British Airways and heathrow are terrible

Ok, I have to rant. It happens sometimes, luggage doesnt arrive. In our case a bag with 2 d2x housings and 2 fe2 ports. Insured, but still very annoying. It's only been 2 days so im still hopeful. It's supposedly sitting at heathrow airport, or actually..it was supposed to have arrived in Amsterdam already. But no news yet.

This wouldnt be so bad, if it werent for the absolutely terrible customer service of BA. Their luggage tracing numbers dont pick up the phone at any time of the day, and if the number actually rings it just disconnects after a few minutes. It seems heathrow is in a state of total anarchy. Ive seen third world country airports run better. Im going to avoid traveling through heathrow for the next few years, even if it means paying extra and going through nigeria.

Anyone know a place that rents subal d2x housings and fe2 ports? Going on a trip in 2-3 weeks and im already fearing the worst

Cor

Your in luck

Update:

I went to the airport to ask (the phones dont answer, ever), and i was led to some catacombs where I found my bag in hundreds of pieces of luggage. Luckily my luggage is very recognizable because I put my name in huge yellow letters on both sides.

The lady that helped me gave me some interesting facts.. (she seemed totally stressed)..

- the phones dont answer because they dont answer the phones anymore. it's useless she said.

- apparently there is now a 35000 bag backlog in heathrow waiting to be sent out, all due to some event a few weeks ago, and some dispute of some kind with luggage handlers? This was a bit unclear.

- heathrow is sending luggage to a company in italy to sort it all out

- average wait time in amsterdam for dutch 'victims' was 2 weeks.

- i sat next to a guy waiting for 8 months, with 1-3 months being very common

- i had a feeling the only reason I got my bag relatively quickly is that i flew business class. it appears they have separate tracks for that. She asked me like a dozen times if i flew business class.

im definately going to avoid heathrow until the dust clears up.

Cor

ps: thanks for your email peter, much appreciated!

Update:

 

I went to the airport to ask (the phones dont answer, ever), and i was led to some catacombs where I found my bag in hundreds of pieces of luggage. Luckily my luggage is very recognizable because I put my name in huge yellow letters on both sides.

 

The lady that helped me gave me some interesting facts.. (she seemed totally stressed)..

 

- the phones dont answer because they dont answer the phones anymore. it's useless she said.

- apparently there is now a 35000 bag backlog in heathrow waiting to be sent out, all due to some event a few weeks ago, and some dispute of some kind with luggage handlers? This was a bit unclear.

- heathrow is sending luggage to a company in italy to sort it all out

- average wait time in amsterdam for dutch 'victims' was 2 weeks.

- i sat next to a guy waiting for 8 months, with 1-3 months being very common

- i had a feeling the only reason I got my bag relatively quickly is that i flew business class. it appears they have separate tracks for that. She asked me like a dozen times if i flew business class.

 

im definately going to avoid heathrow until the dust clears up.

 

Cor

 

ps: thanks for your email peter, much appreciated!

Your welcome

you had to fly to london to get your luggage?!?!?

damn..

i hope you took a picture of the new Wembley to make it worth the effort..

Talk to Ryan at Reef Photo. That group is outstanding and helping folks out with all their rental needs. Note, I do not work for Reef Photo. You can also try Dolphin Scuba in Sacramento. I am not sure on their rental pool though.

Thanks for the heads up. Thankfully I live closer to the west end of Canada so UK is not usually my path of travel. That sucks. Look slike you had a good time with Jimmy on the second trip.

Cheers

Todd

nono, i went to amsterdam airport, but they have BA luggage handlers there. it's only a 30 minute drive, and since I was not getting any answer on either .nl or .uk phonelines i just went there and wormed my way into the area before customs so I could re-visit the lost luggage counter. (they have no counter outside the luggage belt area... very useful

The main reason I was a little worried was because when I registered for lost luggage when I landed, the people there had this totally stressed look, and I was already told they were now handling bags that were lost 2 weeks ago. Which was causing some very upset reactions from some american businessmen that had lost their luggage also

It really wouldnt be so bad, ive had luggage arrive late before, no big deal, if the BA feedback would not be so horrible. Basically they tell you nothing, and give you a tracking number with the parting words 'see you in a few weeks'. Thats not helpful if you need to travel in 2 weeks and may need those full 2 weeks to arrange replacement gear.

