adrianjc32

The bag not being loaded in JNB is not really a T5 fault. In steady state the hosts in the baggage hall would be at the carousel with a list of any missing bags so that you will not have to waste time awaiting your bags. As for the prat on the desk I apologise for his rudeness and jobsworth attitude. It is good to hear that the arrivals lounge agent was able to provide more of a service.

I do feel rather sorry for the arrivals services staff, they have had an awful role and environment for many years and out of all of BA stood to gain the most in T5. To find this mess awaiting them has seriously upset alot of the staff. Of course that is no excuse for any rudeness, but I can see why staff are emotionally exhausted.

aristoph

I agree the original problem is not a T5 issue, but it is certainly the same old BA crap as far as I am concerned - they have done this to me three times now out of six flights. Even when (if) T5 is working smoothly I will be no happier if BA continues to leave my bags in JNB. My point about the new terminal was that, despite the shiny new First/CW Customer Service Desk, I received rude treatment and was given poor and/or misleading information by the staff. I certainly do not feel sorry for them as it is their job to help passengers like me and if they don't want to do it any longer then they should work elsewhere in the company.

As an aside, my partner and I have of course been telling all our work colleagues about this experience. The typical response has been "What do you expect, why on earth do you fly with BA anyway?". I am beginning to wonder myself!

PUCCI GALORE

You and I both. If this is a constant issue, why indeed do you bother with British Airways? I would not go on giving my money to an organisation that treated me or my partner and our belongings as delightfully as you describe. I have to work too hard for my money and I would let them do that once, twice at most and then I would be off down the road to someone who would appreciate my business.

Only if enough people vote with their feet will anything change.

aristoph

The previous two times my bags were back within 3 days so I guess I soon forgot the trauma. This time I am feeling very pessimistic. The contents of that bag were probably worth a couple of thousand pounds and I am not relishing the fight to get BA to pay up.

Roger

Once again, Pucci Galore speaks the words of truth and commonsense.

I agree JNB can be difficult with bags and AVOD problems. Luckily, I'm able to use CPT for the present which is a whole different kettle of fish (fish? sorry) with domestic flights on the wonderful Comair or SAA.

With your experiences, wouldn't you be happier with a different airline to JNB?

OT, I'm looking forward to getting to JNB on TK who join Star Alliance today. More availability and good service at hopefully more moderate prices. And heaven knows what the future *A entrant EgyptAir alongside TK will do for award availability and my pocket.

Smirnoff

aristoph, I am not at all surprised at the attitude of the staffmember you encountered. I have across an abundance of "can't be bothered" and "haven't got a clue" staff at T5 - at check-in, in the lounges, at CS points. Perhaps some of this has been due to frustration over the T5 move mismanagement, but there are plenty of staff who have simply not been trained adequately and are poorly prepared for their T5 role.

I should counter this by saying that I have also come across some excellent staff on the ground, but we shouldn't be subject to this lottery of service standards.

By contrast the cabin crew members continue to be exceptional, and highly embarrassed about what is going on on the ground.

Scrooge McDuck

I think PUCCI has a very strong point. What is service worth when it starts after entering the plane and when it stops when leaving it? The service the airline is responsible for - and you pay for it - starts at check-in and stops when leaving the destination airport. Nothing less and nothing more! It this is not a issue of the class you are flying. Even for the cheapest ticket available, I do have to expect that the whole handling of the flight works fine enough. Bags delivered days after arrival can happen. We all had this experience. However if this happens at almost every second flight then it is time to consider taking another carrier next time.

nomad1974

[QUOTE=aristoph;9499062]... The typical response has been "What do you expect, why on earth do you fly with BA anyway?"...[QUOTE]

Indeed, why do you?! After being EC Gold for 3 years in a row, I believe my last flight on BA was sometime in... 2002

nicolas75

As the disruption at Heathrow - the lost luggage, cancelled flights, missed connections, missed weddings, computer breakdowns, sleepless nights, impromptu fights - continues into its fifth and sixth days, and the apologies of my distant cousin, the British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh, become ever more ineffectual, it's time to reflect on a simple truth: there is such a thing as bad publicity.

Who now, in their right mind, would choose to fly BA? Wouldn't you sooner trust Air Turkmenistan or Air Tierra del Fuego than leave it to the bungling of the world's very-much-former favourite airline?

You know airlines are in trouble when their name is turned into a joke - as when TWA became Try Walking Across,
the Belgian company Sabena was held to stand for Such A Bloody Experience, Never Again,
and Alitalia allegedly meant Always Late in Take-off, Always Late in Arrival.

I fear BA may henceforth be thought of as
Baggage Armageddon.

aristoph

So, after 3 days of calling BA today they tell me that my bag was scanned at T5 on Monday morning at 0707h, ie 35 minutes after I landed there! This is, of course, the complete opposite of what I was told at the airport where as late as 0900h I was actually shown the screen indicating my bag was still in JNB. So we now know that the scanners at T5 don't communicate with the Customer Services system, or at least only with a 72hr delay. Meanwhile the online tracking website is completely useless as most of the time it says there is no record of my PIR or, when it does work, that "Tracing continues - please check back later". Oh and be prepared to hold for at least half an hour if you want to speak to a human being.

So it seems that I am a genuine victim of the T5 f**k-up and not an innocent bystander who should really be angry with JNB, as I was told on Monday. And when do BA expect to deliver my bag to me? Well they have no idea but they are "trying to prevent inbound delayed bags being delivered to Milan for sorting with the others".

I give up.