British Airways top airline for lost luggage

That’s surprising - I’ve heard from my coworkers that Lufthansa is generally very reliable.

I think the sheer number of bags the big carriers move means they’re bound to lose quite a lot.

Yea, I don’t think it reflects poorly on Lufthansa.

Sir/Madam,

I am writing this message with an enormous feeling of disappointment and anxiety towards BA.

I am an Armenian national traveling from Raleigh-New York-London-Yerevan on June 9th by a business appointment.

Up to date, I had not received any of my 2 baggage checked containing invaluable assets and costing dozen thousands of dollars.

On June 10th I had a flight to Yerevan through London ( Flight # BA 6637). My flight started from Raleigh/Durham (RDU) on June 9th to New York (JFK)- followed by a connection flight New York-London and London-Yerevan ( Flight No BA 6637).
I checked in my baggage in RDU with an assurance that I will get those directly in Yerevan.

Here is my file reference number: EVNBA14251
Tag number (s) : AA 18 63 76
AA 18 63 77
And separately they have the Tag numbers of BA:

BA 929152

BA 929153

All this information is in the Word Tracer’s site in my information sheet.
I am constantly being told from the BA representatives in the Armenia that my baggages are stuck in London due to a inefficiency which took place in your systems.

However, to date, no official at BA office in Armenia distinctly provides relevant information nor the Tel #s which are available at your website are accessible for hands-on information.

I am told that I should be contacting BMED as this is the franchising agent from the BA flights and that I should be contacting you.

Me and the entire family, colleagues and on a larger scale, the solid organization I represent (USAID-funded project as a Team Leader) impatiently wait every day for any news on my lost 2 baggages.

The following damage of my and my family’s physical and psychological health related to this incident, I think you understand as well, is immeasurable.

Moreover, this has caused me inconvenience in terms of having no access to my personal invaluable items, as well as frustration over many lost gifts lovingly purchased for my family and friends.

I would like to herein strongly request that you DO UNDERTAKE all of the necessary procedures/arrangements to assure smooth and undamaged transportation of my 2 baggages to YEREVAN, ARMENIA. My addresses are provided on my both suitcases as well as on the badges attached to them.

Me and my organization had a strong belief that the British Airways and BMED always were the solid provider worth of transferring our funds to.

I do hope that by doing all possible for finding my lost baggages you will try to sustain the good reputation you have among us. Otherwise a very unpleasant case will follow whereby a large auditorium of your customers will drop from your list and other unwanted sequelae will emerge on a larger scenario.

I would like to request that you respond me today and let me know if any other information would be needed.
Hoping a prompt response and action,

PLEASE, FORWARD THIS MESSAG TO ALL LINES AND INSTANCES WHICH ARE INVOLVED IN THE TRACKING AND FINDING OF MY LOST BAGGAGES. IN OPPOSITE CASE I WILL BE OBLIGED TO UNDERTAKE MORE SERIOUS ACTIONS.

I also travelled on BA/BMED from London to Kyrgyzstan (June 10th) and my bags were not delivered. I was in Kyrgystan for 10 days and our bags remained in Heathrow Airport, and in fact are still there (June 25th), even though our vacation is over and I have returned home (Boston, Ma). On my way back home through London, I talked to the baggage people in Heathrow, they explained that the problem with BMED is that they load the cargo onto the planes before the luggage and this causes a lack of space for passenger’s baggage. In addition, he said that they allow too much luggage for such small planes. He said that there were more than 3000 bags in the room behind him (including ours) in a large pyramid structure and that there was no personel allocated to sorting through them, he also said that they were trying to get people to work nights, but none of the staff wanted to do that. This means that with every BMED flight, more bags accumulate. There must thousands of travelers stranded without their bags worldwide. The same employee said that they might charter a plane to take the luggage to Italy, where they have the logistic support to sort and deliver the bags, but he couldn’t say when or if it would happen. He also commented that BA had purchased BMED last year and that their partnership was such a disaster (due to luggage issues) that BA had already sold BMED and would be rid of them by October of this year. The last thing he told me was that it would likely be more than a month until our bags arrived. I assume BA is deluged with complaints, and it took them 11 days to respond to my email. I would be wary of flying BA again and certainly would avoid BMED.

27 June 2007
I travelled on 15 June from Bangalore, India to Copenhagen, Denmark via Heathrow. On arrival in Denmark my name was called out among several other names to report to the baggage service counter. The announcement was made in Danish only! - We were all told our suitcase was stuck in LOndon and would be delivered to our address asap. This is 12 days ago. I filed several report forms, rang up several agents, nobody seems to be responsible to answer my query, I am referred from one to another agent. The claim form is for definitely lost luggage only and requires me to produce receipts for items in the suitcase - what a joke! Who carries all receipts, including for the purchase of the suitcase?
Obviously, I needed to buy a few items of clothing etc., but the claim form does not have a column for things bought after losing the suitcase!
Is there anybody who could advise me what to do to at least receive some of the money back that I had to spend to keep going witout my suitcase?
Incidentally, I am planning to fly to Australia next and I assure you, it will NOT be by BA! - Never again!!!

On June 20th, my group of 11, connecting through London on British Air all had misplaced bags! A week later, many of the bags are still missing. BA is totally messed up, and irresponsible, with all sorts of barriers to speaking with a real person. Never again. Hal Valderhaug

I just got back form a trip to Europe, and more than 3 days after, my luggage is still missing. It vanished between London Heathrow and Washington Dulles…and no one to answer your questions. British airways which I thought used to be professional, are hopeless and incapable to keep up with all the lost luggage. In addtion we were delayed numerous times on both ways for no given reasons.

We just got back from a trip from Chicago (ORD) to Rome (FCO) via Heathrow. On the outbound flight, all 5 of our checked bags were lost, including our childrens’ two carseats, which we needed urgently for use in our rental car.

The following morning after our bags were lost, we returned to Heathrow, only to have to dilligently search not only through other abandoned and non-secured checked (orphan) bags from other flights at the baggage carousel, but we found only 2 of the 5 missing checked bags. We went a long way off and upstairs to the BA counter at FCO, where a BA agent told us she had a couple more bags. This put us at 4 checked bags recovered, and we had to run back down to the carousel to get those two bags–no one would bring them up to us! With two 3-year-old children and an 81-year-old relative travelling with my husband and me, this was a major inconvenience to run around to find the bags in multiple places! My mother’s bag was the 5th checked bag we never found at FCO, so we had BA send it onto our next city of destination in Italy, where it arrived 4 days later.

On the return flight, my mother took a direct flight from Heathrow to ORD, and they lost her only checked bag again–even though there was no connection between flights–a single leg flight!

Completely terrible customer service from BA. I wish I had seen this article before I booked our entire trip on BA.

I traveled on the 30th of June 2007 from London Heathrow to JFK via British Airways (BA 113). Upon landing in New York, passengers were advised to wait on baggage belt 1. We waited 45 minutes. Nothing. Then we were advised to go to belt 2. Waited 20 minutes and then were informed that it had been an error and that we were to return to 1. Twenty minutes later, there was announcement indicating that all baggage had been loaded on the belt. 50% of the passengers were required to file missing luggage claims at the BA baggage tracking center. The BA representative even mentioned to me that this was a regular phenomenon for the past week! It is now the 4th of July and I still have no status information from BA either online or via phone. I do not even know if they identified the baggage.

I can only ditto the comments from the other passengers. The BA experience is unacceptable, inadequate, and beyond poor with respect to baggage services. I have traveled frequently internationally and domestically for the past 11 years. I have never lost luggage with Lufthansa, Delta, or Alitalia. I have complained about delays, but in comparison to the BA experience, the other airlines provided timely and continuous updates on the whereabouts of the luggage. With BA, I am blind, frustrated, and impotent.

This is no way to treat customers!

July 4, 2007
I, too, traveled on BA flight 113 LHR to JFK, but on the 29th of June. (My flight originated in Duesseldorf.) One piece arrived, the other still has not. I regularly call the automated service to find out information about my bag, and five days later, the message still tells me that there is, in fact, no information about the bag.

