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BA flies in emergency lost luggage jumbo jets to beat Heathrow chaos
Last updated at 20:22pm on 06.08.07Jumbo jets full of lost luggage - but no passengers - have been flown across the Atlantic in a bid to ease the Heathrow baggage handling fiasco.
Boeing 747 cargo planes have been used by British Airways to reunite angry passengers with their lost bags and regularly fly from Britain to the U.S.
The transatlantic baggage carriers are in addition to the fleets of vans which have been chartered in the UK and across Europe to deliver bags to families left without their luggage.
The drastic measures to ease the backlog comes as a shortage of baggage handlers means the airport is on a 'knife edge'.
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Air freight: luggage has been taken on special 'bag only' flights
Heathrow is already operating beyond maximum capacity at the height of the holiday season.
Last month BA lost 22,000 items of luggage. But, at its peak, baggage handlers say the true figure was nearer 25,000.
Office workers and outside agencies are already being used to fill in for baggage handlers following personal pleas in letters to BA staff for volunteers to help out.
To the shock and outrage of many travellers, lost luggage has also been auctioned at a South London sales house when British Airways gives up trying to find the owners.
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Casework: unclaimed luggage stacked up next to a Heathrow carousel. Jumbo jets carrying nothing but lost cases are now crossing the Atlantic to reunited them with passenges
Workers at R F Greasbys in Tooting, where lost luggage from Heathrow goes under the hammer, say they expect record numbers of bags in the coming months.
BA says bags that cannot be traced to their owners are auctioned after three months. But auction house insiders say some items have been missing for just a few weeks when they are sold.
Mobile phones, iPods and digital cameras are removed and sold separately. Money raised from the sales goes to charity.
BA said:'We have recruited hundreds of extra staff to ease the problems caused by the shortcomings of Heathrow's infrastructure, and we are recruiting more than 340 extra baggage handlers for when our Terminal Five staff training begins at the end of October.'
The persistent problems at Britain's largest airport has been condemned by politician and business leaders - who claim the 'Heathrow Hassle' is bad for the economy.
A BAA spokeswoman said:'We have more than 2,000 staff to train ahead of our move to Terminal Five and the plans we are putting in place will ensure this will be done without adversely effecting our operation.'
She insisted: 'There is no shortage of baggage handlers at Heathrow. Our Heathrow manpower is at an all-time high. We are doing all we can to minimise inconvenience to our customers as the Heathrow terminals continue to operate far above their intended capacity, while restrictions on hand baggage have increased the volume of hold luggage to record levels.'
Brendan Gold, Unite union, said baggage handlers, ground staff and security workers were being placed under "tremendous pressure".
The baggage situation has been made worse because of the one cabin bag rule imposed on passengers as part of security restrictions after the liquid bomb plot last year.
Many unclaimed suitcases are still piled up in corridors at Heathrow, left outside in the rain or sold at auction.
Reader views (20)
I also have lost luggage and have been told by Heathrow that our bag is not tagged that is why it has been lost but Belfast City Airport told us Heathrow tell all customers that because they don't have the staff to look for the bag which is most likely in their Airport, great customer service!
- Pat Scott, Lurgan Northern Ireland
I would have thought by now that the air transport authorities would have mandated a tag system/solution that (i) was rugged, (ii) could locate the bag remotely, (iii) allowed the customer access to the location information, (iv) could be used to positively identify the bag, (v) outlawed selling off bags at auction without having the owner first conduct a physical search.
I for one would be happy to pay a nominal amount for such a system on a per trip basis. My bag returned is far more valuable to me than any compensation for loss and inconvenience.
- Simon, Cambridge, UK
BA lost my wife's bag from Sydney to Nice via Heathrow and, get ready for this, yes, they lost it coming back from Nice to Sydney via Heathrow again!
2 weeks later 29/7/08 and we are still waiting for word of our recovered bag with prescription medication and family heirlooms in it.
Tragic. Baggage handlers and their employers need a rocket and a massive class action law suit on BA. Never in 30 years of international travel have I ever lost a bag, let alone the same bag both ways with the same stopover in Heathrow.
Good on you BA. In the seventies that stood for "Bloody Aweful". along with the old SABENA (such a bloody experience never again).
So I hereby rename British Airways SABENA or should that be SABAGA?
- Rob Matthews, Sydney, Australia
For us, heathrow (BA) has been the route of the problem by sending our bags to Sydney, and not our final destination of Christchurch in NZ! On arrival in NZ both our bags were traced to Sydney and we were promised that we'd have them the following day. It is now five days later, we still have no bags, and in our case, this means no clothes, and more importantly no where to sleep, as one bag contained all of our camping equipment for our camping holiday! We, like most others are now in the situation of ringing every day and getting the same nonsense answer. Travel insurance is a joke and believe it or not, essentials in my case don't even include clothes! Toiletries however are fine, so if I had any hair to style, I'm sure that'd be acceptable!
The scary thing is for all the travellers out there, it isn't just LHR that are disorganised, as Sydney is doing a fine job of competing for the worst airport. With our last call to the lost baggage desk we were told our bags were 2 of at least 2000 still outstanding. At least they've promised them for tonight (fifth time in row) so we should be able to relax a little now!
