The wrong bag

So if it ever happens to you – here is what you have to do.

The instruction on the phone had been to head to baggage inquiries at Arrivals, T5.

When I got there, I followed the signs to Lost Property.
Big mistake.
It’s at the other end of the T5, and doesn’t open until 0700.
I then looked for baggage inquiries, couldn’t find it, so went upstairs to Departures and spoke to someone at Oversized Baggage.
He told me he couldn’t help because his conveyor belt was broken.
He wasn’t accepting any bags and didn’t know when the belt would be fixed.
I said I didn’t want to check in the bag, and besides, it wasn’t oversized.
He said it wasn’t up to him if it was oversized, if I’d been sent here then that’s what it was.
I said I hadn’t been sent there, but I was trying to find out where to go.
At that moment someone tried to put some skis on his conveyor belt and he told them he was sorry, but his belt was broken and he wasn’t accepting any bags.
He didn’t know when it was going to get fixed.
I went to check-in.
A superb lady heard my story and understood. She offered to walk me to where I needed to go back down in Arrivals. So we went from Departures back to Arrivals.

On the way the taxi driver rang me. He was waiting at Drop off in Departures but wouldn’t be able to wait for ever. How long would I be?
I said I didn’t know but I’d call him when I did. He said, OK boss.
The lift down to Arrivals was very slow and smelled of coffee when we got in.
When we got down there we found the double doors opposite Cafe Nero. There was a long queue of baggage handlers waiting to go through them to security so they could go to work. One of the two security scanners was broken, hence the queue. One of them said to the other “Looks like we’re all going to be late today”.

My BA lady went through the doors and I waited outside. A minute or so later she said that it was a new one on her, but they wouldn’t accept the bag through security there and we’d have to go back up to Departures and Oversize bags.
While we waited for the very slow lift that smelled of coffee I told her how the man’s conveyor belt was broken. She said there were oversize bag belts at either end of the terminal, so we’d try the one at the other end. Chances are his belt would be working.
When we got up to Departures she met up with a couple of colleagues who were sitting at the Club World check-in desks at Departures.
I waited there while she went to talk to the Oversize Bags man (the other one).
When she got back she said they wouldn’t take the bag there and we’d have to go back down to where we’d just been. I looked back at the coffee lift and thought about buying a cappuccino.
At this point the BA lady got on the phone and found a BA manager who could help.
He turned up a few minutes later, and, rather like a magic wand, arranged for the other bag to be taken away by someone else. I said goodbye to the superb lady, and went back down in the lift with the BA manager. He agreed it smelled of coffee.

By now the queue by the double doors had gone, so we went through. I showed my passport, and we went through security together. This was a full security check, which meant that the bottle of water I had taken from the aircraft an hour or so earlier and forgotten caused a problem, and that in turn meant a full unpacking of my hand luggage.
We then were back in the baggage retrieval area, and I went to the BA desk and picked up my bag – having shown my bag receipt stuck to the stub of my boarding card. I always keep this until I have my bag, but then often throw it away. Just think if I had followed my normal routine, thinking I had my bag, when in fact, I had the wrong bag.
I then went back through customs wondering if they recognised me and went to find my taxi – he’d been moved on, of course. I left the airport for the second time 90 minutes after the first.

Now all of this was my fault (obviously), and since the other passenger had gone home, BA was going to have to pick up the bill for sending this to him, a cost to the airline through no fault of its own.
So sorry to the airline, and its shareholders.
All the BA staff were excellent in helping sort out the problem, but despite this being a BA terminal (T5) and a problem that must be reasonably common, be warned, it’s a really difficult one to sort out.

mea cupla

I think I saw Martyn earlier today, chap late forties having his bright yellow bag searched by customs in T5. About 3.15. I guess his bright yellow bag attracts not just his attention!

I travelled back from BGI recently to LGW in F. I use the trakdot service and was relieved when I received a text advising my luggage was indeed at LGW and I was amazed when it appeared first on the luggage belt. I was travelling with friends and made a comment that this was my first experience of my luggage arriving promptly as it should!
I checked the handle had a BA silver tag but what I did not check was the name on it. I lifted the bag off and then waited for the others luggage to arrive when I was approached with a furious passenger making sarcastic comments about me picking the wrong bag which indeed I had done.
I was so embarassed, I certainly will not do that again. First time ever and hopefully the last but the topic should be a warning to us all, I was lucky I did not leave the building.