I’ve managed to get through to a live representative a few times after being on hold upwards of 20 minutes as I’m tortured by that god-forsaken arrangement of the Lakme duet. (Poor Delibes.) Most of the representatives offered no information and simply say, “We’re doing everything possible to make sure that your luggage is returned to you as quickly as possible.” Really? “Everything possible”? How about hiring more people to handle the baggage or, at the very least, to handle the telephone calls? (Ah, but the CEO would suffer a miniscule profit loss.) Yesterday (after 45-minute wait), I spoke with a representative who told me that there were presently 20,000 delayed bags sitting at Heathrow, due to heightened security measures, a burst pipe, and, of course, the airport shut-down on the 3rd. I suggested that they put this information on the automated system so that 10,000+ anxious passengers would have some information — that the message “we have no information” only causes more frustration.

“Heightened security” is now the norm at Heathrow, so BA should have learned how to deal with this. Perhaps setting a lower passenger limit would be in their best interests, so that they could serve their passengers and actually deliver the product they’re selling. And according to the dates of the other posts and the original article, BA’s practice of losing and “mishandling” baggage is perennial. I’m appalled by the complete absence of customer service at BA.

Against my better judgment, I’d booked this flight via BA (who, incidentally, also delayed by bag on the outbound flight in October)rather than via my favorite NYC - Duesseldorf carrier LTU (NOT Lufthansa) because, at that time, the flight was significantly cheaper than LTU’s. What a mistake. (And with BA’s ridiculous One Handbaggage restriction, it’s now impossible to keep all of the important documents and items on board, especially if you’ve been gone for, say, nine months.)

My baggage took 5 days to get to me after a flight from Heathrow to JFK on June 9th. When it arrived, the lock had been removed, and there were several items missing. I am still awaiting the settlement from BA. DO NOT FLY ON BA - YOU WILL LOSE YOUR BAGGAGE AND ITEMS!

Traveled BA Chicago to Prague on June 25th with a lacrosse team, heading to represent the US at a tournament. Of the 20 people traveling, 17 (including me) didn’t get any of their luggage, including lacrosse equipment. Most of the luggage arrived by the end of the trip - except mine which is still missing as of today. The trip that cost a small fortune to go on was almost completely a bust thanks to BA’s complete and total incompetence.

BA “customer service” can’t give me a status. One rep will say the bags were delivered, the next time I call they will say they are in the airport in Prague still. The automated line doesn’t work, they make it almost impossible to reach a live person, and when you do 90% of the “customer service” reps show an unbelievable lack of care or concern for your problem.

Looking at these postings fuels my urge to find a way to start a class action suit. They took my money and gave me a promise in return. BA has not delivered on that promise and thus far their actions do not give me hope that they will. Never again.

BA is the WORST AIRLINES EVER. My brother travelled on 3rd June from Toronto-London Heathrow-Delhi(India) and 2 babbagaes are still missing .The number that they provided of airport is also wrong. Do not travel from British Airways.

Wow. British Airways has reached an unprecedented level of ineptitude. Finally 7 days after my bag was lost, the BA World Tracer listed my bag as “Delivery Initiated”. I checked the Fed Ex tracking number and that night, it Fed Ex listed it as “Overnight Priority”. I was so excited to hear the footsteps of the delivery man. Then I saw him… not with my bag. It was a tuba case. The tag on the bag clearly said Johnson. Don’t quite know how someone at BA could pass that off as Woodling. Well, theirs is an “o” as the second letter. My bag is big and red and soft. The tuba case is maroon and HARD! So, Mr. Johnson, I’ve seen your tuba! And your case looks like it’s in good shape. Maybe I should have kept it and delivered it to you myself. Was your tag number 149965? That was also my tag number, ergo the confusion. I’m sure it would reach you sooner.
So I actually got through to a “customer service” (rrrrright) representative and asked him to call you to let you know that your tuba is in transit. It’s your livelihood. You must be worried sick. But no one at BA or JFK would understand that. I hope, if you find this, you’re offered at least some peace of mind.

British Airways says they’re bringing in extra staff to clear ‘a significant number’ of bags at Heathrow.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6277640.stm

I’ve flown with BA a few times and I’ve never had a problem with them.

In fact, I can’t say I’ve ever had a bad experience on any airline I’ve flown with.

::shrug::

I returned from Nice, France via Heathrow to find that my luggage had not made it back. They were able see that the bag was in London and the web site said it was coming back the next day. After a week with no answered calls, I went to the airport myself.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND GOING TO THE BA LUGGAGE OFFICE AT THE AIRPORT! I learned that They do not answer calls! However, They do claim to check voice mails. Though, I believe that nothing would have been done at all if I hadn’t gone to the luggage office in person.
Once there, they went through the luggage in the office, with no success, then determined that it may still be in London. Hopefully they’ll find it, but who knows, it’s been 16 days now.

I hope this helps anyone else in same situation.
peter

I travelled from Heathrow to Denver (BA219) on the 2nd July in Club Class, special sliver tags were put on my luggage at checkin, that’s good I thought, special consideration will be placed on *my* luggage. Once in Denver, one of my bags never turned up - great!

It’s now July 8th and the tracking web page has not updated since the bag went missing. I have a friend in the UK trying the phone line with no luck. Every time I phone and eventually get to speak with someone they say “Sir you are eligible for our premium lost bag service, let me transfer you…” and low and behold I get an answer phone where nobody returns your calls. They also leave a email address for the premium service, emails to this never get answers either. I’ve had the people you do get to speak to send telex messages to both Heathrow and Denver as they too don’t understand the status of my bag - but this does not prompt any update to the status of my missing luggage!

From the $200 I was given at Denver on my arrival I have nothing left and approx £900 of my personal items still missing in my bag.

I know writing on here is not going to help the situation, but it does help vent the frustration that BA have caused me. I’m here in Colorado for 6 weeks without my contact lenses, prescribed drugs and not to mention clothes and work items in my seemingly lost bag.

It’ll be interesting to see if my bad does ever turn up here or whether I’ll find it myself in Heathrow on my return in August!

Look luck to everyone waiting for your luggage!

Tim.

I share everyone’s frustration.
It has been almost a week now and my wife, visiting relatives in Switzerland, has not received her 2 suitcases. Some which contains her medications.

Well, guess what? i have now sent her extra medications but i fear the swiss customs will not allow them in. So…

Unfortunately, coming from NJ on a Virgin flight she made the ‘huge’ mistake of booking with BA on a flight from Heathrow to Zurich, and back :o(. She was one of those poor souls stranded at Heathrow when BA decided unilaterally to cancel all its flights from terminal 4 on July 3rd. I do not know yet what that ’suspect package’ was. Probably brits panicking once again after harboring islamists extremists for so many years; in fact since WWII. Don’t believe everything the media says, even the BBC!

I have called numerous times the 1-800-AIRWAYS number and patiently waited for some live person to talk to. Since BA folks in Long Island do not have a clue where in London your luggage can be all you can do is vent your frustration with an employee who has no control at all. Customer service?? what’s that.

The online baggage tracer? Still shows the same thing:”Tracing continues. Please check back later”
Are they looking for our luggages? really?
Where can the luggages be? Are they warehoused somewhere, are they stuck on conveyor belts?

For those who are wondering about refunds etc, apparently there is a convention that says you could get up to 820 pounds but i am not sure whether it is per luggage or passenger. According to current liability terms:
“The air carrier is liable for destruction, loss or damage to baggage up to 1,000 SDRs (approximately £820 or EUR 1,230)”

If you want to claim more you should have done that that at …check-in by paying extra !!

How are these idiots going to replace my daughter’s graduation film?

No more BA for us. That is it.

We flew on BA from New York via London to Copenhagen on 25th June 2007 and have lost 4 bags. We were told that they were off loaded in London but no-one bothered to put them on our plane for Copenhagen.

Since lodging our complaint (which took 2 1/2 hours waiting in a long line) I have tried valiantly to speak to anyone from BA but have not yet found a human to speak to.

We have now returned to our home in Australia, and guess what - they dont even have a phone number here we can ring.

We booked with Qantas - but they use BA for the London routes.

When we phoned the only number we had for BA luggage enquiries we went through to a Qantas operator who informed me that BA have cancelled their (lost luggage locater) contract with Qantas (probably because Qantas were trying too hard to locate lost luggage) and a company named Menzies are now handling claims. Well guess what - Menzies isn’t even in the telephone directory.

Needless to say - BA have not contacted us even though we have sent countless emails and we still do not have our luggage (missing now for 2 weeks).

We will never fly BA again - I’d rather go by boat to London.

We flew to Copenhagen from Heathrow on the 30.June and our luggage never arrived. Thus we were forced to spend all our holiday (Roskilde festival which was the rainiest ever) without our bags, tents etc; and generally with the one set of clothes we had on.

