We heard it here first: BA has rough first day at new Heathrow terminal

[JSpira]

From Travel Weekly


BA has rough first day at new Heathrow terminal

March 27, 2008
Today is British Airways' first day in Terminal 5, its new home at London Heathrow, but the debut hasn't been a smooth one.


According to published reports, a malfunctioning baggage system has been the biggest problem, with some passengers waiting at a carousel for over two hours to retrieve their bags. BA canceled 34 short-haul flights today, and three flights that did depart took off without the passengers' checked luggage, according to the Financial Times.


BA attributed the difficult first day at Terminal 5 to "teething problems."
"This is not unexpected following one of the most complex and largest airport moves in history," BA said in a statement.

[JSpira]

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-britain-heathrow.html?scp=1&sq=heathrow&st=nyt

British Airways cancelled a fifth of flights from its new $8.6 billion terminal at Heathrow on Friday as the chaos from its shambolic opening spilled into a second day.

[Bart001]

Big problems in the US these past few days with MD-80 inspections leading to canceled flights too.

[yamilrx]

From Travel Weekly


BA has rough first day at new Heathrow terminal

March 27, 2008
Today is British Airways' first day in Terminal 5, its new home at London Heathrow, but the debut hasn't been a smooth one.


According to published reports, a malfunctioning baggage system has been the biggest problem, with some passengers waiting at a carousel for over two hours to retrieve their bags. BA canceled 34 short-haul flights today, and three flights that did depart took off without the passengers' checked luggage, according to the Financial Times.


BA attributed the difficult first day at Terminal 5 to "teething problems."
"This is not unexpected following one of the most complex and largest airport moves in history," BA said in a statement.

I just got back and had a connecting flight into Deathrow(or so they it) and I missed my connecting flight to Munich barely making my delivery. They lost my luggage for 1 day. Luckly I travel smart now specially since I took my kids. I packed 3 days worth of clothes on my carry on bag. The lady in Munich airport was great and tracked my luggage where I got it the next morning. Thumbs up to those Germans. That airport is a true mess.

[slubu]

Crap, and my flight is connecting through LHR. I'm going to pack 2 weeks worth of travel into a carry on. I think I can do it...

[bagbklyn]

I will be connecting through Heathrow as well in a few weeks, I hope my 3 hour layover helps but by then everything should hopefully be ironed out.

This is exactly why I am a big advocate for carry-on luggage wherever I fly, be it a 2 day trip or 3 week trip. I am trying my best to travel with carry-on luggage.

[JSpira]

This is exactly why I am a big advocate for carry-on luggage wherever I fly, be it a 2 day trip or 3 week trip. I am trying my best to travel with carry-on luggage.

Ja but unfortunately, the EU has been applying stricter limits and Heathrow until recently had a one-bag limit (I believe this has changed).

That has meant that passengers transferring in LHR who carried on a bag for the transatlantic portion of their flight would have to check the bag for the second leg.

European airlines (and U.S. airlines) are far less stringent for first class (and probably somewhat for business class as well) when it comes to carry-on bags on flights departing from the U.S. For returning flights, it's a mixed bag (no pun intended).

[mapezzul]

Avoid LHR like the plague, people seriously spend the extra $100 bucks and go through Frankfurt or direct to Munich, you will be much happier!:thumbup:

[chrischeung]

Crap, and my flight is connecting through LHR. I'm going to pack 2 weeks worth of travel into a carry on. I think I can do it...

Who are you flying? That's going to be tight - here is the Lufthansa carry on policy:

piece of hand baggage may not be larger than 55 x 40 x 20 cm and may not weigh more than 8 kg. An exception are foldable garment bags. They count as hand baggage up to a size of 57 x 54 x 15 cm.

Pieces of baggage exceeding these limits have to be checked in. As the stowage space in the cabin is limited we will transport them in the cargo hold. This is in the interests of your own and other passengers' safety and comfort.

55x40x20 cm = 22x16x8 in. 8kg = 20lb.

[BillLumberg]

Avoid LHR like the plague, people seriously spend the extra $100 bucks and go through Frankfurt or direct to Munich, you will be much happier!:thumbup:

Eh, I'm connecting though LHR on the return flight only :dunno:. Lufthansa A320 MUC-LHR, then United 777 LHR-LAX.

