BA fights from Heathrow, odd statement by staff.

Raumarik · 12 Jul 2007 at 08:39

I dropped my fiancee off at Glasgow airport for her flight and when we checked in we were told by BA staff that since she was transfering to another flight at Heathrow there was a "very high chance her bags would go missing".

My fiancee was told to make sure she picked up a claims for when she got to Heathrow as apparently "far more than the official 5000 bags have gone missing in the past couple of weeks and it'll save time if you have the form ready for when you arrive at your next stop."

I'm starting to wonder if BA are getting Parcel force to deliver the bags for them

Indy500 · 12 Jul 2007 at 08:44

Lol, strange that...never had any trouble with PF :confused:

Gaijin · 12 Jul 2007 at 09:21

sr4470 said:
Lol, strange that...never had any trouble with PF

Are you kidding?

Parcel Force are the biggest joke of a courier I've ever had the displeasure of dealing with.

Delivery damage, late/inconsistent delivery, wrong address, lost items - all issues i've suffered with them.

Also unlike many international couriers, they impound your parcels upon import until you pay duty/tax. But don't even think about trying to pay by credit card, or even try to ring them - you wont be able to get through. You'll have to send a cheque which is, quite frankly, rubbish if you require the parcel urgently.

MookJong · 12 Jul 2007 at 09:26

This is really worrying, I'm flying Newcastle to Heathrow and then Singapore to Brisbane next month. If I lost my bag I would be screwed.

Efour · 12 Jul 2007 at 09:28

I ALWAYS take hand luggage with a few important things and a change of clothes.

Lost my bags before took the gits 4 days to forward them.

Ex-RoNiN · 12 Jul 2007 at 09:34

Heathrow is a joke - its filthy, disorganised, rude, ugly, incompetent, unlimited hassle and just plain annoying.

Indy500 · 12 Jul 2007 at 09:39

Ex-RoNiN said:
Heathrow is a joke - its filthy, disorganised, rude, ugly, incompetent, unlimited hassle and just plain annoying.

Not to mention the OTT security.

Ironic Namesake · 12 Jul 2007 at 09:46

When I went to Heathrow a few days ago around the luggage collection there were 100s of bags left around the conveyor belts :confused:

Last time I had a flight with a connection, my luggage didn't come with me

Ex-RoNiN · 12 Jul 2007 at 09:52

sr4470 said:
Not to mention the OTT security.

Their security is a joke, as it is completely inconsistent - 1 day you have to take both shoes off and laptops out of bag. Another day, keep shoes, but take laptop out. Another day, keep both. Another day, shoes off, but laptop stays. Mix 'n repeat, there's no system to it. It even changes from row to row, last time I flew row next to us had to take shoes off, we didn't :confused:

Pathetic, just absolutely and plain pathetic.

When I went to Heathrow a few days ago around the luggage collection there were 100s of bags left around the conveyor belts

That's absolutely normal, they are always there.

SpicyDuck · 12 Jul 2007 at 10:13

OoOverclockaoO said:
When I went to Heathrow a few days ago around the luggage collection there were 100s of bags left around the conveyor belts

Last time I had a flight with a connection, my luggage didn't come with me

Happened to me on my return from Bulgaria some years ago. I had to go a whole week without my clothes and all the things I'd brought from Bulgaria were destroyed and a bottle of Aftershock had smashed and all my stuff smelt of alcohol.

Those bottles are extremely thick, too. Only God knows what they did to it.

Edit: As a side note, I'm planning on taking a BA flight back to England, and I really don't want to land only to find that my luggage wasn't transffered at Heathrow, for the Manchester plane.

KaHn · 12 Jul 2007 at 10:23

Ex-RoNiN said:
Heathrow is a joke - its filthy, disorganised, rude, ugly, incompetent, unlimited hassle and just plain annoying.

Isn't that just London in general?

Newcastle - Schiphol - Anywhere else.

KaHn

Goliath · 12 Jul 2007 at 11:15

Ha, reminds me of a story I heard:

Bloke walks up to the BA check-in desk and says "Hi, I'm flying to Sydney but I'd like you to send this suitcase to New York, and this one to Dubai please".

The check-in girl looks a bit surprised and says "I'm sorry sir, we can't do that".

(sure you can tell what's coming)

"You ******* managed it last time love!"

Ak!ta · 12 Jul 2007 at 11:24

BA are normally very good... Last year i had a Suitcase damaged on one of their flights, i went to Customer Services and complained. They just appologised and told me to go to the Duty free lounge and pick a case that i would be happy with, and they would pay for it ....
Got a £160 Samsonite Suitcase as a free replacement.

meghatronic · 12 Jul 2007 at 11:24

OvertoneBliss said:
Happened to me on my return from Bulgaria some years ago. I had to go a whole week without my clothes and all the things I'd brought from Bulgaria were destroyed and a bottle of Aftershock had smashed and all my stuff smelt of alcohol.

Those bottles are extremely thick, too. Only God knows what they did to it.

Edit: As a side note, I'm planning on taking a BA flight back to England, and I really don't want to land only to find that my luggage wasn't transffered at Heathrow, for the Manchester plane.

It shouldn't... I've never had problems with Manchester. (could be coincidence)

Duff-Man · 12 Jul 2007 at 11:34

Ex-RoNiN said:
Their security is a joke, as it is completely inconsistent - 1 day you have to take both shoes off and laptops out of bag. Another day, keep shoes, but take laptop out. Another day, keep both. Another day, shoes off, but laptop stays. Mix 'n repeat, there's no system to it. It even changes from row to row, last time I flew row next to us had to take shoes off, we didn't Pathetic, just absolutely and plain pathetic.

I flew out to Portugal last week, and back again yesterday (on business). Anyway, it turns out I had an old-fashioned style tin-opener in my hand luggage, complete with corkscrew and knife-style stabbing unit. It must have been left over in my bag from a while ago, but the Gatwick security people never spotted it and I only found out it was there when I returned home through Portugese security yesterday. I had to take off my shoes, and turn on my laptop at Gatwick, but they failed to stop a viable weapon from getting on the plane in my hand luggage :/

meghatronic · 12 Jul 2007 at 11:36

Duff-Man said:
I flew out to Portugal last week, and back again yesterday (on business). Anyway, it turns out I had an old-fashioned style tin-opener in my hand luggage, complete with corkscrew and knife-style stabbing unit. It must have been left over in my bag from a while ago, but the Gatwick security people never spotted it and I only found out it was there when I returned home through Portugese security yesterday. I had to take off my shoes, and turn on my laptop at Gatwick, but they failed to stop a viable weapon from getting on the plane in my hand luggage :/

How much of the boot process do they test?

You could easily modify a laptop to boot to bios, replace battery with a tiny one, remove fdd, hdd, dvd and replace with explosives......?

toosepin · 12 Jul 2007 at 11:40

Can you take laptops on planes nowadays? I'm flying to San Fransisco in a couple of weeks and it would be nice to be able to get some work done mid flight.

Duff-Man · 12 Jul 2007 at 11:59

jdickerson said:
How much of the boot process do they test?

You could easily modify a laptop to boot to bios, replace battery with a tiny one, remove fdd, hdd, dvd and replace with explosives......?

They just wanted me to turn it on, pretty much as soon as it showed life they said "okay". I'm pretty sure it never got around to accessing the HDD.

toosepin said:
Can you take laptops on planes nowadays? I'm flying to San Fransisco in a couple of weeks and it would be nice to be able to get some work done mid flight.

Yep

I pretty much wrote my presentation on the plane