BA Blunders

When I heard that a full service was going to resume at Heathrow's Terminal 5 yesterday, the day of my flight to Japan, I had a feeling things wouldn't run smoothly.

Arriving at the new terminal by car it certainly didn't look like anything special. When you get inside, though, it's much more impressive. It's most unlike most people's image of Heathrow in that it's clean and well presented.

Checking in was painless and boarding went smoothly as well. It was only once everyone was on the plane that we were told that something wasn't right - all of the luggage onboard had to be 'security checked' one by one which would take around 45 minutes. We were kept content by a drink and customs declaration forms for our arrival in Japan. After 45 minutes we were then told that it would take another half an hour. Not surprisingly, that time elapsed and that plane still hadn't budged.

Two and a half hours after our scheduled departure we were allowed to take off. The flight was the usual long and gruelling test. The most interesting point of the flight for me was that the man sitting next to the window near me didn't get up to go to the loo the entire time. That's 12 hours and believe me, he was drinking quite a lot! I'm sure he must have been about to explode but just didn't want to ask if he could get passed.

At Narita a list of 40 passengers was pinned to a board near the conveyer belts for British Airways flight BA005. It said that each of the listed passenger's bags was not on the plane. Guess who's name was on it?

I queued up and was told that my suitcase had been forwarded on to the next British Airways flight, which was due to arrive within an hour (because it hadn't been delayed before take off it effectively caught up with us). Some of the other people weren't so lucky as they were simply told that their suitcases would be forwarded to their hotels when they arrived in Japan - just not today.

One British guy said to his Japanese wife, 'It's at times like this that it makes you proud to be British.' His wife simply answered 'Kawaisou.' which means something like 'I feel sorry for you.'

The next flight arrived and the conveyer built piled up with bags but my suitcase didn't appear. So it turned out I was in the same position as the people who'd left without their bags but was delayed by an extra hour! In all, I reckon I was delayed by a total of five hours and ended up leaving Narita without my suitcase.

All my clothes and toiletries are in my case, not to mention tennis gear including my racket.

Comments

[James]

How long does it take from UK to Japan? And with the added flight and baggage delay... Ouch. Lots of precious vacation time down the drain.
That sucks... well, hope everything else goes right in Japan!

[Mark]

What a nightmare! I'm sorry to hear it went so badly. Hopefully your luggage will arrive today (Monday) so you will only have had to survive one night!

I don't suppose they offered any compensation?

Enjoy your time in Japan. If you get over to Nagano, chuck me an email and we can grab a coffee.

[quik]

That's rubbish. Considering they are moving a bag from point a to point b, its not the most challenging job in the world.

Check out The Air Transport Users Council for advise on compensation, you are definatly entitled to some as you will have needed to buy bits to tide you over.

http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx

[Tim]

Sorry to hear that you had a rocky start to your holiday.

If you bought some travel insurance, you should be able to claim some compensation through that.

Anyways, I hope you are in time for the cherry blossoms and manage to catch up with all your friends.

[Darren]

James,
The actual flight time from the UK to Japan was around 11 hours. If I remember correctly it is normally about 12-13 for the return journey.

Mark,
I wish my luggage had arrived on Monday, too. It was a pain having to buy all the necessaries to get by.

There was no mention of compensation but I'll follow that up when I get back.

I won't be visiting Nagano this time around but will be sure to drop you a line if I visit again.

Quik,
Thanks for the link - I certainly hope there is some kind of compensation for all the added costs and wasted time.

Tim,
Yes, I remembered the week before to take out a new travel insurance policy and what a good decision it was too!

As luck would have it I missed the cherry blossoms in full bloom in Tokyo as it came early this year. In Kansai, I've been more fortunate and seen a few places covered in sakura.