Now back in London, I cannot get into my flat because my keys were lost as well in the luggage.

Does anyone have any idea of compensation we can claim, or how the whole thing works? This ensures BA just lost a further 3 potential customers for life!!

-Mikko

Our experience is much the same. It has been 15 days since we passed through London from Madrid.
Everyday it is the same hold pattern on the phone,
the same problems with the website- and the same- no information available. It is all very frustating and very depressing………..
I heard that Regis Philbin’s wife finally got hers back– after Willy Walsh got involved. Too bad we don’t have any clout.
Why isn’t this making the evening news. Maybe we need to be at the airport with signs that say KISS YOUR FAVORITE POSSESIONS GOODBYE !!!!

Absolutely crap service from BA after having lost our luggage from Heathrow to Montreal, now MIA 10 days. Wrongly entered info in our file several times, 30-45 min wait times on service phone line.

Hey BA: this is 2007, not 1907! Get yourselves designed a smarter system for getting bags to the right planes, use colored tags, digital tags, whatever it takes! Can’t be that hard to do in our day and age. Hopefully you maintain your planes better than how you treat customers’ luggage.

This is the last time I ever fly BA - expensive tickets, all flights late by an hour or more and now lost bag for over a week and crappy customer service. That’s how the cookie crumbles, friends. Lots of luck to you all.

Same bad experience. We flew on June 24th from SEA to AMS - through London, Heathrow where they managed to lose all 3 of our suitcases. As of today it still indicates ‘tracing’ They don’t even know about the whereabouts. I am wondering if a class action lawsuit would help them get their act together.

Count me in on a class action!

I left Melbourne via Malaysian Airlines on route to Amsterdam on 22 June for a work related trip where I was presenting at an international conference and then running a series of professional workshops at a university.

In KL I was told that there was a 7 hour delay but that I could reroute via London and then a BA flight to Amsterdam. What a HUGE mistake!

After various trials at Heathrow Transit including at one point having to throw part of my hand luggage in the bin because Britain had more stringent rules,I eventually arrived in Amsterdam to find that my bags did not arrive.

Nearly three weeks have gone by since then and I’ve had the same depressing frustrating experience as others every day, wasting time and money trying to get through by phone to the Lost Baggage office. Emails to BA have got me nowhere at all other than a standard reply.

From June 28 - 30 on the international web Tracer the status of my bag was “Located, pending confirmation” but then, suddenly it reverted to its curent message - “tracing continues”.

My sole set of inflight clothes - comfy track pants and runners didn’t quite cut it ‘image wise’ for my work assignments,so, I also had to waste huge amounts of time buying replacement luggage and emergency clothes. Worst of all, all my chargers, notes and professional materials were in my bag! So, I also spent hours and hours late at night each day of the trip, trying to rewrite powerpoints and reinvent my presentations. How do you get compensated for that?

I’ve just come home and I am SO exhausted. What a bloody ordeal!

I have had a very harrowing experience with regard to my baggage while travelling by British Airways from Delhi to New York with my daughter on 7th July 07. One of my bags containing all my personal belongings, important papers and some of my daughter’s essentials was found missing at JFK when we landed. Apparently the luggage of a large number of passengers had been misplaced the same day because there was a throng of people in the BA baggage Claims office wanting to know about the status of their baggage. The BA officials were quite testy and generally treated the passengers as if they were doing them a big favour by talking to them. For people like us, in a foreign country with nothing but the clothes on our back, it was a very disturbing experience.

It is now 8 days since our bag was lost and no BA official talks about compensating us for the difficult situation we find ourselves in.Our phone calls to BA are invariably put on hold for 10-15 minutes after which we hang up in disgust. On the two occasions on which we could talk to BA (after a delay of 10-12 minutes), all we were told was some limited claim would be admissible, without mentioning any figures.

All in all it has been a most unfortunate experience with BA.

Hemant Contractor.

Another victim of lost luggage and terrible…or more accurately, non-existent customer support from British Airways. Its been 10 days since I got back, and everything I’m reading here is pretty much what I’m going through. Nobody answers the 800 number, my file hasn’t been updated, and nobody responds to any of the emails I’ve submitted. For a big airline, this is pathetic and inexcusable. Not only do I NOT intend to use this airlines in the future, but I will be telling all of my friends about this too.

I have booked a BA flight to fly me from Bombay to Detroit via Heathrow. Having read your comments here I plan to change from BA to some other responsible carrier. I am a graduate student, and the last thing I want to do in a new country is to be without my belongings. Can anyone here suggest what alternate carrier I can try?

Why does the media not take things like this up? Oh, I forgot, here in India they are busy exhorting the masses to vote for the Taj.

I’m glad I’m not alone! We flew on BA June 29th from LHR to Baku and haven’t seen our bags since. There were 10 of us on a flight crew and 6 lost their bags, including uniforms and items needed to continue working our trip. We’ve been purchasing items here and there to get us through but this is crazy! We were told that over 20,000 bags were shipped by truck to Milan to be sorted and redirected from there which could take months! I would imagine there will be many lawsuits pending in the next months. Good luck everyone and hopefully persistence pays off for us!

I just got off the phone with a woman in London at +44 20851 34756 because someone at that number had been kind enough to give me some help. I needed to phone back for more help and she told me she can’t. When I explained that I had just been helped at this number and that she shouldn’t say she can’t if she can. She told me that SHE DOESN”T WANT to help me and hung up. This airline wanting for customer service training. I can only say Alitalia is worse.

Airlines will lose luggage, it is how they handle the issue, even when it is not there fault. British Airways DOES NOT CARE about its customers.
They lost our luggage, they never call us back, would not provide numbers to help, they were rude
and just simply did not care that we were bothering them about something that happens every day.

STOP FLYING BRITISH AIRWAYS - THERE ARE OTHER CHOICES - ONLY THEN WILL THEY GET THE POINT

My solution to lost luggage was to start using Global Bag Tags - they’re very reliable, inexpensive and attractive.

After reading an article in the TIMES on Saturday 14th July concerning a new system called Baggage Pin, my wife and I have become members. We travel extensively throughout the year and the thought of our luggage going missing is dreadful.

At least we have peace of mind knowing that if it ever dos get lost, and found they can now contact us no matter where we are.

Yours

D & A Jones

My wife and I traveled B.A first class from Seattle with connecting flights from Chicago to London then on to our final destination, Naples Italy. When we got off in London we went through baggage claim there only to discover that my wife’s bag never came down the baggage ramp with mine. We filed a claim there and went on to Naples thinking it would arrive shortly afterward. Each day we called B.A. and were put on hold for at least 20 to thirty minutes (on a cell phone each minute was costing us $1.50). We repeated this futile process at least 3-5 times daily for the entire trip (14 days). We found it impossible to get a hold of a real person. A recording would come on and tell us that due to lack of customer service reps we should trace our bags on B.A.com. We did that also only to find that the site posted our bag always as still tracing! Our emails demanding a phone call regarding our baggage were also totally ignored. When we finally got a hold of a real person she was indignant! What we did find out when we finally made contact is that there had never been a trace run during the first 8 days. They matter of factly told us they simply did not have enough people to handle the baggage at Heathrow and that our baggage was “probably” being sorted in Milan Italy since in their own words, “Their baggage handlers at B.A. didn’t want to work!” When my husband asked why they didn’t fire them he was told they couldn’t do that!
To make a long story short, my wife’s my vacation was made into a nightmare by the fact that she was frantically searching for basic necessities, and clothing to wear during our stay on the Amalfi Coast, one of the most expensive areas in Italy in which it was difficult to find anything other than designer clothing. My wife would have gladly bought herself some of the expensive clothing she admired if she had thought it would be reimbursed by B.A. After dealing with the frustrating, depressing and downright rudeness of the B.A. Customer service personnel my wife did not trust that she would ever be reimbursed for anything or ever find her lost bag in which she had carefully selected her best clothing to wear on our romantic vacation in Italy. She is an artist and not only was her clothing lost but her cell phone charger, art supplies and medicine. My wife finally found her bag on our way home in the Naples airport. The baggage manager insisted it was not there because they had no baggage matching my claim number in their airport. My wife insisted she look for herself in their lost baggage room and immediately spotted her brand new electric blue bag sitting on a shelf. The baggage manager pointed to the tag on the bag which did not match the claim number given to us by British Airways. Apparently British Airways entered the wrong claim number into their computer system which led to the futility of the search for her bag. In addition, when she opened her bag to finally be able to wear some clean clothing of her own, she discovered all of her clothing was soaking wet with mold growing all over it! Apparently B.A. had either left it sitting out in the rain or dumped it in the ocean! In short, our trip was ruined by the constant frustration and anger we felt towards B.A. for having abominable customer service coupled with Baggage handling reminiscent of Pancho Villa. This was further exacerbated by managements decision to not allow their employees to provide either their employee identification numbers or allow us to speak to a manager.

