主播大秀

Congratulation 主播大秀, you've finally located the 主播大秀 For Lost Luggage (the HFLL) an orphanage for those poor unlucky suitcases whose owners abandoned them or did not pursue their absence with sufficient dilligence and determination. I think Britain should lead the way with an "Adopt-a-Bag" program to find suitable new homes for these lonely unfortunate waifs. Perhaps an internet site with photographs and descriptions to attract potential new owners would work. I sincerely hope that British Airways doesn't prematurely euthanize any of them before they've had a second chance at life.

A disgrace and highly alarming.

I flew out yesterday morning from Copenhagen on the BA morning flight to LHR Terminal 4. From there I had a connecting BA flight (Same Terminal, Same Airline) to Toronto.

Upon boarding the flight at the Heathrow T4 gate, I was flagged and they asked me to wait so that I could confirm my bags on the Flybridge.
Two minutes later they say it is fine, your bags are onboard.
I asked ' are you sure?' Yes was the answer.

Arrived in Toronto around 4pm. After a delay finally bags where due at Belt5. My name was called, I should contact BA arrivals...
Guess what, no bags! But they told me they had been sent with a later Air Canada flight and would arrive the same evening and would be sent to me the following day (Today, it is now 6 pm here) According to the BA staff then my bags have been in Toronto for nearly 24 hours now...

What is even more alarming is that the staff actually gave me a compensation card worth 拢35. This was to cover my initial expenses.
But, you sign one form, and then they tear off piece of it with a card inside and hand it to you. However, on this bit there's a small print stating if you accept and sign, BA have no more responsibilities towards you at all! So even if my luggage is lost, or severly delayed they dont care and will not help me.

Highly misleading and surely illegal!
It is scandalous how the staff pursue me to accept this token of good service, yet they mention nothing that if I accept it they basically have no more responsibility, regardless if when or if ever my luggage turn up! I am furious.
My lawyer will no doubt pursue this.
I resent BA and their practice.
They lie, they mislead and misinform on purpose. They dont care about you as long as you're not Gold or Premium.

It is the BAA who own the airport who have to take a portion of the blame. The baggage system at LHR is woeful and the airlines have no choice but to put up with it. Whilst Mr Barbers concerns are admirable his displeasure is misplaced, for example he does not seem to comprehend that the fog would have added to baggage woes even if flights were cancelled as many passengers were in transit. Maybe the 主播大秀 would be better placed to investigate the stories themselves and use actual facts rather than relying on uninformed members of the public, however well intentioned....

Adrian suggests that the 主播大秀 should have investigated and not have relied on a third party. Too late, I am afraid!

Much easier, as is now common on, for example, Breakfast, to wait for the newspapers to do all the hard work, then hold up the resulting front page to camera.

I think that both Adrian and Richard have missed the point here.....

BA / BAA seem to think that they can do what they like without any accountability. Bags are being lost and misplaced / delayed without any support or customer service for the traveller. Names and addresses are clearly displayed on many of these items, and yet BA have chosen not to implement a process that deals with this backlog and / or problem (as the existing process of reuniting passengers with their baggage CLEARLY doesn't work ....).

The point about the fog is invalid, as surely if a system is robust enough to cope with day-to-day business, it has an "upside" potential to at least deal with most of the additional bags?

And all this in an environment of less cabin baggage regulations, makes a recipie for disaster !

With respect to John, I don't think I have missed the point. These blogs are about how the 主播大秀 handles news, not the news itself.

To often these days the 主播大秀 is last with the story. I don't think that printing an email and a few pictures is enough.

Vicky Taylor says that Declan Curry mentioned the story. Why didn't Breakfast send a reporter to Heathrow? Take the ludicrous claim - reported on the website - that the bags were secure - why wasn't it challenged?

Richard,

Am I understanding you correctly?