[slubu]

Who are you flying? That's going to be tight - here is the Lufthansa carry on policy:

piece of hand baggage may not be larger than 55 x 40 x 20 cm and may not weigh more than 8 kg. An exception are foldable garment bags. They count as hand baggage up to a size of 57 x 54 x 15 cm.

Pieces of baggage exceeding these limits have to be checked in. As the stowage space in the cabin is limited we will transport them in the cargo hold. This is in the interests of your own and other passengers' safety and comfort.

55x40x20 cm = 22x16x8 in. 8kg = 20lb.

Air New Zealand.

I'm pretty sure I will be fine. Its the girlfriend I worry about fitting everything for 2 weeks in a carry on.

[bagbklyn]

Ja but unfortunately, the EU has been applying stricter limits and Heathrow until recently had a one-bag limit (I believe this has changed).

That has meant that passengers transferring in LHR who carried on a bag for the transatlantic portion of their flight would have to check the bag for the second leg.

European airlines (and U.S. airlines) are far less stringent for first class (and probably somewhat for business class as well) when it comes to carry-on bags on flights departing from the U.S. For returning flights, it's a mixed bag (no pun intended).

I looked into this with detail for my upcoming trip because I wanted to fly to Paris from Germany but once I saw the limitation on baggage I opted for train travel as it has been suggested many times on this forum before.

As for BA, you are correct, they have changed the policy (out of certain UK airports). Please see attached link - http://www.britishairways.com/travel/bagcabin/public/en_us

As for the US, we are headed into the direction of less baggage, I posted a reply in another thread about the US going towards less luggage:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120519352406325701.html

I don't remember which airline but just this week I heard of another major airline going towards the one bag route.

[Oscar Hotel]

[QUOTE=JSpira;

BA attributed the difficult first day at Terminal 5 to "teething problems."
"This is not unexpected following one of the most complex and largest airport moves in history," BA said in a statement.[/QUOTE]

Well, my deepest sympathies to anyone inconvenienced by this disgrace. I fly Lufthansa, Swiss or Austrian whenever I can. BA should have attributed it more accurately to Britain's tackling of any major engineering or public event-anyone who was unfortunate enough to spend the Millennium in London will know what I'm talking about. My top tip is to give the UK a wide berth in summer 2012 when they host the Olympics.

[X3 Skier]

BA should have attributed it more accurately to Britain's tackling of any major engineering or public event-anyone who was unfortunate enough to spend the Millennium in London will know what I'm talking about. My top tip is to give the UK a wide berth in summer 2012 when they host the Olympics.

+1 :thumbup:

[JSpira]

I fly Lufthansa, Swiss or Austrian whenever I can.
Austrian now has a chef on board.

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[mwagner1]

Anyone remember the fiasco with Denver's new airport during and after construction?? HAHAHAHA

Cheers,

[JSpira]

Ja but THAT was all mechanical and poor system design. In this case, they simply didn´t tell enough employees to show up to handle the expected load.

[chrischeung]

In this case, they simply didn´t tell enough employees to show up to handle the expected load.

Perhaps they thought it was going to be a self serve terminal? Tag your own bags, put yourself through security, and get aboard the plane by yourself...

[JSpira]

Perhaps they thought it was going to be a self serve terminal? Tag your own bags, put yourself through security, and get aboard the plane by yourself...

:rofl: :rofl:

Good one, Chris.

I'm just glad that all of my upcoming flights are point-to-point.

[Kanuck]

As long as you are not flying BA through Terminal 5 it should be the same as ever at LHR, no? I still would not recommend connecting there, but is everyone affected by problems at Terminal 5?

[JSpira]

As long as you are not flying BA through Terminal 5 it should be the same as ever at LHR, no? I still would not recommend connecting there, but is everyone affected by problems at Terminal 5?

If you don't have to connect to a BA flight, then you don't have to worry about Terminal 5. I don't think its problems impacted other airlines or terminals.

[Zheeeem]

Personally, I would never check bags. The only exception I ever make is the return flight if I've bought lots of stuff that I don't want to haul around. One of my travel rules is never pack more than you can comfortably carry while running from one end of a terminal to the other full speed.