We are considering filing a class action suit against B.A. If anyone is interested in joining us please contact Joan Smith at Joanaharts@ aol.com

I flew from Chicago to Amsterdam on British Airways, with a connection in Heathrow on June 28 (19 days ago). When I got to Schiphol, my luggage wasn’t on the carousel, so I reported it, and Servisair told me to expect it within 1-2 days. I came back 2 days later after nothing (wasting money on a train ticket back to Schiphol), and they said it could take a few days to a week because of all of the belt issues in London. Exasperated, I accepted this, but when it had been two weeks, I had my fiance back in the States call the 800 number (there is no 800 number for British Airways in the Netherlands, and I got sick of wasting my phone card minutes trying to call), and he was told that the backlog of luggage had started a week before I even flew in, and that it was taking about 2-3 weeks for passengers to get their bags. On Thursday (2 days) it will be 3 weeks for me.
Should I give up hope? Has anyone else had this long of wait? Should I keep holding onto to the hope that I’ll still get my bags, given the circumstances?
This has been absolutely awful for me. I’m studying abroad this summer, and this has put such a huge damper on my entire experience.

It is the first time that I experience delay of luggage. Still I feel surprised given its a flight less than 1 and half hours and direct flight. My baggage sudently appreared on my room of hotel, like it disappeared when I landed Frankfurt airport, when I was going to buy some personal stuff. I didn’t get any message about what was happening, while the website suggested by the BA is still showing “no additional information” about your luggage. Of course, the number they leave you was never been got through. Faint!

Travel date: June 23, 2007
Journey: London, Heathrow to Vienna, Austria
Reason: Stormy weather delayed flights
Luggage Missing: 3 bags (1 extra because of the UK unique rule that carry-on is limited to one bag, even if it is a woman’s handbag).
Status as at July 18, 2007: Airline can neither confirm or deny if my bags were sent to a warehouse in Milan for processing, amongst thousands of other bags
Special note: Husband’s bag had expired Gold Priority Tag and someone separated it from my bags therefore it made it to Vienna albeit 3-4 days late, however, upon our return journey (Vienna to Toronto, British Airways) the bag (top quality $$) sustained excessive damage and arrived on the carousel in tatters.
Final note: British Airways and the British Airport Authority, deserve a class-action suit to be filed against them for not having adequate staff and procedures in place to ensure the safe arrival of their customer’s treasured belongings. Their continued apathy in the face of such high customer dissatisfaction is completely appalling and disgraceful.

Don’t give up! Our two suitcases arrived yesterday after three weeks !! We got a call Sat nite telling us that our luggage was in NY……..a real human being! We were told that the luggage would arrive on Mon. or Tues.
My husband’s bag was fine. Mine had obviously gotten quite wet. I have spent two days fighting mildew—-looks like I have only lost 4-5 pieces of clothing. Wish you the best of luck!!!
Dale

my mother just arrived two days ago without her two bags. she is elderly and brought 1 year worth of medicine and all her clothes and gifts and imp documents are in those bags. After hearing all these horrific stories, I strongly doubt that she will get her bags back. I will support the idea of filing a class action suit. I live in Houston and my email address is sulekhatc@yahoo.com. I think we need to tell CNN and 60 minutes to do an investigative story these people so they can get their due publicity. Negative of course.

Oh my god, my wife just returned from LA(Thursday night) through London on BA to Cairo and she had 3 bags that did not arrive.we were given the ref. number & i’m checking the world tracer service and all i see is “tracing continues ” ..

i used the BA couple of years ago & they were good & that’s why i recommended BA.. how stupid should have searched google before doing that..

my wife “a shopaholic ” had 3 large bags 32 kg each (which of course BA made me pay for the extra bag) the bags include lots of cloth plus her wedding ring & another diamond ring that she inherited from her late grandmother . now after reading this i’m dead worried of the emotional effect if BA really lost the luggage
we were told that no deliveries in made on Friday (today) so i’ll wait for tomorrow and i hope i’m a bit luckier then the cases i just read
and this will definitely after reading what happened to everyone this will be the last BA experience for us(needless to mention the delay for 2 hours in LAX , that she had to run for 30 minutes from terminal one in heathrow to terminal 4 along with 4 other passengers all about to lose there connection flight ) and to think that if we don’t receive the bags BA will just throw 1/10 of her ring cost is more pathetic

where is the watchdogs in the UK!!!???

Chris,
Thanks for the advice. what are the chances of my mother getting her bags anytime soon? Is everybody ready to join in a class action lawsuit? I am going to talk to a lawyer on Monday.

Sue, I wouldn’t like to guess when your mother’s bags might get to you, BA had to cancel another bunch of flights from Heathrow today because of bad weather.

My wife flew BA from Philadelphia to London with a 2 day stopover on June 24th. Her bag was lost and not delivered to her hotel before she had to leave for Rome. She stayed for a week in Rome and her bag never made it to her. She then traveled around Italy for 2 weeks and returned to Rome to a hotel that BA had the address and dates she would be there (I made the contacts on the phone with BA) and they still did not have her bag. I finally got someone to tell me that the bag was in terminal 4 at Heathrow but they did not understand the message that I had given the service rep on the phone to have the bag sent back to her home of record (Phila) which she would be flying to shortly rather then try to get the bag to her in Italy. She had needed medicines in her bag so she ended up having to go to a hospital and get medications, buy all new clothes and a new bag. It is now 4 days since she came back and the bag is still not here and the person I talked to on the phone said that the latest entry in the computer showed that it was still in terminal 4 but they could do nothing because it was after hours in London and I needed to call back on Monday so see if they could reach someone. (My service rep was in Florida!) My father worked for the airline business for over 38 years and I have never seen such appalling service. I will never, never, never, never fly british airways or recommend to anyone that they fly it. I don’t think they could spell the word service if I gave them the first 6 letters.

I feel your frustration! Here is my story with multiple layers of disappointment in BAs customer service…

I flew from Denmark to California on May 7, 2007 with my infant son and returned on June 28 so needless to say pretty much all of our personal belongings were in our suitcases for a two month trip.

All 3 of my bags were lost on my return trip over 3 weeks ago. I received one bag 3 days ago (after 19 days)but it was completely ruined and wet and all of my clothes, books, etc. were growing green and black mold. After hours of cleaning, I was not able to save any of it including the suitcase. Now after countless hours on the phone with BA I still have no official answers. They kept assuring me that the baggage fiasco in London was being sorted out and that the baggage should be arriving shortly. They finally told me yesterday to file a lost luggage claim because I would probably never see the last two bags. They confirmed that they actively quite looking for the bags after 10 days. I know my bags were driven by truck from London Heathrow to Milan to a company called On Board Express because I was told this by BA and the baggage handlers in Copenhagen, NordicAero, and my one bag that showed up came from Italy. BA/OBX has a sorting facility in Milan to help with backlogged luggage. I called OBX in Italy but they were unable to confirm that my last two bags were there. I have informed them that if they confirm that my bags are there I will go and search for them myself. I stupidly packed my video camera and camera which held the only pictres/videos from my son’s first birthday so I am not parting with this luggage lightly. I am so disappointed in the run around I am getting but I am holding out hope that the other two bags will arrive. ALL of my son’s clothes, birthday presents, his teddy bear and blankie are in those suitcases and I am so upset that they don’t take the matter seriously. I am also in complete shock when I read that they can auction your things off after 45 days and found that they say it is cheaper to discard of your missing luggage than return it to you so often it just sits until it times out. I’m not sure about you but I would much rather have the pictures of my son’s first birthday than the $50 they will probably reimburse me for my “lost” or as I see STOLEN luggage.

I am also in the midst of trying to get a refund for an overcharge on a ticket they issued for my son that they admitted was their fault. After three weeks I have yet to get any response.

Let me know of anyway I can help get this in the press or move forward with legal action.

