#156513 by VS045
23 Jan 2007, 20:09
Thanks, Mark![y]

Is the piece still to come or have I missed it and am watching something about Clio bonnet clatches for nothing?[:I]

VS
#156514 by MarkJ
23 Jan 2007, 20:12
Originally posted by VS045
Thanks, Mark![y]

Is the piece still to come or have I missed it and am watching something about Clio bonnet clatches for nothing?[:I]

VS


Its not been on and currently there is a piece on exploding smoothies!!

Timed at 19:11
#156517 by preiffer
23 Jan 2007, 20:16
Interesting bit about MAS Travel though! [:0]
#156519 by MarkJ
23 Jan 2007, 20:20
Originally posted by preiffer
Interesting bit about MAS Travel though! [:0]


Did you see the piece last week about them - people quite innocently handing over cash to the company, being given actual tickets in return and then turning up at the airport to be told that the tickets were not valid!!!

AND MAS having an ATOL license that only applied to charter air travel - outrageous. I guess the one thing that came out of that was to make sure you use your credit card to pay as it offers some level of cover!! (so maybe that extra 1.5% is good insurance??)
#156525 by Nottingham Nick
23 Jan 2007, 20:34
Ouch!! Losing the treasured memories of a lady suffering from cancer. [n][:(!]

That report was going for the jugular big style! Just what BA need at the moment.... not.

BA have lost the support of the Daily Hate .. sorry Mail, and now the BBC, and just when it can't get any worse..... a strike!

Edit.. thanks for the heads up, Mark.

Nick
#156526 by MarkJ
23 Jan 2007, 20:34
For those who couldnt/didnt see this the programme said:

In summary - BA deal with bags for BA and for other airlines too. They handle 40% of the bags at LHR.

A woman with her wedding dress did not receive it all on on her holiday. The bag never turned up. She tried to find it on the BA luggage web site - the site kept crashing. It turned up 2 weeks later.

They spoke to a BA baggage handler - he said he had never seen problems like this. BA got rid of a number of baggage handlers before Christmas and he said they couldnt cope. He said that 8000 bags were missing BEFORE the fog problem.

5000 bags were sent to Italy to try and get them to sort out who they belonged to.

A passenger went to LHR to try and find his bag which he "lost " in December. He went airside to look at all the bags and saw piles and piles of luggage! He couldnt find his bag.

They showed a picture of 2 lorries full of bags which had not been touched for 2 WEEKS.

One woman had not seen her bag since September - the bag had some sentimental stuff in it, photos, tapes etc - BA have told her that the bag has probably been destroyed!!

BA did not want to come on the programme - suprise suprise!!! They said they handle 75,000 bags a day and that the new working practises presented "difficult challenges" for BA.

Mark Pilling of Airline Business Magazine talked of baggage auctions where your bag is auctioned off after 45 days - although BA said they would extend this time now!! He said that BA was struggling ( no sh*t Sherlock)

He advised putting a label inside the bag so that when it is opened the airline will be able to return it - good tip!!
#156529 by preiffer
23 Jan 2007, 20:40
I have to say, using the woman who "lost her expensive ballgown for a new year's party" as a case study will have hardly tugged the heartstrings of a lot of the population. (ESPECIALLY since she got it back a few days later anyway). Oh my god - she had to "wear another dress to the ball"... [ii]

Appreciate that to HER, it was probably very important - but in light of the other cases we've heard of, it was hardly sympathy-demanding. [ii]




(PS - Mark - it wasn't a wedding dress - it was a dress she wanted to wear for a New Year's party...;))
#156544 by Howard Long
23 Jan 2007, 21:53
Originally posted by MarkJ
In summary - BA deal with bags for BA and for other airlines too. They handle 40% of the bags at LHR.


Well in T1 domestic baggage claim airside last Friday afternoon there was quite a pile loaded up there airside by the exit: thought about taking a picture at the time, wish I had, might get a chance later this week.

There seem to be hoards everywhere.

The key thing about the documentary was that it seemed clear that BA has no contingency in these situations. Let's see now:

1. Fog, sure there was fog
2. Broken baggage belt... several days earlier
3. They are trying to converge the different baggage handling practices in preparation for T5
4. Baggage handlers on vacation due to the time of year
5. They let a number of baggage handlers go as part of cost a saving exercise

The only things that could not be planned for were 1 and 2, neither of which happened at the same time.

But like everything at LHR, as I've stated before, it's a house of cards, one thing breaks and it's a disaster because there is no slack to deal with contingency.

Interestingly the straw that broke the camel's back and the reason I moved almost all my longhaul from BA over to VS about 2 1/2 years ago was due to a BA baggage disaster at LHR. On that occasion, bad weather + broken belt = chaos + bye bye BA.

Howard
Virgin Atlantic

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