Heathrow's OK. It's #1 problem is that it needs a 3rd runway.

[JSpira]

Personally, I would never check bags. The only exception I ever make is the return flight if I've bought lots of stuff that I don't want to haul around. One of my travel rules is never pack more than you can comfortably carry while running from one end of a terminal to the other full speed.

I tend to follow a similar rule although I usually end up shipping a box home because I don't want to carry it on or check it at the airport and with one exception, a trip that extended over 16 days and a tremendous variance in weather and activities, I have successfully avoided checking a bag for the past 8 years (gate checks for RJs excepted).


Heathrow's OK. It's #1 problem is that it needs a 3rd runway.
There's that little pesky problem of those residents along the path of the new runway however....

[Oscar Hotel]

From venerable British politician, William Rees Mogg-

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/william_rees_mogg/article3648847.ece

[Zheeeem]

...with one exception, a trip that extended over 16 days and a tremendous variance in weather and activities, I have successfully avoided checking a bag for the past 8 years (gate checks for RJs excepted).


There's that little pesky problem of those residents along the path of the new runway however....

I've lived for three weeks on 3 continents in 3 different climates out of a single carry-on sized rolling bag (plus a computer bag). So an ED trip on any duration is really no problem for me. (There are laundries, after all.)

BAA's expansion policy at heathrow seems to be along the lines of "OK, so we're running full tilt, but quieter jets mean we'll be able to extend our hours and then life will be grand." Technically speaking, this is a pretty dopey policy. Given the traffic and only two runways, if ANYTHING bad happens it screws up everything. This, invariably, leads to short connections and... voila! ... lost luggage. It'll be really great with heavy 380 traffic.

If they can afford to build T5, they can certainly afford to buy out the nearby property.

[CarSwami]

I was supposed to fly from Paris (Charles de Gaulle) to London Heathrow to Washington DC last Thursday, the day that Terminal 5 opened. But at the last minute, my travel agent got me a seat on the direct Paris to Washington DC flight, so I did not have to experience the nightmare in Terminal 5. The BBC TV channel in my hotel room was scathing in their criticism of the British Airport Authority and British Airways. BA at least apologized to their passengers on TV, but BAA only had excuses to explain why they messed up.

[Oscar Hotel]

If they can afford to build T5, they can certainly afford to buy out the nearby property.

Hallo Zheeeem. Unfortunately, you're applying some good old fashioned pragmatism to a country that has been imploding into it's own rear end since the end of the Crimean.

It's a land where 1/5 of the population works for the government, a land where it is an offense for for someone to burglarize your home, but a greater offense to protect it (God bless Texas) A land where you are many more times more likely to be very seriously physically assaulted than NYC- Glasgow is the violent crime capital of the western world. It's also a land with more CCTV cameras than any other nation on earth. Hard to believe in a country that that has some of the most beautiful landscapes, fascinating history and produced the most important scientific achievements, but that's what 11 years of having terminal case of TB (Tony Blair) will do for you.

Your suggestion is the sort of sound thinking that gets on and finishes things- big things like you see in Dubai or France even. Has anyone seen the Burj- it's incredible and still got 150 meters to go. I think the logo the Brits came up with for the 2012 Olympics says more than words ever could about the state of their country-

http://worstlogoever.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/olympic_logo1.jpg

[Oscar Hotel]

My apologies, here is the original, although I think the one I erroneously posted is more apt-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/images/2007/06/04/2012_logo_white_385x450.jpg

[Blue1]

I just flew from LHR to JFK without any problems. T5 is mainly for European and other short flights. Long Haul flights are still leaving from T4. They will more to T5 eventually but with all problems it may be longer than thye expected. Do yourself a favour and use the train in Europe. We caught the Eurostar to Paris and was better than any fight.

[Alfred G]

Source: MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23940046/)

Naomi Campbell was released on bail Friday after being arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer during a dispute over luggage at Heathrow Airport.

Campbell, 37, left the airport police station just after midnight. London's Metropolitan Police said she was released pending further inquiries and told to report to a police station in late May.

The London-born supermodel was arrested late Thursday on suspicion of assaulting an officer after police were called to a disturbance at Heathrow's new Terminal 5.