Amity Courtois
amity_courtois@hotmail.com

I flew from Frankfurt to Montreal with a transfer in Heathrow on 29 June. My 2 bags were left in London and did not make it to Montreal. I spent the next 4 days trying to get through to the 1-800 number where upon getting through I was rewarded with conflicting information each time. Eventually on the 3rd of July I was fed up and made the journey to the airport to find that in fact my bag had arrived. My boyfriend and I had prolonged our stay in Montreal as I was anxious to get my bags back asap, but at this point decided we had to commence our travels again and continue on to NY.

Basically since then I have heard NOTHING about my remaining bag. I don’t know how one minute my bag was accounted for and known to be in Heathrow, then all of a sudden no-one is able to account for it at all. My boyfriend and I have been backpacking around since then so the worry is that as I have had to keep changing my delivery and contact details many times since then (we have been in Montreal, NY, Calgary and are now in Vancouver) and as British Airways seem to have enough trouble keeping track of bags and their owners without any added interferenec, that I am now even more unlikely to receive my bag back.

One of the things I find most frustrating is that my bag has a semi-permanent, rubber tag on it with contact details (as I’m sure most people travelling do) so I don’t understand how it can be so difficult for someone who works in lost luggage to see the tag, flip it over and bingo, one owner for one bag.

Since 29 June I have had to spend hours on payphones on hold trying to get through to the 1-800 number, and as most of you will know, once you actually get through all the employees at the other end of the line can do is update your details and send telexes to airports involved (which no-one ever seems to reply to). I have also spent time in internet cafes trying to follow my bag status on the ‘world tracer’ which as most of you will also know, is pretty fruitless.

I phoned BA customer relations (toll call from Canada - and ofcourse had to wait on hold for a while) only to talk to a very rude guy for around 10mins before it emerged he was only ’screening calls’ for the actual customer relations department. When I did get through I admittedly got through to a thoughtful and apologetic lady however there was absolutely nothing she could actually do to further the search for my bag. When I asked if I could have an email address or a name of someone I could make a formal complaint to, she redirected me to the online complaint system. Well, its been 10 days now since I submitted my ‘online complaint’ and no-one has replied. BA doesn’t seem like a company that is interested in repairing the damage they have done and retaining customers to me!

It has been a particularly stressful time for me as my boyfriend and I were in fact in the process of moving from London to Vancouver where we know no-one and are starting from scratch (ie. finding jobs and a place to live). We have limited funds as we have been backpacking for 2 1/2 months and allthough I knew things would be tough for us starting out in Vancouver, I never factored in losing half my luggage (which as I was relocating to another country, includes pretty much half of everything I own in the world) and having to replace it myself. Of course if my luggage is lost for good I will be reimbursed but you can bet that won’t be for at least a few months.

The worst part is (and somebody else has touched on this point) that we can all appreciate that luggage may go missing from time to time, but it is the way that BA handles the situation that is so infuriating. I feel like they don’t care at all if I never get my bag and belongings back.

Does anyone know what happens to bags sitting in airports without owners after 45 days? (apparently that is how long BA will continue the search for your missing bag). I would be very interested to know.

I would be interested in finding out more information about a class action suit. I think it is unfair the way BA treats its customers that have lost luggage and I feel that no-one is forcing them to change their ways. At the end of the day it is probably easier for them (as a big company) to just pay out the insurance and dispose of the bags as after all, they are protected by the Montreal Convention which “puts a maximum limit on the airline’s liability of 1,000 Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) per passenger” (around £802) and of course they take ‘devaluation’ into consideration. If I was indeed planning to sell all the belongings in my suitcase I suppose I would expect to take ‘devaluation’ into account however as a passenger I certainly never asked or planned for my posessions to be taken away!

As other posters have said, I will certainly not be flying with BA again, not just because they have lost my luggage - but because of their extreme lack of any kind of customer service in the face of an already unpleasant situation.

Distressed Customer

It has been 21 days since our three bags were lost in transit at Heathrow flying from San Francisco to Paris on July 1st. We have the same horror story as most of the people posting comments here. Multiple attempts to contact BA baggage while traveling through France for three weeks, conflicting information about where our bags were, and, as of this date, July 22nd, no bags. The abysmal service and attitude of BA towards their thousands of inconvenienced customers is shocking to a staggering degree. We will never fly BA again and we will tell everyone of this experience and urge them to not fly BA. We would also be interested in joining a class action suit. No corporation should be allowed to get away with what BA is doing on a regular basis. Monday we will start calling the CEO of this rotten airline.
Corinner50@yahoo.com.

Found this advice on another web site. Sounds like it is time to start seizing their assets.

London/LHR has the reputation of being one of the larger centres of baggage theft - BA even had staff that had a ‘break & enter’ operation going based on information taken from their Res system, so the length of absence of the victims was known! The perpetrator(s) were eventually caught.

That said, there is ONLY one way to get BA’s attention, and one I use every time, and that is to advise them - as you have done - of the loss, sent by registered mail to their nearest office, and then wait 14 days and then file a Statement of Claim in the Small Claims Court nearest you. Pile on the damages, so the judge can take a little off and still cover your damages.

When you achieve success (you do have your tags and tickets?) take the judgement and serve on BA by registered mail.

In the meantime start reseaching the ownership of aircraft that BA flies in to your nearest airport (if not the UK).

Ask for an Order allowing you to seize BA property, should they not pay, and then give the order to the Sheriff or other civil enforcement person and await the arrival of a BA aircraft.

The Sheriff then sticks the judgement on the front wheel of the aircraft (he knows how to make the arrangements) and the aircraft is seized.

BA will usually try to fob you off with a cheque or something equally useless: ONLY ACCEPT CASH MONEY.

Guaranteed they will have the cash there within hours - only your signature, or that of the Judge, will get their plane released.

In the UK, go and seize something worth nearer the value of your claim. Tow-motors are good value.

I did it in Toronto, really got respect - AND cash!

Well! I guess we got lucky. My mom got her two bags delivered today. I found the status change on the baggage tracer last night and called the delivery service in the morning. Both bags were wet but only one of them had some dampness and water inside but no real damage. Medicines and all others belongings are okay. I wish each and everyone of you best of luck in getting your bags delivered fast. Pray hard, because when everything else fails, the higher power is your only source of hope and he will never fail you. Thanks to Chris for having this wonderful website and thanks to all those who were willing to join me in the class action lawsuit. keep all your options open.

I am in the middle of the same kind of hell, bag missing on the 17/06/07 from a Sydney to Paris and still unaccounted for on the 23/07/07.

Is there such thing as a class action to bring BA attention to the service they dont provide?

Glad you finally got your bags Sue, taking a trip shouldn’t be this stressful.

My son and I were travelling with BA on the 22 of June from Düsseldorf to New York via London Heathrow. Our machine from Düsseldorf to London got belated so that we missed our connection fly from London to New York. There was also no further fly to NY this evening so that we must sleep in London. We were not informed about the delay, not informed that we will miss our connection fly to NY and also nobody really cares. We receive assistance because I really insisted. We get a fly on American Airlines and flew to JFK Airport instead of Newark Airport. In JFK I discovered that our 3 luggages didnt follow us despite the guarantee given in London by a BA employee. We were on holliday in New Yord and no clothes at all with us. Every day I contact BA employee in order to get news of my luggages. They always told me American Airlines is responsible for the lost as they carry them. This was totally wrong. Two days ago I discover on my own that BA has delivered the luggages at the hotel we stayed after we left it back to Germany. I cannot understand how BA managed this because I insisted every day in each my phone call to BA that I would leave NY on the 2nd July and that my luggages have to be delivered to my home address in Germany. Now an employee told me I would be difficult to pick up my luggages from the hotel and the hotel was wrong as it took my luggages. This is incredible! BA just try to get out of its responsiblity. It is also amazing that I was able to locate my luggages but the employee of BA challanged this information as the delivery of the luggages have not been remarked in my file by their data base. It is inadmissible, incredible!! This kind of behavior with foreign properties takes criminal proportion. If BA is not able to manage the transport of luggages they should not be allowed to do so. The daughter of my boyfriend just came back from India, her BA fly in London Heatrow to Bruxelles has been cancelled. What happens now? Her lugages are lost!!! Not incredible for BA but just the way they are systematically acting. The best comment I got was: do not complain there are 10.000 other passengers in your case. Good to know, what about making this public and put it in the news paper. Please contact me, I would like to join a class action lawsuit: farida_hamma@web.de

Same issue. Luggage from a family of 5 completely missing from a flight from Beijing on 22nd July to Brussels thru Heathrow. Staff in Heathrow refused to transfer the luggage to the plane to Brussels as following them the time was too short (1 hour!). They promised that the luggage will come with next flight. Since then no news anymore, no phone number, no human being that can be contacted. The World Tracer is not working like many already mentionned. It seems like they have locked every access on purpose in case of bad service. This is unaaceptable and I would like to join any class action. IS THERE ANY LAWYER WILLING TO ORGANISE A CLASS ACTION? A failure can always happen but their behaviour is unacceptable. We should force BA at least that they provide accurate information and support in case of service failure.

