlined is precisely the reason why a bit of a reality check was important - and indeed to the OP's advantage here. Clearly, the OP came to this forum with precisely the expectation that you mentioned, that BA would feel terribly at fault and would somehow make significant efforts and find a way to reunite him/her with their medicine.

The bleak truth, however worrying it might be, is that this is not what is going to happen, and it is important for the OP's own sake that they be aware of how the airline will perceive the situation. If you do not point out that lost luggage is an effectively almost entirely automated system which no amount of contacting will speed up, you entertain a false hope that the airline decide how to prioritise luggage recovery whilst they effectively don't. If you do not point out that BA (and all other airlines) are explicit about requesting passengers not to put medicine in checked luggage and therefore exonerate themselves of responsibility for it, you promote this false perception that BA will feel particularly guilty here and thus bend over backwards to fix it, whilst for them, the very mention of the medicine is instead cause to think that the luggage contains things that should have been put elsewhere, and indeed may ring alarm bells that when the luggage is finally recovered, its delivery may well be further slowed down by security and customs concerns. For instance, it is possible that instead of the mention of the medicine speeding things us as the OP clearly expected, the mention of the medicine may need BA to ask questions about it, and depending on its nature, may result in the airline refusing to deliver the bag to the OP (which they would normally do) asking them instead to collect it at the airport to clear customs in person.

It is not about making the OP feel guilty, but it is about using cumulative knowledge here to help them understand where they stand - and indeed, in this case, correct their misperception of where they stand. When dealing with any type of travel incident with airlines (or other service providers), there are different "tones" that you can take ranging pretty much from begging to feeling righteous. Intuitively, many people feel that the more assertive you are, the better your chances of effective resolution, but in truth, nothing could be further from the truth. The crucial point is that your tone/way of handling things needs to match the reality of the situation and of the relative faults of the airline and the passenger.

If you are going to talk to the airline saying: "you lost my luggage with my vital medicine - that's a major screw up on your part, you need to retrieve it asap or you are jeopardising my health" (which one might wish to say if they were indeed !00% right and the airline 100% wrong) will merely waste time and good will because the airline will spend time pointing out to how you were not supposed to put the medicine in there instead of focusing their time and energy on helping you. Worse, depending on how to phrase things, if they have any suspicion/worry you are sounding a bit legalistic, they will shut off entirely, pass on to legal departments, and effectively refuse to help to instead rely on the case that they provided all the explicit information about keeping medication in hand luggage. Would that help the OP to let them put themselves in such a situation? Not at all. They need to know how the airline will read the situation because if, for instance, the worst comes to the worst and they indeed need to curtail their trip, if they say something like: "Unfortunately, my luggage was lost and I had stupidly put my vital medication in it. I know I really shouldn't have but now it's done and it's unsafe for me to stay abroad and I really need to return, can you please help me?" they are far more likely to get some support because they will have embraced the right tone which befits the actual state of responsibilities here.

Besides, as I mentioned above and as many here know, threads are not individual consultation. Rather, they are discussions which outlive original posts and posters and get consulted by hundreds of people - many of whom are precisely not seasoned travellers, for months and years after they were started. And again, we all owe it to all those future users to be clear about what went wrong here and how to avert it, not because any of us want the OP to feel bad about it, but precisely because we feel sorry for him/her and do not want the same to happen to others. In my view, that remains the primary collective responsibility of this forum, and sadly, sometimes, it involves stressing things that people understandably do not really wish to hear.

Krisz

It's not just BA but other airlines have the same issue across the whole world. For example I did an Iberia Germany to Barcelona via Madrid flight. My bag was never made it the 2 hours connection in Madrid. I stayed 2 nights in Barcelona and I went on a cruse after that. My bag was delivered to France and to the ship several days after. Even though Iberia has multiple flights per day between Madrid and Barcelona. I didn't have any important thing in my bag and I was fine. So to the OP you can't rely on that you will get your bag on Monday. It's good that you have an AirTag so if it does make it the flight then at least you can go to the airport. I can tell you for example that in many countries there is a huge issue with local curriers. There is just way too many bags to deliver it. Don't worry, most of the time most airports are aware of this issue and if your bag is there you will get it. Maximum you have to give your phone to someone to locate in the secure area of your bag with the AirTag. That happened to one of my friend.
So there is no phone number to call, or email to send it's up to you and luck as well. As others suggested you should contact to a doctor and get your medicine. In many part of the world a small amount of money can solve all medical problems, doesn't matter the medicine you looking for is for you or for who or for what is the reason.

guv1976

I suggest that the OP research whether his missing medication must be stored within a certain temperature range in order to remain safe and effective. Without knowing where his bag is actually being stored and whether it is in a climate-controlled facility, it might be wise to plan to replace the medication -- even if that requires a trip back home to do so.

Orange County Commuter

I’m think it’s time to move on

The OP only wants advice we can’t give him. He wants us to tell him how to make the airline understand that his case is so much more important than all the other people with lost luggage because the airline is responsible for his healthcare. IMHO even though he may be a new traveler common sense tells me you don’t go places without a sufficient supply of medication when you’re checking luggage. And if you have been following the news at all this year you would have had a clue about that.

And the fact that he had an AirTag in his luggage leads me to believe that he did know what was going on with luggage this year. I have seen this AirTag suggestion all over social media. I don’t know what good it does. But if someone points out on social media that the AirTag will not get your luggage back to you any faster somebody comes on and shouts “of course it will”. . Yep, the AirTag does absolutely no good. Your luggage will not miraculously be transported to you any faster


Not to mention if you go read the posting history you might not be as willing to believe that this poster didn’t have a clue because he’s a brand new traveler.

Duck1981

I think I cannot imagine how stressful this must be for OP.

I stressed out about not getting my luggage and a baby car seat after arriving at LHR (which is my home airport); no idea how it must be if you wait for essential medicines.

Hope all goes well in the end. This forum will help wherever it can.