- A Keats, Somerset, UK
50 passengers (including myself) were sent on a 3 hour coach journey from Naples to Rome (the Naples flight was cancelled by BA). Upon arrival at LHR, we were informed that of the 50 passengers that came from Naples, none of our baggage was put on the plane, but because they knew this and the exact location of the luggage, we'd all have our bags within 48 hours. It's now 13 days later, and I still don't have mine. Worst of all, they last record they have for it, is checking in to Rome. They don't know if it's Rome, they don't know if it's LHR but not scanned in, they won't let me go to LHR to identify it myself. When I gave them a list of essentials that I need replacing, they asked me to be "reasonable" with my request. Seriously I think underwear and being able to charge my mobile phone up (seeing as I need it for business) is reasonable. There really is nothing you can do but wait and call them everyday and it's 45 days until it's officially lost -how ridiculous!
- K Smith, Basingstoke, Hants, UK
We went on holiday to Australia, flying from London via Bangkok (Qantas) to Sydney (BA) on July 21 arriving Sydney July 23. When we got there, we were waiting and waiting for the carousel to deliver our cases, 2 turned up but one didn't appear. 30 other people didn't get their cases so we had to queue up to be dealt with by BA. Because of queueing up we didn't realise our daughter's wallet with money went missing, she only found out when we got to hotel. Fortunately, our case was delivered by BA to our hotel the following day. So that wasn't bad, but we already bought things to replace what we had in that case.
- M Kemp, Dereham, UK
We arrived at Heathrow on the 27th August after returning from Madrid and were shocked at the amount of luggage just lying around on the floors unsupervised. It's shocking. I could have walked out with five or six suitcases. Although ours did not go missing, you can easily see why people are worried and I will avoid using Heathrow for return inflights in future.
- John Walker, London, UK
I arrived in JFK on BA113 04 Aug and my bag did not make it. Along with around 50 other people from that flight we then had to stand in line for nearly 2 hours to be processed by the BA staff. They were expecting us and had already filled out the "Property Irregularity Report(s)". Hey, I was lucky I got my bag and it only took 5 days!
- Rob Fox, Maidenhead UK
Just returned from two weeks on safari in Kenya. We never thought we could go two weeks in the bush with just the clothes on our backs. As far as we can tell, our bags never made it past Heathrow. Stopped by the baggage desk on our way back through Heathrow on our way home and tried with no avail to pick them up in person. Our baggage receipt numbers now belong to another passenger. All this with no explanation from British Airways. All extremely frustrating.
- Bt, Florida, USA
My husband's bag was lost on a flight from London to SFO on August 7. The bag had originated in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, and then gone on to Johannesburg, South Africa, and thence to London. The computer told us it had arrived in London, but it has not yet arrived in San Francisco. My husband, of course, is furious, especially at the non responsiveness of the BA personnel. And, of course, at the missing items which were in the bag, including an electric shaver and the charger for his camera, not to mention the momentos from the African trip.
- C. Rucka, California, United States
I guess this is why i always fly with continental even if their fare is slightly higher.
- T.S Wachob, decker prairie. texas
There is nothing more frustrating when your bags have been lost for a month than a recorded message asking you to "call back later". No option to hold the line. No answer to emails and no help when calling BA customer service. Whether the lost baggage is the fault of BAA or BA, the customer service provided by BA here is at an appalling low. A budget airline in terms of service, but not in price.
- C, Glasgow, Scotland
We flew BA from Brussels to Heathrow on July 16 and we were told that BA left 89 pieces of luggage due to a conveyor belt malfunction and they decided to take off without the bags. Upon arrival at Heathrow, all passengers were without their bags. We've been calling their lost baggage line several times daily, and frequently told lies such as "your bag has been found, we're flying it to Los Angeles today". It has been 22 days and there is no trace of our bag.
- L., California, USA
Although the machinery for processing bags is the responsibility of BAA, the handling of baggage is always down to the airlines. This is a case where the airport is not at fault. Let's not confuse the issues - Heathrow needs investment, particularly to help get people through the search areas - but baggage is the fault of BA and its inability to sort out it's working practices with it's staff.
- Chris, London
That "100% bag matching" security thing is really working isn't it?
- Trunk, US
It's a good job that BAA isn't a monopoly and the airlines have some competitive choice, oh, hang on...
- Andy, London
As much as I love the Spanish people and live in their country it really beggars belief that sucha an important asset as BAA was put in the hands of a Spanish company...or any foreign company for that matter.
- Mel Barrows, Tenerife. Canary Islands
Both BA and BAA are not functional anymore.
- Jacqueline, Hampstead, London
It is not clear why it is BA that is suffering due to baggage handlers supplied by BAA? Surely the apparatus whereby bags are checked in and loaded onto planes is a BAA function not BA? The truth seems to be that since the Spanish took over BAA that things have substantially deteriorated. Its high time there was an urgent independent review of BAA's performance and immediate fines imposed to "incentivise" them to deliver a basic service like checking in and unloading bags.
- James, London, UK
British Airways have really become a joke. They should have their licence revoked soon.
- Georgie, London