Travelled with my wife from LHR to FRA on June, 30th on our honeymoon. My luggage still is not with me. Service and friendlyness of staff: zero. Started a blacklist of companies never to be used again: BA is first entry.

I have a long story, and similar to everyone on this site. My 7-day vacation in America was ruined because of a 5-day delay in my luggage delivery, and all the stress and expenditure that went with it.

I gave British Airways $1000. to fly me and my luggage to JFK. They did not deliver the bags. That is called BREACH OF CONTRACT and they must be held accountable in a court of law. Therefore, I think it not only just, but imperative that a class action suit be brought against them. Please contact me at gueneviere_pendragon@yahoo.com. I am a schoolteacher, so have lots of time this summer to devote to pursuing BA legally.

I left on a study abroad with school on June 11th. I spent 2 weeks in Russia with nothing. I returned on the 23rd. As of today my bag cannot be found. I was told to fax my claim to 347-418-4359, but the number is ALWAYS busy. I’ve lost 2 weeks of clothes valued at $900. And every flight I was on with BA was delayed.

I travelled from Istanbul to Philadelphia through Heathrow on June 21st (a day later than scheduled because of a BA flight cancellation due to a “crew problem”–with NO compensation for the expenses of an extra day in Istanbul), one of my two bags arrived three days after I did, the other has yet to arrive, almost five weeks later. I have all the same complaints about BA as others here, especially inadequate and misleading information about the problems and difficulty in getting a human response by telephone. I filed a lost luggage claim three weeks ago, both by fax and mail, and have not received confirmation that either was received. I was told in a telephone conversation with Customer Relations that BA doesn’t even begin to process claims until the bag has been missing for three months. The Customer Relations call center seems to be in Jacksonville, FLA, and have little contact with Heathrow. I’ve flown BA with no complaints since 1980 and now will never fly BA again. I would gladly join a class action suit.

All, please check out this link. Article re. compensation from BA.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/traveltips/07/05/ignored.claim/index.html

I am SOOOOOO sorry we flew British Air. Our story sounds like so many of them posted here - but we’re only four days into the saga. Our luggage did not make it from Rome to Heathrow - 3 bags are missing. We were assured it would be delivered to our hotel that night - HAH - or worst case would beat us home the following day.
Neither was true. I am missing virtually all my summer clothes and shoes, my makeup because of all the new airline rules, etc. and my husband is missing his clothes and shoes as well. I have had no responses to emails (even to correct our address which was incorrect), you can’t get through on the phone lines - it’s absurd. So unprofessional. And seeing the hundreds if not thousands of bags at Heathrow - some in stacks 10 feet high - scared the heck out of me. Surely they can hire some college students to sort through the bags and get them back to their owners! This is unacceptable. I will never fly British Airways again.

Over the many hours I have spent over the past eight days waiting to be connected to a human on any of British Airway’s so-called telephone ‘helplines’, one of the voice jingles most frequently heard has been “Travel Light with British Airways.” It would seem that for many of the world’s least favourite airline’s customers there is now absolutely no choice in the matter.

My wife and six colleagues flew with BA from Johannesburg to Heathrow on Friday 21st July, having arrived earlier that day by South african Airways from Llilongwe in Malawi, where they had been had been working as part of the Scottish Executive’s Malawi initiative. All were due to travel onward to Scotland, but British Airways, which had cancelled all flights to Glasgow and Newcastle due to severe weather conditions the previous day, refused to make any alternative arrangements for the group, most of whom then had to hire a car at Heathrow and drive to Glasgow.

Of seven bags due to come off the flight only one had appeared, and the group was advised by BA to check again at Glasgow airport. On arrival there, an exceptionally rude BA employee wouldn’t help, so they had no choice but to make their way home and wait.

What has followed, in everyone’s efforts in tracing their baggage, has seemed almost to have been manahged by BA to produce for them a specific result -i.e., that passengers are unable to access any information whatsoever regarding lost baggage.

My view is that BA’s claims to take better care of you and to be the world’s favourite airline are fraudulent, particularly since it is now THE most complained about airline to the Air Transport Users group.

British airways lost one of my two luggage at Heathrow Airport in June 25th. Every day I try to call but is very hard speak with someone and get answers. A week ago an employee told me if I want I can go to Heathrow to take my luggage: ok, I can, but if is so easy, why BA don’t send it to me?
Does anyone know if going to Heathrow is possible take own luggage?
I live in Italy and I’m member of “Altroconsumo”, a magazine for people rights (like the english “Which?”): I send them a copy of my complain, so they can patronize me.
I told them that there are other people in other country that are interested to make a class action.
Please write me if someone do that.
Thank you.

I have a huge concern for all of us after learning that after 45 days an airline can sell your belongings - even when it is due to complete incompetence like this. I think every one of us should write the most powerful travel editors we can think of - in every country - and ask for their help.

OMG, reading all these posts makes me regret having booked two trips with BA. It is very difficult traveling with hand luggage only now because of the new regulations. I am seriously concidering to cancel my tickets with BA and book with another airline. I can’t stand the thought of loosing my luggage.

Here are 2 more lost BA customers who will never travel via London again. We travelled on June 24 from JFK to Nice via Heathrow. The check-in at JFK was a big mess and the service on the plane poor. Screens and lights did not function correctly. To top it off our luggage never arrived at Nice. Even after 5 weeks they are still missing and there is no information other than the ’still tracing…’ phrase on the internet. Phone calls are automatically rejected. Even Lost baggage employees in Nice advise us to avoid BA and London. With all the lost customers who needs terminal 5 ?

Is there actually a law where BA has to return passenger’s baggage in a timely manner?????? And not to go auction after 45 days?????? It has been one month since British Airways lost my baggages in Heathrow!!!! I think weather or terrorist is totally not an excuse, it is ashame of British Airways that has such a poor management and stupid employees. How are the consumers protected against this irresponsible British Airways???? How can we get help??????

British Airways is hands down the absolute worst airline I have ever flown. Not to mention that Heathrow airport is the armpit of Europe. We have been missing one of our bags for a week now and everytime we call we get a different answer. We live in Dallas, Tx and up until today we were told the bag had last been scanned at JFK (NY). Well, today we were told it was scanned in Edinborough (Scotland?!) and heading to London City. are you serious?!? I am incredulous and feel completely impotent. Their “call center” is a joke. I wouldn’t be surprised if they file bankruptcy soon. I am interested in a class action lawsuit if it comes to this.

I have traveled with BA on 2 other occasions from the US and I was most impressed. However, the situation as suddenly gone in the hole on our most recent voyage to Europe in early July. My wife and I lost our only two bags in the black hole of Heathrow on the way over. During our vacation we had to scramble and spend valuable time to find some clothing, new luggage and personal items during our trip. Other wasted hours were spent trying to log into the BA-lost luggage website only to find no new information.

When we returned to Heathrow to go home we reported in to a customer service agent to see if they found either bag. After some checking on the phone he reported back to us with bit of horror that one of our bags was put on a truck and sent to Milan Italy to be sorted..yes a truck. Not sure how they got a truck to Italy, but he said it took 9 days. As a BA employee he was somewhat taken back by this report. The other bag he said was last scanned in Terminal 4 and to this day that is all we have on that bag. My guess is there is this giant pile of bags sitting in some warehouse lost and forgotten under terminal 4.

We have since returned from a 19 day trip to Northern Europe and still no sign of our bags. Today is day 31 and I am begining to believe that they are really not going to return any of my belongings. They keep telling me that the one bags is in Milan according to their “system”, but that was two weeks ago. I have had several phone calls to generally very kind agents that are located in the US, but I realize their hands are tied and nothing would be solved by telling them off. I asked one agent if he gets a lot of angry calls and he told me yes, but he says fortuantely he is maintaining his “high self esteem” and it keeps him going. I wonder if they are having any problems recruiting people to take these calls?