Cor

At 3.01pm i just bought a flight through Heathrow... on BA

B@***@ks...

Avoid Heathrow at all cost. Even if your flight originates in the US you will have your second carry-on (personal item) taken away. Even if you are only connecting to another flight they will force you through security again at which point they will enforce their very restrictive carry-on rules on you.

The only solution is to live near Heathrow! That way your bags are never in transit there.

Glad to hear that you were reunited in the end Cor.

Alex

That's a horror story Cor!

The only solution is to live near Heathrow! That way your bags are never in transit there.

 

Glad to hear that you were reunited in the end Cor.

 

Alex

So Annoying! I was just about to hire a car and drive down to Heathrow tomorrow to avoid the issues with lost baggage in LHR, but the lovely people at BA said they would cancel my ticket if i missed my first flight in the ticket, and it would cost 75GBP plus around 500GBP to 'change' my ticket (which i only bought a few days ago).

So it looks like im taking the shuttle... Do you think i should collect and recheck my bags (could be a PITA as i have to go to T4 to fly to Sing)? Or should i just hope and pray that they get there?

Any advice greatly appreciated!

Well that depends Simon. Are you the worrywart type? Checking your bags to LHR would mean a double security check, one coming out of the plane you just got off and another for rechecking the bag in. I suspect it's the security checks that is causing all the problems so if LHR doesn't check bags coming through in transit from domestic flights, then you should be ok.

If you check the bags to LHR, and get them there... you'll still be worried about getting the bags to SIN. So I'd just check straight and try to sleep on the plane. If it doesn't arrive... head to Orchard Towers and get a few drinks

I'm not sure the problems with baggage at LHR are with security. Rather a problem of increased summer travel, LHR is and has been a chaotic airport for years, security scares (Glasgow, etc) right before the summertime travel season which have caused an enormous backlog, understaffing, and lastly LHR is and has been the pit of chaos for years. Did I mention chaos? Claim and recheck appears to have the same chance of falling into the black hole of chaos as transit passengers:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml.../07/nfly107.xml

head to Orchard Towers and get a few drinks

and while you're at OT, find out why "Top 10" was notched down to "Top 5"... Inquiring minds wanna know...

Im not much of a worrier, i guess i'll just have put my contact details all over and inside my bag!

I have a connecting flight within 2 hours of touchdown in Sing so this could be a really annoying!

British Airways are crap, but when traveling from the UK they are more lenient on baggage than Singapore Airlines, but i guess they are more likely to get your bags there on time!

Another vote for the "avoid LHR at all costs" options. In fact, now I simply avoid the UK at all costs, after the experience of having to pack my camera bag and contents into an unlocked bag from the US to Switzerland to comply with the one carry on rule. Next year when heading to Kenya I'm going NWA/KLM via Amsterdam.

I may just be a sole example, but LHR, the airlines servicing LHR and the UK itself has missed out on a couple of opportunities to take my money since the new regimes came into play.

Cor, I'm glad you got your bag back.

In spring 2001 and 2002 I went to Cairo from Stockholm via London/Heathrow with a group on B.A. Luggage got lost/delayed both times. And we where on our way to Port Sudan the next day! Fortunatelly I had friends in Cairo who could help us scramble together/buy new equipment for one guy who's dive equipment got lost. Another guy bought some interesting outfits in Cairo as he had no extra clothes due to the delayed bags. Not that it mattered on a boat in Sudan. But after that I try to avoid BA and Heathrow. Seems like there's just too much going on and that they don't really have the resources to handle it, unfortunately...

/christian

Yep, Heathrow screwed me up! Due to them running at full capacity on the runway, we sat waiting for an allocated take off time for well over an hour... meaning i missed my connecting flight in Singapore

They did get my bag here though, so it's not all bad!

Anyone in Singapore fancy a beer?!

Anyone in Singapore fancy a beer?!

As someone had suggested before... Go to Orchard Tower and go to the top floor... and then go ask the ladies inside why the "Top 10" club got notched down to "Top 5"...