The 主播大秀 broke the story on it's website, the business presenter mentioned it, that provoked more detail from the audience, this forced BA to say something and then the main TV bulletins got on to it. And somehow you reach the conclusion that the 主播大秀 was last with the story?

Eh?

I am surprised the 主播大秀 had to rely on a passenger to alert it to the issue of lost luggage at Heathrow airport.

At the time of the disruption caused by the fog before Christmas the 主播大秀 had a number of reporters at the airport. What were these reporters doing?

One reason for the build up bags was a broken baggage belt that happened before the fog disruption. If the 主播大秀 had fully investigated what was happening at Heathrow when it was reporting there at the time of the fog disruption it should have become aware of earlier problems with baggage.

Instead, all we had on News 24 were reporters repeating the same superficial information (there was hardly any mention of what was going on in Terminal 2 where flights had also been cancelled) and little evidence of any actual enquiry by 主播大秀 journalists.

I also agree with Adrian, whilst the 主播大秀 viewer has raised an important story, the 主播大秀 should have established the facts for itself instead of relying on information provided by a viewer who, with respect, will not have the complete picture on what is going on.

As a general comment, I find the overall standard of reporting of aviation issues in the media to be very poor. There seems to be very little expertise of aviation within the 主播大秀. Whenever there is an aviation story, the 主播大秀, like Sky News, always has to call on the services of Simon Calder. Also, whenever there is disruption at Heathrow, from watching the 主播大秀 coverage you would think that BA is the only airline to operate at the airport when it fact it only has about 40% of takeoff and landing slots.

Perhaps you should have something on the website like the old 'Generation Game' conveyor belt, and give people a chance to identify their bags on this rogue's gallery...

Reminds me of a visually impaired person who had a massive red cross 'duct taped' on BOTH sides of their suitcase to make it easier for her to identify her case at the conveyor belt. It rarely got lost - perhaps due to the baggage handlers thinking its picture would end up in the papers if they dared to mislay something marked out so obviously.

I say well done to Colin Barber for taking the time and trouble of thinking of others. How many people would have just walked out of the terminal without a care? He was also able to highlight how BA lied about the security of peoples luggage.

My cousin and her husband were invited to their son's new inlaws' country house in Austria for the New Year. Natuarally they tooK a good deal of smart clothes, inc black tie party gear, and good jewellery; with the cabin baggage restrictions this was all packed for the hold.

Their initial flight was cancelled, this losing them a day of their stay. Their luggage, already checked in, never left London when they flew out the following day. My cousin is now being told that BAA/BA cannot afford to sort and re-scan the luggage and it will therefore probably all be destroyed as a 'security risk', and they must claim insurance.

She had taken a large album of irreplaceable family photos for the new relatives-by-marriage to see.

Jazzone, you are not understanding me correctly.

I said that the 主播大秀 were 'too often last with the story'. You only have to look at the stories shown in the papers they are so fond of holding up to camera, to see that. Lots of these stories are not featured in 主播大秀 news buletins.

I agree, thanks to a viewer tip-off, they covered the baggage story. I just don't think they did it very well.

Dear all,
Thank you for posting all these informative and sad stories about the unfortunate situation at the Heathrow Airport and the British Airways of handling people luggages. I must say that I am one of these people that have been impacted by this situation. I flew from Dubai for Houston, Texas on Dec. 9, 2006. I had 2 hours to connect to my depaturing flight from Heathrow Term. 4 for Houston. Whe I arrived there was no gate, so we were told to that the Bus would pick us up. After 20 or so mins. the bus showed up, we all were rushed to the T4 connecting flights section of T4 to go through security check, you can not belive it how many people were in the line waiting to go through securtiy check. As I was waiting and watching my time for catching up my connecting flight, I noticed a BA person talking to every passenger that has more than one bag, regardless of if its a Pers or laptop or a garmet bag and force everyone to get out of the line and go to another line to check the extra luggage. I was one of those unfortunate passengers, having been on the flight from Dubai with BA and was allowed to board with my laptop and my small 3 inch wide garmet bag, I tried to explain for th BA person that this should be acceptable according the international law and tried also to tell him why the same airline allowed me to be boarded in Dubai and now I reguired to check one of them before my second leg flight departure. The person did not care at all,his behaviour was not friendly and very forcefull, so I respected his position knowing that he is the person in charge and I was running short on time to catch my fligth for Houston. I ended up to move to another line and waited for over 25 mins. to hand my garmet bag to the BA person and then back in the line to go through security to get into the T4 check in terminal.