The management of this crippled airlines need to get this crisis resolved and soon. I certainly will be looking for a new airline to travel on for any future trips to Europe and I will certianly avoid Heathrow. BTW, I hear that Regis Philbin lost a bunch of luggage and was recently ranting on the air over BA and his mess. Hopefully travelers will take notice.

Hello British Airway, can you hear us?????
A delay for 3-5 days or even 10 days is more than enough. But it has been a month and you still not returning our luggages. If your management and staffs are handicapped, put pictures of all the luggages on the website, perhaps some of your frustrated customers could help you to identify their belongings. Do some smart actions, don’t ignore your customers who are supporting you to stay in business. Move !!!!!!!!

There are two things one should avoid like the plague:
1.- British Airways;
2.- London Heathrow as a connecting airport.
This is a poisonous combination for which an antidote cannot be found. (The latest info I received from LHR was that there are around 21.000 pieces of luggage sitting there without an owner).
If you, due to lack of choices, really must use this sorry airline, DO NOT, never, check your luggage through to your final destination via Heathrow because the chances you will ever see your stuff again are slim to zero.
Take it off the conveyer in LHR and check it in with ANY OTHER AIRLINE THAN BA to your final destination.
It may cost a little bit of lifting and a few bucks more, but one only has to read the mysery the above writers have gone through, to understand that it will save you from insanity.

Don’t just think this is a problem for BA users. I travelled to Italy (Marco Polo) on 18th July and all suitcase never appeared. In fact, it is still lost and I travelled with BMI. They were extremely inefficient, got information wrong from the start, were looking for a white bag when I told them it was silver etc. They give you numbers which do not work however much you try or its an automated voice mail system in Italian!

Like some of your previous correspondents I had to try and find some italian clothes that were cheap and which fitted me. It was a nightmare to have to do this in 32 degrees when all I wanted to do was to chill round the swimming pool. One ruined holiday. I’m so paranoid now that I think I will wear as much as possible and put stuff in a piece of hand luggage! Anything rather than give an airline my precious belongings. Fortunately I had the sense to put jewelery in my hand luggage but i have lost some clothes which had sentimental attachments and as I am fairly short, clothes which are hard to come by or which have been altered to fit. BMI couldn’t care less - but I wonder if shareholders are so keen on some of their profits going out on lost luggage compensation payouts? Much of the lost bags could be prevented by failsafe systems, apparently BMI think the sticky label on the handle came off (have you ever tried to get that off at the end of a holiday?!) or maybe the handle came off my luggage (it was a brand new suitcase) so I hardly think so. But even if it did, the suitcase didn’t need to become unidentifiable with regard to which flight it should have been put on. Airlines should put on at least two stickers on the side of bags then the percentage of bags lost would be less, surely? However, this doesn’t stop bags just being junked off planes and just plain chucked in the corner because people can’t be bothered. I was told to look through the luggage on my return to Heathrow terminal one. I was shocked by the piles of bags just left around the carousels. One of those that I looked at was owned by a lady from the Cayman Islands. Why do I know this? Because she had the label the size of her luggage with her name and home address clearly stuck on the bag on one side. Why was it languishing in the corner with tons of other bags on top? Basically they DON’T CARE! They hope that we will all go away -= make sure you all claim the most you can for your possessions. Eventually this will stop them being so careless. AND WHY aren’t these people made to pay compensation for hurt to feelings, stress and ruination of holidays? Why are they allowed to hid behind this Warsaw Convention and not be open to normal legal challenges?

Why does the UK Government allow them to get away with it? Etc,

Further to my earlier advice:
Buy (from any dollar store) a roll of YELLOW (for if your suitcases are dark) or RED (in case they’re lightish of colour) HEAVY DUCT TAPE (2 inches wide), make three strips of about 10-12 inches long and write with HEAVY BLACK FELT PEN the CODED destination, for example: if you’re going to Toronto write ‘To:YYZ’ - to Amsterdam write ‘To:AMS’ - to Grenada write ‘To: GND’, etc. and then put one next to the handle, and the other two on the flat surfaces. (That also helps you identify your stuff when it’s arriving on the conveyor).
Next to all the information regarding my HOME address (including cell phone and email), the entire inside of my suitcase lid is covered with all the destinations I usually go to, thus, since the strips can be used several times, I simply keep on using the needed ones as I travel along.

My luggage has been lost since June 11th and I just received it today. I got a phone call out of the blue yesterday asking me to confirm my address and file tracking number and then it was sent Fedex to me. I had 2 weeks of stuff in it and only lost some socks and underwear to mildew. The clothes had a smell to them but they will wash up fine. I had given up on it long ago and had filed a claim, but I guess now never give up on them. I called BA to check on my claim status and was told I would be contacted by BA in 6-8 weeks. After telling her what I thought of that, my bag suddenly shows up. And my bag had been sitting in Chicago for a while the lady told me (I flew from NY to London, then to Saint Petersburg Russia where I spent 2 weeks with nothing). Maybe just going off and not leaving them alone will help out. Good luck to everybody else, I will never fly BA again.

Dear Sir/Madam:

I am sending you this mail due to problem facing with British airways regarding my baggage lost. I sent several emails to BA but did not get any response.

I lost my baggage while travelling from NY to Delhi on 28 June 2007. Out of my 2 baggages, one is found and another is still missing. I talked to BA representatives in JFK, NY several times but they are not seiously handling the matter. I am very sad on your services. There is no response on my several inquiries.

I told BA representatives several times that I am not interested to get any compensation instead of bag, I just want my bag. I have very important documents inside.

My details informations are:
passenger name: Dr.Pooja Shrestha
tag no: BA767614
british airways BA 176 (from NY to LOndon)
Jet airways: 9w121 (from London to Delhi)
File reference number : DEL9W12405
PNR : 4EV4TJ
Suitcase color: Grey hard plastic

I was being transferred to Jet airways due to missing flight in London.
This is not only first time, even when I travelled by BA to NY in January 19 2007, I lost my one baggage out of 4. But It was found after one week. If you donot believe me, I have proof of ticket no ZY86IC and baggages:BA639554 to BA639557. One of these was found later. It shows it is happening again in BA and how careless BA service are.

As I am being helpless, I am seeking help from your association.

Hoping to hear favourably.

Thank you.

Pooja shrestha
347-837-7922
prabin181@hotmail.com

I flew in from Chicago on the the 25th of June, over $2500 dollars to transport myself, my dog and two medium size suitcases in a direct flight to Heathrow. I only used BA because of the Petpassport Scheme stipulations. I am home for a year to attend Edinburgh University and brought as much paperwork on the plane as I was allowed. The larger of the suitcases disappeared between Chicago and London. I was told on the 29th that it had arrived in Heathrow and was going through customs before being shipped to Ayr. It is now the 6th of August and I cannot get anyone to confirm that my luggage has infact even left ORD. My file was closed a few days after my initial report and had to be reopened, and at the minute still says that my case was recieved by London on the 29th. I have been told that this is not the case, although there might be a chance that it is under the pile at the aiport and just hasn’t been scanned. How can the story go from “we have it, it’s on it’s way” to” we have no idea what side of the Atlantic it is on.” I feel that BA should not even be allowed to call it’s security measures security. They apparenty have no idea what is coming in and from where.
My bag has all my jewelry, papers from the INS and the university, my jackets and jeans and shoes. I have had to buy clothes to wear as the rest of my belonging will not arrive by sea for at least another month. My two suitcases where my total belongings until that time.
I have been hung up on, I have been told that they cannot help me and I cannot get anyone to take any kind of responsiblity for losing my luggage. It’s disgraceful. How can a bag go missing from a straight flight?
I too will never use BA again. So much money for so little service.

