BA are a huge bunch of tossers.

[TheSlowRush]

Just been away for my siblings 50th birthday (they live abroad).

BA have lost my suitcase. I spent 4 days away, borrowing clothes from my sibling. The entire planes luggage got left in London, this was last Thurs.

This was not good for either of us as we are not the same size, and I had a lovely outfit for the party. Also had to keep washing the outfit I arrived in so I had something to wear. Had no make up, toiletries, medication, jewellery.m, clothes, underwear. This has caused me anxiety the entire trip and worrying about where all my things are, and spent a lot of time trying to get updates from BA which everyone I was with has got tired of.

I am now home and my suitcase is not. BA are doing fuck all other than directing me to their lost baggage tracker which has been updated twice, once when I reported it missing on Thursday and once today when my siblings address expired as the address for it to be couriered to.

AIBU to think this is not good enough, that’s my (and the whole planes) personal items and they should be doing their utmost to locate it, not just fobbing us on the the tracker?

Any Advice please?

This is really unhelpful.

Also, a common cause of bags going missing is old luggage tags - always remove them as soon as you get to your destination and have something inside the case with your contact details in case externals tags get ripped off.

We bought Apple AirTags last summer going on holiday and put one in each case. It was when all the airlines seemed to be having huge issues with losing bags and not loading bags etc. It means you will always know where the bag is and can hopefully tell them where it is.

One tip is that the long luggage tags often have a couple of smaller barcode stickers on them at the bottom.

If you put the tag on yourself, you can peel off one of the stickers and stick it on the bag so that if the main tag comes off there is still a code on the bag - the check in staff used to do this but now they largely don't bother.

You should make sure you remove all the old stickers off your luggage though or else they may think an old tag is current.

I put air tags in mine as well.

That's not great. It might be worth noting that some carriers now let you keep a large cabin bag on the main flight. As in, a handbag and a choice of two sizes of small suitcase.

Cabin bag sizes

Ryanair
40x20x25cm) standard small size or
Priority 10kg wheelie bag (55x40x20cm)

EasyJet
45 x 36 x 20 cm standard or that plus extra bag Priority 56 x 45 x 25 cm
(Including wheels and handles)

What a nightmare! We had a flight recently and the bag was lost on the way out, turned up at our accommodation 3 days later. Same bag lost again on the way home!! That time we got no tracking info but somehow it just turned up at home after 4 days. Thankfully it was sports equipment that we could hire instead and BA reimbursed us.

There are no old tags on my case. The issue is I am home now and all my stuff is in the ether.

I cannot afford to replace everything in my case. My foundation is £30 alone, all my face creams, shampoo, electric toothbrush, make up brushes etc things that you cannot afford to replace all in one go but I don’t have two of everything, the one I had of everything is in my bag.

instead of having a relaxing break and week off this week I am dealing with this. I was supposed to travel elsewhere afterwards but that got cancelled (due to sudden end of relationship) so the trip cost me £500 + more anyway changing flights and travel arrangements and this was the very last thing I needed. I am so stressed about it I can’t tell you and after 5 days I am not really ready to write off half my belongings.

I've arrived without luggage a couple of times and I really don't fly very often.

Once the airline left ALL the bags coming back from the Maldives, presumably because they were worried they would run low on fuel (it was surprising how many people packed their keys in checked suitcases) and another time my case stayed at Heathrow when I flew to Zambia (that was an expensive courier to a safari for them).

As a result we always carry a cabin bag with a change of clothing and all swap a few clothes into each others' suitcases. I've just invested in some airtags too.

I'm sure the bag will turn up eventually OP

Keep calling BA

Phone your travel insurance company for advice

Why didn't you buy a few clothes while you were away rather than coping with just the one outfit?

I hope that it arrives soon x

I have had this happen to me. A whole group of us on one flight arrived without our luggage - it was one container that was not loaded onto the plane.
We all filled in the lost luggage forms at the arrival airport, then completed the BA tracker forms online.
You are allowed to spend around £150 immediately to buy essentials, keep all the receipts and they refund it.
I did get my luggage and refund eventually.
You just have to go through the process online.
It is infuriating and tedious, but hopefully you will get there.
I got my case back in about a week, it took a couple of weeks longer to get my refund. I had to photograph and upload all the receipts to their website, but there was no quibbling.

"I cannot afford to replace everything in my case. My foundation is £30 alone, all my face creams, shampoo, electric toothbrush, make up brushes etc things that you cannot afford to replace all in one go but I don’t have two of everything, the one I had of everything is in my bag."

You are allowed to replace essentials up to about £150 (check the website) and they will refund you. I am sure some of those things would be considered essential - cosmetics, toothbrush and shampoo definitely.

Can I replace them now I am home?

It will be helpful for a future trip.

Genuine question - surely it's not BA that have lost your bag, it's the baggage handlers? Once it is off the BA plane (as I'm sure it must be), then presumably it's a shared service rather than airline specific?

Not that I don't think BA have their issues to rant about, but is this really one of them ... if I'm wrong, I'll make a note to curse them should I ever end up in the same position.

The OPs contract is with BA. Not the handling company. Its up to BA to sort it for the OP and then deal with the handling company in line with the service agreement they have with them.

Fair point!

Read story yesterday about elderly couple who went to Greece with BA and no luggage arrived which contained their medication. After a few days their child had to fly out to help them as no one else would do so, certainly not BA!

BA is like low cost airline in all but name. I refuse to travel with them or any flight that has a codeshare with them. They had four strikes with us and I am out. You can never talk to a human either.

A friend of mine was made to check in her bag at the gate. It had all her cancer meds in and her doctor’s notes. That was a month ago and it hasn’t been seen since. We think it was nicked from the conveyor as it wasn’t a cheap bag. They wouldn’t let her take anything out of it at the gate, just insisted she check it in.

If you are asked to check in your bag at the gate, they do target women for this(and specifically women over 40) as they are more likely to agree.

https://www.caa.co.uk/passengers/before-you-fly/baggage/lost-delayed-or-damaged-baggage/

It seems from the above that this is at the discretion of the airline. I think the reasoning is that you have access to alternative items once you get home, but that replacement would be considered essential whilst abroad. Have you spoken to your travel insurers?

This won’t help the OP but we we spent time/colleagues with a lady for 20yrs whose husband worked at Heathrow on baggage and they were forever proud of what he’d pinched - they were all at it and we never understood how they got away with it.

You can spend as much as BA and your insurance company allow- usually much more that £150- as I say our bill was £2000+ of a 4-5 day delay (it was about $3200 but I cant recall the exchange rate) . BA gave us a pre-paid card and then claimed the rest of our 2 insurance companies. Had it gone beyond 5 days we could have claimed again. BA dont have a limit- they say reasonable toiletries and basics.

Have you spoken to your travel insurance? Some pay out for lost luggage after a relatively short time. BA pay out after 21 days I believe (they declare it lost at that point). The limit is about £1400 for a BA payout

The BA flyertalk forum is very helpful for advice- quiet a few relevant threads https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/2083394-delayed-lost-luggage-rights.html

Do you have travel insurance? Mine will pay a fixed amount per day for lost luggage. Would be enough to go replace anything you wanted to replace - toiletries would be good because once you receive your bag back you can just keep them for when you've run out. Wouldn't feel as wasteful as clothing might.

It’s awful, happened to me once, my luggage arrived on the last night of my holiday, my outbound flight went onto another airport after I got off (so also a pretty bad security incident !) You can claim for emergency toiletries and clothing from the airline, you should have shopped and kept receipts. also your travel insurance will cover delayed baggage.

You should get it back, success rate of return is high.