To meake the story short, these are the things that happend to me as the result of this BA action.

1. By the time I was rushing to my flight they were closing the planes doors. The ground superviosr radio the pilot and they let me in.
2. My two luggages that I checked in Dubai did not make it to Houston. They made it two weeks later in a bad shape, all my belonging wet and missedup, at Mid night at my home without knowing ahead of time.
3. My third and the most valuable Garmet bag has not yet showed up and I have exhusted all the effort of trying to reach BA both in person by visiting their customer support manager at the Houston Intl. Airport and their 1800 number that constantly they gave me wrong and misleading information about my bag.
4. As of today, no news. BA tells me that there is several thusands of bags are in TENTS at the Heathrow Airport and BA has no resources to sort them out and they are using Vluntiers to help sorting them out and then find a way to send them by cargo or ship to their destination.

HERE IS MY DISAPPOINTMENT WITH BA. WHY SUCH A GREAT NAME AND COMPANY SHOULD BE FACED WITH SUCH ISSUE THAT IS CAUSING SO MUCH TROUBLE FOR ITS PASSENGERS AND KNOWING THAT THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT HAS SOME PRIDE IN BA, WHY THEY DONT INTERFER TO FORCE BA MANAGEMENT TO PUT THEIR ACT TOGETHER TO FIX THEIR LABOUR AND THE AIRPORT INFRASTRUCTURE FACILITIES?

WHY THE BRITISH PRESS IS NOT AS ACTIVE TO INVESTIGATE IT ALL THE UP TO THE BOARD ROOM OF BA AND THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS?

IF BA CAN NOT SORT OUT ITS ISSUES, ITS BETTER HIRE PRIVATE SERVICES TO DO A BETTER JOB TO BETTER SERVE ITS PASSENGERS.

I KNOW THAT BA HAS OUTSOURCED SOME OF IT TICKETING OPERATIONS, WHY NOT THEY DO THE SAME FOR THIS KIND OF SERVICES IN ORDER TO CONTINOUSLY MONITOR THE KEY PERFOMANCE INDICATORS ACCORDING THE CONTRACT SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT (SLA)?

I HOPE BA LISTEN TO MY ISSUE AND MANY MORE RELATED ISSUES THAT HAVE BEEN POSTED ON THE WEB REGARDING HOW BAD BA IS PERFORMING IN THIS REGARD.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE.
KINDEST,
EZAT

Mark, please don't suggest that people 'adopt a bag'. My bag has been missing for over a month now and i would be devestated to think that someone was able to buy my suitcase. All my holiday photographs are in there along with many of my christmas presents.

I have sent letters directly to all airports that i travelled through on that trip which includes 3 international ones as well as Heathrow and Manchester. I also have phoned everyday asking for information as well as checking for progress online. I have even offered to go to Heathrow and Manchester airports to look for my bag myself but have been told i cannot just turn up and be expected to search for left suitcases. I have also written to the head office of the airline i was traveling with and phoned them up to complain about the way locating my bag has been processed.

Please dont imply that people are not tring hard enough because if you can make any other suggestions as to what i else i can do then by all means let me know.
Surly all 20,000 suitcases and bags that are at the airports have an owner somewhere, that like me want there own bag back.

I am not giving up hope that my bag will be returned to me someday as there is no money in the world that would make up for my loss of photographs, christmas presents, and other personal belongings.