Dear Sirs or madam,
We travelled from Madrid via Heathrow to toronto on July 17th 2007, my husbands bag went missing, we phoned the free toll number kept on hold forever but eventually was told the bag was still at Heathrow, we called every single day for the first two weeks, all my husbands clothes were in the case, he was walking around with the same clothes for days. We were then told the bag was at Gatwick, then milan, and now we have been told today 6th August that there is now no trace of the bag. There has been an article in a London Newspaper THE DAILY TELEGRAPH about lost luggage with Brtitish Airways, dated 4th of August, please read this article apparently they auction off all bags after one week, to a London auction house. AFTER ONE WEEK can you believe this, We are livid and are going to make sure that British Airways get their comeuppance. How dare they treat their customers like SH***** We would be interested in a class action suit, because although I can afford to replace lost items, I will not stand back and be taken for a stool pidgeon. Please contact me at janny11@wanadoo.es
if somebody can help us we would be very grateful.
regards.
Janet rosenber at janny11@wanadoo.es

Id like to find out. Has anyone claimed from British airways if so is there a fixed fee they pay or do they repay you what your bags are worth.
I have to say that i will need ever fly with British airways again. Shit thing is that i have a return ticket with them in a year that i will now be trying to get my money back for. I am not only unhappy with them loosing my bags but on my 11 hour flight the in flight entertainment was not working. A 11 hour flight with nothing to do, what a service british airways provide us.

I have flown British Airways 3 times in the past month, and they have lost my luggage twice.

Does anyone want to take any action, please do it together.

I went to the Small Claims Court and British Airways hired a lawyer not to pay me what I claimed for. They lost my big suitcase in a direct flight when I flying in the business class. My baggage never arrived in Madrid from London. I had to buy stuff to manage mylife during my 2-week business trip. They never reimbursed that and they sent me one check for all my losses which is more than $6000. I am extremely upset because I have lost my new and expensive clothing and I have never lost a luggage before even I had flown to many countries through connnecting flights.

Please send me an email and let me know if you want to do anything jointly. We may get a better chance!!!

aydan kayserili: aydanist@aol.com

Hello, I had written on this forum some time back, and wish to share my experience with you. Took off from Bombay on 13th August, at around 3:15 am, approx an hour later than schedule. Still landed at Heathrow 30 minutes before time. Got to the gate just a couple of mins ahead of time though. Connection time was 95 mins at Heathrow. Finished security check in 23-30 mins, and reached the gate 40 mins before scheduled departure. Took off from Heathrow on time, and reached Detriot ahead of time. BA had excellent service in flight. A little too cold for me (lived in tropical climate all my life) in the cabin, but the food, service, entertainment were all good.I am sure international travel has its own ills, but my experience (first international flights, connecting through a busy airport, that too all alone) was a comfortable one. I am sure there were factors to explain this, like less traffic in the morning at Heathrow, etc, etc, but these are the facts the way I saw it. Hope it helps, and keep fighting for what is rightfully yours.

BA lost our luggage April 2007 between LA & Johannesburg. They were completely unresponsive. After 7 months they wrote to say they gave our luggage to an obscure African Airline we never heard of and now it was their problem. Our luggage was never found and we were never re-imbursed one penny.

my husband has lost his bag from b.a. as he will be joining to ship as he is a marine engineer so it will be a great problem to him . please help

BA lost my suitcase on a trip from Gatwick to Rome. A number of passengers found there luggage was missing on arrival at Fiumicino airport, one of the passengers was an elderly lady in a wheelchair who had important medication in her suitcase. Customer services at the airport were not at all helpful. Rather than simply calling Gatwick airport to find out what happened, we were all given a number to contact BA services ourselves. This sort of service is disgraceful. My suitcase arrived the following night at 10pm. Surely placing bags on a plane is a simple task, it really isn’t rocket science.

I travelled with my son who thought that l was going to leave him in Africa but the trueth is his Dad Mr. Alan Shonubi wanted him to sign his property documents as he is an International Lawyer. My son refused to check his bag and not even his hand baggage he travelled with a laptop bag. Forgetting my password l broke mine and transfered my daily book and other things in his bag which my sister Mrs. Eva Kabunga who has been travelling with British airways for long and for me this is my first time because l travel with Emirates. Now I have lost my daily from the hand ldge and it was left with security as she could not take two bags. For me l was still dealing with my son’s bag aand by the time l came to security my sister had given up and her ldge was moved from the plain. I would like to thanl all those l have spoken to in a lot of strees after checking the bag when the daily which had two envelops one with £100 cealed with celltap and one was open with £240. I was asked to pay the £5 for lost property and l said to the young girl who was so nice that the money is in that bag because l didn’t travell with any money and the key to the bag l took plus bank cards. She gave me the bag after opening to get the money the daily book was not there l called the police and they told me may be the security at Terminal 4 are the best to talk to because that’s where it all started. Every body has been so coperative and thanks a lot all I need wright now is my daily book it had my addresses and many contacts and many other details of things l have done in the past. Some of my education material which l can’t get only if the programme is opened by profession who l don’t want to disturb again.

Please if some came across the money and kept aside for security reasons l will be very grateful because l have used my friends money hoping to pay as soon as l get my bag. Thank God l have my bank cards. I would like to get help by checking the scan on the 18th/03/2008 my name is Lydia Kaddu Busagwa and this bag was first claimed by my husband so that he can send me the money to use. My sister did not fly with us because the person on the desk was rude plus she had check-in online that the tree of us had 1 bag and hand 1 ldge. Please handle this matter very careful that the person can do me a favour only that it might be in one of the bins collected last week. Please this is not my sister to buy tickets and don’t travell she must have had a bad day. My daily has Dr. Bhatti as my Doctor my names and mobile number. A/c details for some people l pay regularly. somany things l really need this daily this was security Terminal 4 travelling to Entebbe from Heathrow on 18th/03/2008 at 9.20 pm aroud that time because we are one of the last people to board the plain.

Lydia Kaddy Busagwa.

Dear Sir/Madam: 10 MARCH 2008

I am sending you this mail due to problem facing with British airways regarding my baggage lost. I sent several emails to BA but did not get any response.

I lost my baggage while travelling from SAN JUAN PR to DELHI on 16 MARCH 2007. Out of my 2 baggages, one is found and another is still missing. I talked to BA representatives in DELHI, several times but they are not seiously handling the matter. I am very sad on your services. There is no response on my several inquiries.

I told BA representatives several times that I am not interested to get any compensation instead of bag, I just want my bag. I have very important certificates & my sea men book inside.

My details informations are:
passenger name: VERMA RAKESH
tag no: AA 1151766
AMERICAN AIRLINES- SAN JUANPR TO MIAMI (AA588) 16 MARCH 2008

AMERICAN AIRLINES-MIAMI TO LONDON (BA208) 16 MARCH 2008

JET AIRWAYS- LONDON TO DELHI (9W0121) 17 MARCH 2008

I AM WATING FOR MY BAG AS SOON AS POSSIBLE BECAUSE INSIDE MY SEAMEN BOOK & CERTIFICATES AND NO CHANCE TO RETURN BACK TO JOIN MY JOB WITHOUT THESE STUFFS.

AT THIS TIME I AM ON VACATION MY NEX JOING TIME IS 17 MAY 2008 BY AA0293 DELHI TO CHICAGO,IL(ord)
AA2057 CHICAGO OHARE,IL(ORD)TO SAN JUAN PR.

RAKESH VERMA
09416244921
rakeshverma29@rediffmail.com

Dear Sir/Madam: 10 MARCH 2008

I am sending you this mail due to problem facing with British airways regarding my baggage lost. I sent several emails to BA but did not get any response.

I lost my baggage while travelling from SAN JUAN PR to DELHI on 16 MARCH 2007. Out of my 2 baggages, one is found and another is still missing. I talked to BA representatives in DELHI, several times but they are not seiously handling the matter. I am very sad on your services. There is no response on my several inquiries.

I told BA representatives several times that I am not interested to get any compensation instead of bag, I just want my bag. I have very important certificates & my sea men book inside.

My details informations are:
passenger name: VERMA RAKESH
tag no: AA 1151765

AMERICAN AIRLINES- SAN JUANPR TO MIAMI (AA588) 16 MARCH 2008

AMERICAN AIRLINES-MIAMI TO LONDON (BA208) 16 MARCH 2008

JET AIRWAYS- LONDON TO DELHI (9W0121) 17 MARCH 2008

I AM WATING FOR MY BAG AS SOON AS POSSIBLE BECAUSE INSIDE MY SEAMEN BOOK & CERTIFICATES AND NO CHANCE TO RETURN BACK TO JOIN MY JOB WITHOUT THESE STUFFS.

AT THIS TIME I AM ON VACATION MY NEX JOING TIME IS 17 MAY 2008 BY AA0293 DELHI TO CHICAGO,IL(ord)
AA2057 CHICAGO OHARE,IL(ORD)TO SAN JUAN PR.

RAKESH VERMA
09416244921
rakeshverma29@rediffmail.com